Featured

Young man wearing safety glasses hammering a nail into wood inside a workshop.
Schools for Philosopher-Carpenters
A new crop of innovative schools encourages all students to use their minds and their hands.
Alex Sosler
Report
Four firefighters in gear posing in front of a red Sister Bay Fire Dept. Liberty Grove fire truck.
Why I Became a Firefighter
A priest joins her local volunteer fire department.
Brit Frazier
Personal History
Group of people holding hands in a circle on a grassy hill with mountains in the background.
The School that Escaped to the Alps
Faced with a Nazi takeover, the first Bruderhof school took refuge in Liechtenstein.
Marianne Wright
Essay
Abstract painting with vertical and horizontal brushstrokes in muted colors and bright red accents.
Does Teaching Literature and Writing Have a Future?
Learning that one’s job might soon be eliminated by the emergence of an overhyped new technology puts one in good company.
Phil Christman
Essay
Two young men in blue hoodies examining a small object with deer antlers on the table in a classroom.
Deerassic Park
A high-school science teacher and his students practice conservation in the woods and ponds of upstate New York.
Tim Maendel
The Doers
Snowy winter scene with a yellow house surrounded by leafless trees and white snow.
Why We’re Failing to Pass on Christianity
How do you teach Christian basics to those who think they know all about it?
Benjamin Crosby
Essay

Insights

Teacher assisting young students at desks in a classroom with a Mexican flag on one desk.
For the Love of Public School Teaching
An immigrant educator tells why he chose to teach underprivileged children.
Anthony Garces Foley
Interview
Colorful painting of a young man leaning forward over a blue and white background with script.
Let Children Play
In an age of high-pressure childhoods, free play is more necessary than ever.
Peter Gray
Interview
Four young men working with large logs inside a bright woodworking shop with windows.
Timber Framing with Teenagers
Why a history teacher believes in training students to use hand tools.
Clem Robertshaw
The Doers
Two students in navy shirts working together on an engine part in a classroom with peers.
The Most Valuable Joads
Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath inspires a small-engines project in the English classroom.
Tom Huleatt
The Doers
Man in suit and kippah speaking at podium, holding a shofar horn in his right hand.
The Music on Mount Sinai
As students enter adulthood, how can they learn to hear the voice of God beneath the noise of life?
Meir Soloveichik
Address
Child's hands covered in green, blue, and black paint held up in front of face.
The Green Paint Incident
There’s no room for irony in a second-grade classroom.
Toby Payne
Personal History
Painting of a child sitting on a fence and a man wearing a cowboy hat riding a horse.
Reverence for the Child
Four thinkers prepare us to come into the presence of children.
Eberhard Arnold
Maria Montessori
James Baldwin
Saint John Chrysostom
Reading
Geometric drawing of a spiral shell with colored bands and complex grid lines and measurements.
How Math Makes You a Better Person
Across cultures, I found that math can be more than mere problem-solving.
Frederick K S Leung
Interview
Woman in a sparkly gold top with arms raised wide on a dark stage.
Tell an Old Story for Modern Times
A Bruderhof teacher applies lessons from her mentors and Homer in her classroom and beyond.
Lisabeth Button
Essay
Abstract painting of a blue-haired figure facing left and a red-outlined creature with sharp teeth behind it.
Should I Read Scary Fairy Tales to My Child?
My kids already know the world is not safe. Will dragons and goblins make it worse?
Stephanie Ebert
Essay
Man demonstrates weaving technique on a large wooden frame to a group of seated students in a room.
Lernvergnügenstag: A Day for the Joy of Learning
Once a year, I get to teach my students whatever inspires me.
Patrick Tomassi
The Doers
Woman holding a Bible surrounded by reporters and cameramen with microphones and cameras.
Freedom of Speech Under Threat
From Nicaragua to Finland, bold speech is a Christian’s right and duty.
Paul Coleman
Elyssa Koren
Report

Web Exclusives

Five hikers with backpacks standing on rocky terrain near a river in a canyon under blue sky.
Grand Canyon Classroom
A hiking club is a natural extension of a classical education.
Betsy K. Brown
Essay
Renaissance painting of a soldier with helmet and a sorrowful woman with crown and floral headpiece.
Teaching the One Percent
A Columbia professor defends the spiritual worth of liberal education.
Dhananjay Jagannathan
Essay
Painting of two young children outdoors, one sitting and writing, the other standing and watching.
The Homeschooling Option
Homeschooling in America has never been more widespread – or more diverse. We checked in on several parents in Detroit.
Casey Kleczek
Report
Groups of people sitting and socializing on a green lawn in front of historic stone buildings and leafless trees.
Gentleness in Academia
In a cutthroat environment, is it naive to approach one’s critics, or even one’s students, with virtues such as gentleness, patience, and humility?
Elizabeth Hoare
Sunlight shining through tall windows onto empty wooden seats in a classic lecture hall.
What Is a University For?
Three academics reflect on the purpose of university education.

Arts & Letters

Painting of four people sitting around a round table with plates and glasses in a dim room.
Iron Sharpens Iron
Real friendship is the most powerful education.
Johann H. Huleatt
Essay
Bright gold and blue fractal spirals radiating on a dark background with intricate branching patterns.
Hearing a Lecture on the Mandelbrot Set
To whom is the cheetah being obedient as she strangles a young impala?
Claude Wilkinson
Poem
Abstract painting of pomegranate and figs with leaves on a dark background.
A Meditation on Figs
Rooted in rich, dark soil beside my grandmother’s smokehouse where hams hung and cured…
Claude Wilkinson
Poem
Group of religious figures in ornate robes and hats, some holding books and gestures, in a classical painting.
On Raphael’s La Disputa del Sacramento
The first of my umbrages is how utterly humdrum eternity seems.
Claude Wilkinson
Poem
Book cover of We're Alone by Edwidge Danticat showing a woman standing in water behind hanging fabric.
We’re Alone Together
A review of Edwidge Danticat’s new essay collection, We’re Alone.
Caitrin Keiper
Editors’ Pick
Book cover: Learning to Disagree by John Inazu with colorful arrows and subtitle on empathy and respect.
Disagreeing Respectfully
John Inazu’s Learning to Disagree aims to improve civil discourse by showing readers how to navigate differences more gracefully.
Joseph Holmes
Editors’ Pick
Book cover for The Magician's Daughter by H.G. Parry with silhouette, sun rays, raven, and rabbit.
Life without Magic
In H. G. Parry’s novel The Magician’s Daughter, a sixteen-year-old chooses to leave a magical island for the the wider world.
James Smoker
Editors’ Pick
Watercolor of a serious man and woman carrying a baby with a burning village and mountains behind them.
The Jakob Hutter Story
In this excerpt from By Fire, a radical reformer risks everything for a cause.
Jason Landsel
Sankha Banerjee
Richard Mommsen
Comic