Society
essay
Stories and literature
Do liberal arts liberate?
In Jack London’s novel, Martin Eden personifies debates still raging over the role and purpose of education in American life
Nick Romeo
essay
Education
The exam that broke society
Keju, China’s incredibly difficult civil service test, strengthened the state at the cost of freedom and creativity
Yasheng Huang
essay
Thinkers and theories
Wittgenstein in the classroom
The philosopher understood that learning – of a concept, of ourselves, of each other – is the undertaking of a whole life
Calum Jacobs
essay
Human rights and justice
Do not forget them
Thousands of Indigenous children suffered and died in residential ‘schools’ around the world. Their stories must be heard
Steve Minton
essay
Education
Unschooling
It takes nerve to go against the grain and take your child out of school. But, for some, that’s when learning really starts
Naomi Fisher & Heidi Steel
essay
Education
Hitozukuri
Japan’s Cold War education policy used religion to ‘make’ the ideal humans needed by its nascent economy. Did it work?
Jolyon Baraka Thomas
essay
Teaching and learning
Learning styles don’t exist
A teaching approach that is based on students’ preferences sounds laudable. But this misunderstands how learning happens
Carl Hendrick
essay
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy’s blindspot
Education has long been ignored by contemporary philosophers. That is a myopic view that must change
David Bakhurst
essay
Self-improvement
Many wisdoms
There are no transcendent insights that rise above human difference. Yet wisdom exists if we look in the right places
Avram Alpert
essay
History of ideas
Views from everywhere
Academic philosophy can indeed make sense of our interdependent world. But only if it transforms by becoming truly diverse
Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach & Leah Kalmanson
essay
Stories and literature
Great books are still great
Read with love, rather than critical distance, the classics can provide tools to subvert oppressive hierarchies
Roosevelt Montás
video
Animals and humans
An unflinching look at a provocative public dissection of a ‘surplus’ zoo lion
13 minutes
essay
Education
Sex on the curriculum
Sex education is a battlefield over morals and young bodies, and has exposed fractures in American life for over a century
Kristy Slominski
essay
Education
Jefferson’s university
Thomas Jefferson founded a university believing it would safeguard republican freedom. Slavery was another matter altogether
Alan Taylor
essay
Childhood and adolescence
We’re all teenagers now
Adolescence isn’t a time of life so much as a frame of mind. Liberating yet damaging, it’s transformed the US and the world
Paul Howe
video
Film and visual culture
Shoddy filmmaking meets the miracle of life in a police training film turned cult classic
11 minutes
essay
Thinkers and theories
Pause. Reflect. Think
Susan Stebbing’s little Pelican book on philosophy had a big aim: giving everybody tools to think clearly for themselves
Peter West
essay
Cognition and intelligence
How to be a genius
I travelled the world and trawled the archive to unearth the hidden lessons from history’s most brilliant people
Craig Wright
video
Global history
The American Museum of Natural History grapples with its most controversial piece
16 minutes
essay
Education
Education, unchained
Rousseau’s child-centred ideals are now commonplace but his truly radical vision of educational freedom still eludes us
James Brooke-Smith
idea
Rituals and celebrations
We need highly formal rituals in order to make life more democratic
Antone Martinho-Truswell
idea
Teaching and learning
I was homeschooled for eight years: here’s what I recommend
Mordechai Levy-Eichel
essay
Education
The scholar’s vocation
A century ago, Weber both diagnosed the ills of the corporatised, modern university, and pointed out the path beyond it
Chad Wellmon
idea
Education
Why lifelong learning is the international passport to success
Pierre Vandergheynst & Isabelle Vonèche Cardia