Why Picture Books Were Once Considered Dangerous for Children
For Puritan New England, picture books were dangerous. But the Enlightenment, by way of John Locke, made illustrations more acceptable in the classroom.
Why Americans Love Diets
On a diet or cleanse in the new year? You're continuing in the very American tradition of self-perfection.
What Do We Lose When We Lose a Species?
Debates about the moral value of biodiversity are longstanding in the world of environmental ethics, and the issue is far from settled.
How Blackboards Transformed American Education
Looking at the history of U.S. education, Steven D. Krause argues that that most transformative piece of technology in the classroom was the blackboard.
What Amateur Cookbooks Reveal About History
Remember those spiral-bound cookbooks from your church group or your mom’s favorite charity? Those amateur recipe collections are history books, too.
Did Aviation Anxiety End the Era of Kid-Friendly Airports?
Despite intensifying concerns over security, airports play a vital role in teaching children about the interconnected world in which we live.
It’s a Yeti! It’s an Abominable Snowman! It’s a… Bear?
A group of scientists from Buffalo tried to definitively prove whether or not the Yeti exists, examining DNA from a variety of hair and tooth samples.
The Cooking Classes that Americanized Jewish Immigrants
At the end of the 19th century, a Wisconsin woman named Elizabeth “Lizzie” Black Kander tried to help immigrants assimilate, through the food they ate.
What Counts as Natural Athleticism?
Regulations banning performance-enhancing drugs raise as many questions as they answer.
How Native Americans Taught Both Assimilation and Resistance at Indian Schools
In the nineteenth century, many Native American children attended “Indian schools” designed to blot out Native cultures in favor of Anglo assimilation.