America was made by and for big ideas. Insofar as big ideas have shaped it, it is ever on the verge of hyperbole and dream. Today's big ideas come with an air of celebrity and accessibility; they glitter with glamour but demand little of the Americans. While they have many manifestations, people see them epitomized in TEDTalks. TED (which stands…

Unions serve their members' interests. But union members are also community members, and their interests go well beyond increasing pay and benefits. A local union president has found that his members are best served by participating in a community-wide coalition. Providing eyeglasses to needy students, promoting healthy eating, and increasing…

Howard Zinn's "A People's History" of the United States has few peers among contemporary historical works. With more than 2 million copies in print, "A People's History" is more than a book. It is a cultural icon. While most historians aim to examine the full historical record, Zinn picks and chooses from it. Writing persuasively, he hides the…

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field of researchers from psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and anthropology who seek to understand the mind. This paper considers findings from this field that are strong and clear enough to merit classroom application. Although many teachers and parents worry that high…

Success has meant wealth, virtue, excellence, wisdom, personal contentment, or any combination of these, but its definition has flattened over time, particularly in the past few decades. A combination of economic anxiety, aggressive advertising, ubiquitous ratings, and verbal vagueness has led to an emphasis on the external aspects of…

There is only one practice of solitude: to make a choice and carry it out well. The particulars assemble around this simple principle. One may later regret the choice; one may end up reversing or abandoning it. The choice may consist of doing nothing or refraining from a decision until the time is right. But no matter what it entails, one must…

Teachers' unions are under unprecedented bipartisan attack. The drumbeat is relentless, from governors in Wisconsin and Ohio to the film directors of "Waiting for 'Superman'" and "The Lottery"; from new lobbying groups like Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst and Wall Street's Democrats for Education Reform to political columnists such as Jonathan Alter…

This author contends that contemporary issues classes no longer have currency, as standardized test results are the litmus test for education. In many schools, students are isolated from firsthand accounts and formal study of events that textbooks will one day proclaim as defining experiences of their generation. According to Doyle, schools tend…

In the past century, the threats to children's health have shifted radically. Life-threatening infectious diseases--smallpox, polio, and cholera--have been largely conquered. But children are growing up in a world in which environmental toxins are ubiquitous. Measurable levels of hundreds of man-made chemicals are routinely found in the bodies of…

Many elementary teachers teach students to write, but this writing tends to focus only on students writing about themselves or writing short stories. Because students do not spend enough time in the early grades reading nonfiction in science and history, they lack the knowledge--of both content and the nature of nonfiction writing--necessary to…

This article presents an interview with Richard Luther of Tenafly High School in Tenafly, New Jersey. A 40-year veteran teacher who is retiring this year, Luther always assigns his Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History students an extensive research paper and integrates their research into their coursework and preparation for the AP exam. In this…

Juveniles convicted of serious offenses usually end up in large correctional facilities that focus on punishment--not rehabilitation. The state of Missouri, however, has found a better way to help end the cycle of crime: by creating a network of small facilities that provide therapy and educational opportunities, it has dramatically reduced…

For more than a century, the predominant strategy for the treatment and punishment of serious and sometimes not-so-serious juvenile offenders in the United States has been placement into large juvenile corrections institutions, alternatively known as training schools, reformatories, or youth corrections centers. America's heavy reliance on…

Although the level of controversy varies from one community to the next, biology teachers across the United States struggle to teach evolution. Some face pressure to teach both religious and scientific theories of human origins; others did not have adequate coursework on evolution during teacher preparation. As a result, many biology teachers are…

While many states are handling evolution better today than in the past, anti-evolution pressures continue to threaten state science standards. In April 2012, for example, Tennessee passed a law that enables teachers to bring anti-evolution materials into the classroom without being challenged by administrators. This law is similar to the Science…