The release of new U.S. census data led many pundits to opine about what demographic changes mean for the future of the country. But, as Joshua P. Starr explains, educators have been watching their classrooms and schools become less white for many years. What's important now is not the change itself but how we interpret the change. The stories…

Although the world is changing rapidly, young people's developmental trajectory has remained the same. Just as in the past, today's young adolescents with still-developing prefontal cortexes are malleable, impulsive, and impressionable. But Phyllis Fagell identifies three areas where today's tweens are different from those of the past. They are…

A Pew Research Center analysis of 2018 Census Bureau data finds that post-Millennials (ages 6 to 21) are the most racially and ethnically diverse generation of Americans, and they are entering college at a higher rate than generations of the past. Their parents are more likely to have college degrees and have a higher median income than the…

Research has suggested that critical consciousness--the ability to recognize and analyze systems of inequality and the commitment to take action against these systems--can be a gateway to academic motivation and achievement for marginalized students. To explore this approach, the authors studied five urban schools that include critical…

Traditional and progressive educators alike have endorsed the benefits of self-discipline, the idea being for students to override their unconstructive impulses, resist temptation, and do what needs to be done. But author Alfie Kohn suggests that the concept of self-discipline is actually problematic in three ways: It reflects a simplistic…

Upper elementary children today, while retaining many of the characteristics ascribed to them generations ago by theorists such as Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg, are different. Developmental characteristics across multiple domains remain relatively predictable for the upper elementary years, but they also reflect changes in society and school…

Schoolchildren should learn all they can about the people who stood up for humanity against the war-makers and the powerful. In this article, the author suggests that students should learn Burr Tillstrom, one of the geniuses of early television, who created the Kuklapolitans and the show "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie." They were puppets,…

In a fictional story, an educator in 2001 looks back on 20 years of changes in education and society brought about by the computer revolution. (RW)

A student who is also an administrative assistant offers his analysis of the ideals that are agitating students. (Author)

In the present civic environment there is no purpose for liberal education, for an education worthy of free persons, for the simple reason that there is no place for free persons, for citizens in the full sense who engage together, integrally involved in the pursuit of common purposes. (Author)

Presents 13 social frontiers that create a map for cultural renewal. They embrace a matrix of goals for humankind that could and should rapidly supersede in policy and action the obsolete curricula, teaching-learning methods, and administrative rules that tend to suffocate much of established education. (Author/IRT)

Education coverage, although steadily improving, is subject to the policies and whims governing the reporting, editing, and packaging of the news. Reporters emphasize events rather than trends, report administrators' rather than teachers' views, and overlook the effects that changes in children have had on the schools. This special report outlines…

As Arthur Schlesinger predicted, private interests are subverting public purpose. The narrative of economic utility dominates school reform. Reform language is not uplifting and embodies the traditional connotations of things gone wrong that need correcting. The language of renewal celebrates the self and reflects a supportive, caring ethos. (25…