How I Failed as a Professional

My name’s Philippa, and I’m a statistic. I only lasted two and three-quarter years in the teaching profession. I’m one of those often-quoted teachers who didn’t last five years in the job, in fact, I barely made it half way to that. I could blame the government, Ofsted, the exam system, performance-related pay, the hours, […]

#Uninspired: The Story of My Mediocre Grade School Education

When I was 10 years old, my parents foisted a rather cruel yet unavoidable culture shock upon me. My family uprooted and moved from Malibu, California to Minnetonka, Minnesota. My dad had a job transfer and we went from the whiteout of SoCal sunshine to the whiteout of Minnesota winter. I had grown up barefoot […]

National Implications of Moving the Literacy Needle in California

California is the most populous state in the union, and the California Department of Education is responsible for educating more students than any other state agency in the country. In 2015, the department was charged with providing primary and secondary education to over six million students. With a population that size, successful education policies that […]

21 Signs You Went To A NESCAC School

For those of you not in the ‘Cac, we’re talking small liberal arts colleges with a student population often not much larger than your high schools. We’re looking at you, Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Connecticut College, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan and Williams — the schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. NESCAC […]

Discorvering Macaulay Discovering Itself

By Thomas Dyja I have never directed a film, nor have I ever written, produced, starred in, lit or done the make up for one, so my qualifications for being a judge at this year’s Macaulay Honors College Film Festival come down to having seen a lot of them in the last fifty or so […]

The Real Threat to North Carolina's Children Has Nothing to Do With Transgender People

Less than two weeks ago, North Carolina’s state legislature passed, and the governor approved, an innocently named bill with the title “HB2.” In the ensuing shitstorm that has followed, it has come to be known as “The Bathroom Bill.” It gets this ridiculous title because the content of the bill is pure crap. Actually, that’s […]