The educational benefits of universal preschool
One component of the newly proposed American Families Plan is the institution of universal public preschool. In most US states, preschool is a private, optional educational foundation while public schools are only available starting in kindergarten. Preschool, however, holds many social and Read More...
The Optimist View: “Career Choreography” ー Navigating the professional world with Ken Lindner
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt The world of work is very different for many of us than it was a year ago. For many of us, we are returning to offices after a year of being away, and for many of us the careers that Read More...
“Saylists” make speech language therapy accessible and engaging
The English language contains 44 sounds, but one in 12 children has trouble mastering at least one of these sounds. Children diagnosed with speech sound disorders often work with speech pathologists to practice pronunciations they struggle with by repeating them over and over again until they Read More...
Project-based learning equips students to face real-world problems
The pandemic has further upended traditional teaching methods and encouraged both parents and teachers to reevaluate how students learn best. Project-based learning is an up and coming teaching approach that emphasizes solving real-world challenges through exploration and asking open-ended Read More...
This innovative school blends skills training and housing security
In Birmingham, Alabama, a new school has opened up that is teaching young men and women how to renovate homes while building generational wealth and combating blight. The school is called Build UP (Urban Prosperity) Birmingham, and it features a radically different curriculum compared to other Read More...
Green School students spend most of their time studying outdoors
Integrating sustainability into children’s education early on is key to ensuring future generations have a thorough understanding of the relationship between humans and their natural environment. This is the philosophy behind Green School International — an unconventional approach to schooling Read More...
How children are coping with the pandemic and how we can help
The Covid-19 crisis over this past year has in many ways consumed us—our time, conversations, imaginations, and our lives. Through the pandemic, we have commended many groups of people who have sacrificed for their communities. Health practitioners on the front lines, educators, and essential Read More...
Mentorship program leads two students to discover new exoplanets
The Student Research Mentoring Program at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian trains local high school students for a month before pairing them with a scientist for a year-long research project. The program is a great opportunity to give students hands-on experience in the field Read More...
How Safe Families keeps kids out of the foster care system
Oftentimes kids wind up in foster care systems because their parents lack a basic support system that would allow them to meet their children’s basic needs. To prevent children from ever having to go through the trauma of being separated from their biological parents, an organization called Safe Read More...
Cultivating school gardens encourages children to eat more vegetables
Many of our eating habits are formed as young children and these become increasingly more difficult to change as we get older. It turns out that cultivating school gardens can increase the daily vegetable intake of elementary school children by offering an opportunity to educate them about Read More...