The Renowned Psychologist Who Fathered a Theory of Child Development, a Rhesus Monkey, and Me

Remembering Kurt Fischer and His Complex, Varied, and Dynamic View of Humanity

A few hours after I learned my dad had died, my stepmom called me on speaker to ask if we wanted a post-mortem COVID-19 test. I was pacing my living room in Los Angeles, wishing more than anything that I could get on a plane, but knowing that this would do nothing but risk more death. My stepmom was in a room full of nurses and administrators at my dad’s memory care facility in Boston, and they were pushing her hard not to ask for a test, even though he …

by Seth Fischer | July 20, 2020

After 11 Weeks of ‘Distance Learning,’ This Teacher Is Glad to Be Retiring

A Veteran High School English Teacher Describes the Limits of Online Classes

by Brian Crosby | June 10, 2020

“Have a good spring break!”

Who knew that those words would be the last I would ever say to my students in a classroom?

After that final class on Friday, March 13, …

When COVID Came to Coalinga High, ‘School Just Ended in the Middle of the Sentence’

Amid AP Classes and College Prep, the Senior Class President Added Caretaker and Teacher for Her Four Younger Siblings to Her Load

by Alizé Basulto Ibarra | June 10, 2020

Before March 18, I was class president and a student in multiple Advanced Placement classes at my high school in a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Since then, …

Why California’s Kids Should Go on Strike

As COVID Collapses Budgets, It’s Up to Children to Save Their Schools

by Joe Mathews | June 2, 2020

Dear California Kids,

Don’t let us adults destroy your futures! This time of “distance learning” and COVID-19 chaos is the opportunity of a generation—maybe a century—to fix what’s so very wrong …

I Deserve an ‘A’ for Flunking My Kids’ Distance Learning

Yes, I’m Doing a Poor Job—But Parents Have Become the Scapegoats for a Failing System

by Joe Mathews | May 12, 2020

I’m proudly doing my duty as a California parent. I’m flunking distance learning.

Distance learning is the term for our new COVID 19-era educational regime, which forces teachers and students to …

How Native Americans Made Basketball Their Own

In the Early 1900s, the Sport Offered a Rare Physical and Mental Refuge From Oppressive ‘Indian Schools’—and the Chance to Develop Distinctive Identities

by Wade Davies | April 15, 2020

Nowhere today are people more passionate about basketball than in Native American communities. Why?

The hoops seen outside most homes and gathering places on western reservations speak to basketball’s cultural significance …

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