During the times that try our souls, inspiring wisdom is needed more than ever. Perhaps it’s time to remind ourselves of those who, by their words, encourage us to live out of our better angels. “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. “To sensible men, every day...

Due to declining  student populations in public colleges and universities around the country, budget cutbacks have had a serious impact on education. Libraries and staff are particularly vulnerable, affecting the vital help students need from the valuable services libraries provide. How important? The nation’s second president, John Adams, believed education was so important that he included a clause in the...

When I learned of the death of Kirk Douglas, I remembered the time I spent with him in his Beverly Hills home. I was in the sixth grade when I was first introduced to art appreciation, (in a public school, no less). After presenting an overview of impressionist artists, the entire class went on a field trip to the Museum...

The actions taken by Kyle Kashuv, and the ubiquity of social media are troubling on several levels. Eighteen-year-old Kashuv was one of the survivors of the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida. However, unlike his fellow students who have spoken around the country about the need for more restrictive gun legislation, Kashuv has become a very vocal gun-rights advocate. While...

Commencement at colleges and universities around the country is a time for the well-known and lesser-known luminaries to make speeches that inspire a graduating class. Billionaire Robert F. Smith kicked it up a notch. Smith, the founder, and CEO of the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners had already pledged $1.5 million to Atlanta’s Morehouse College when he announced that...

When federal prosecutors charged more than two dozen wealthy parents with bribery, and fraud for using substitute test-takers and false athletic records to gain their kids’ admissions to top colleges, many in the media were not surprised. “This large-scale grift,” Willa Paskin writes in Slate (Mar. 12), “is a window into the ethical and moral rot of our supposedly meritocratic...

“No nation, no society has ever changed this much, this fast. Now, before you start calling anyone bigoted, consider – and be honest – how would you feel if that happened in your neighborhood? Doesn’t matter how nice the immigrants are, they probably are nice… That’s not the point. The point is, this is more change than human beings are...

It’s safe to say that, at one time or other, most teens rebel against their parents. For Ethan Lindenberger that rebellion took an unexpected turn. When Lindenberger became a legal adult at 18, he chose to get the necessary vaccinations that his parents had avoided. “I had grown up with my mom being very staunch and open about her position...

This is a story of two kids: one who does the right thing and another who, well… you decide. When a sixth-grade student at Houghton Academy near Buffalo, New York noticed that the bus driver had accidentally hit a parked car, then left the scene, this student jumped into action, leaving a note on the car of Canisius College student...

Colman McCarthy is always a supportive friend but he’s much more. The former Washington Post columnist retired to start The Center for Teaching Peace, a radical little group that has the audacity to believe that “unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence.” Among his advisory board: former Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Hatfield, Arun Gandhi...