In 1994, students from Broad Meadows Middle School met Iqbal Masih, a 12-year-old Pakistani activist who had been sold into bonded labor at age 4 and escaped at age 10. They were moved to take action, and started a letter-writing campaign protesting child labor. When they heard of Iqbal's death later that year, they decided to build a school in…

Reports on the story of Daniel Shays' sale of a sword given to him by General Lafayette. The story was used by Shays' contemporaries as a means of attacking the rebellion. Notes that while Shay died a poor and homeless man, we remember and honor him for devotion to principle and the responsibility he showed toward his neighbors. (JDH)

Late in 2007 New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City reform organization, received a grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation to organize select high schools and community partners into delivery systems that could improve student achievement. New Visions asked Policy Studies Associates, Inc. to provide research support for this effort in the…

Recounts the political, economic, social, and governmental situations surrounding Shays' Rebellion, the 1786 farmer's uprising in Massachusetts which, among other things, demonstrated the need for a stronger federal government. Concludes with contemporary analogies and the statement that, in a free society, the conflict between the legitimate…

Reports on the work of Amherst College historian Robert A. Gross, a leading expert on the topic of Shays' Rebellion. Includes a collection of insights Dr. Gross has developed concerning the rebellion's meaning and its impact on the United States Constitution. (JDH)