Alienated
UFO sightings are common in America. So is a lack of political transparency.
Education
A collection of 41 issues
The New Town and Gown
As colleges proceed to charge more and more, real-estate developers in the neighborhoods around them look to cash in.
Paper Citizen
America is a proud nation of immigrants—try telling that to everyone on the other side of the door. Life as a white-collar undocumented immigrant in New York.
Binge Reading Disorder
The typical American consumes more than 100,000 words a day and remembers none of them.
Work Is Pretty Scarce Around Here
Just before and right after President Obama’s State of the Union address, an editor telephones complete strangers around the country, to find out what’s really going on.
You Never Forget
At 36, a schoolteacher learns how to ride a bicycle from his former student, who’s still struggling to succeed in school programs that value order above all else.
Dear Daughter, Your Mom
Drawing inspiration from those who went before, and those still to come, in the waitress wars.
Let It Stop
Disney’s “Frozen” juggernaut has been criticized for “sexy walking.” But the roots of what’s wrong lie in Midwestern pageants, not hip-hop videos.
Burying the Present
Thirty years ago, two friends created a vision of the future—a space opera put to tape—and buried it in a time capsule. Listening again today, it turns out we remember the past as it never quite was.
The Case of the Hungry Stranger
A man is always more complicated than his paper trail—especially when he’s your father, who walked out one day.
Words Fail
This is the essay for your community college poetry class, the essay that encapsulates your thoughts on the assigned work in written form, the essay you started this morning, the essay that is due today.
A Buyer’s Guide to American Colleges
Rare is the college graduate who’s attended more than one school. But when you’ve attended four very different types of university, it’s incumbent upon you to share what you’ve learned.
The Sex Trade in Northwest Wisconsin
In a small town with a withering economy, rebellion is choosing college over your job at the X-rated drive-in.
Please Don’t Mflugah the Pn
When you are immigrating to a new country, it's not always clear which vowels you'll miss most. After six months of studying Hebrew in Tel Aviv, what it's like to discover you're illiterate.
The Year of Practical Thinking
You learn something new every day, or so they say. In 2010, our writer decided to keep track. Revelations, lessons, and the wisdom of dishwashers in 365 parts.
JuniorHighLeaks
Everyone's doing it: Broadcasting private communications for all the world to see. The latest messages could usurp the power elite of the eighth grade.
A Message From Your University President
Americans prefer "doing" to "knowing." When will our universities wake up to reality? English majors everywhere: More budget cuts are coming, but prepare to smell great.
The Unbearable Lightness of Declaring a Liberal Arts Major
Faced with a deadline to choose her major, our writer hunts down interview subjects to learn where their studies got them, no matter her mother's loathing of the liberal arts.
Cheater Cheater
Everyone remembers their first, especially English professors. A professor confronts a student he busted for cheating—and who caused him to completely rethink plagiarism.
Standard & Poor
Accountability in education is here to stay--but you try creating tests that equally suit Texans and Hawaiians.
A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families
Thousands of different Lego exist, yet when your seven-year-old asks for “a clippy bit,” you know exactly what to hand him. A breakdown of the atoms of a Lego universe.
Annie Dillard and the Writing Life
Writers aren’t born, they’re made—from practice, reading, and a lot of caffeine. And sometimes tutelage.
Home Schooled
Home-schooling gets a bad rap from advocates of traditional education. Our writer defends his parents’ choice to create a high school at home, including a prom.
Still a Moron After All These Years
New York City schools operate in a ferocious caste system. What’s to be done when your school is viewed as subpar, and you along with it?
It Is My Wish
Some hope for peace, others for environmental protection—and that’s because TED Prize wishes aren’t often granted to neoconservatives.
How to Embalm a Body
Those who can't do, learn. In this installment of our series in which the clueless apprentice with the experts, we visited a funeral home in New Jersey to learn, hands-on, how to prepare someone for an eternal rest.
A Mnemonic Guide to Remembering New Planets
Memorizing the newly assigned 11 planets may be tough for anyone who’s already graduated fifth grade.
Back to School
This September students headed back to class to absorb knowledge and life skills. Some even found time to work STDs and partners-in-crime into their curricula.
Like Pulling Teeth
Whether it’s experimental injections, sleep deprivation studies, or freelance writing, sometimes the best way to look after your health is to risk it.
Blacksburg and Biography
It stunned the nation that the Virginia Tech murders took place; it shocked Virginians that they occurred in Blacksburg. A former longtime resident traces his connections to the tragedy.
I Write Camille Paglia's Next Column so She Doesn’t Have To, Vol. 1: The UFC
For those who still don't grasp the subtext, reifications of Anna Nicole, Ultimate Fighting, and Eddie Murphy.
Breaking Bad Habits & Busting Balls
Another set of excerpts from a book whose author cannot be named for reasons apparent to anyone who has seen a Scorsese movie. This week: life lessons for children and meeting the don of the teacher's lounge.
How I Became a Teacher
Ron Clark may have cornered the market on strategies for classroom control, but it takes a different brand of strong-arming to really get results. The first installment of excerpts from a book whose author cannot be named for obvious reasons.
Centers of Unlearning
If relics like tractors and antique toilets deserve museums, why not creationism? And why stop there? A guide to upcoming halls of wisdom.
Virginity Pledge 2.0
With more and more kids reneging on their signed virginity vows, it’s time for swift action. An updated pledge from LifeTime Ministry that explains all you really need to know to keep your ticket to salvation intact.
A Word of Advice
’Tis the season of graduation ceremonies, when many will be told it’s the first day of the rest of their lives. We offer the ultimate commencement speech.
Be Not Afraid
Between rescuing Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck and dodging bullets during an interview, German director Werner Herzog leads a dramatic life. According to his private diaries, we shouldn't be surprised.
A Course Guide to Literary Readings
These days, literary readings aren’t as boring as they should be. But what for the budding author or poet, still in school, who doesn’t know how to smash a guitar or bake a cobbler onstage?
Mess With the Bull, You'll Get the Horns
The hazing at Glenbrook North High School and that other story about disregard for journalistic propriety can find judgment in the college classroom.
Bear Attack in Western Montana
Childhood education can come from paths less traveled, when a Boy Scout trip takes an unforeseen direction.
10 Ways My Dog Is Capable of Advanced Logic
Everyone has a friend or relative that's smarter, more witty, or in Mensa. Few can claim that for their dog.