At 2.30am on 17 June 1972, police officers arrested five men burgling the Democratic Party offices in Washington DC’s Foggy Bottom neighbourhood. The building complex in which the offices were based had gained a reputation for crime, but these men were not – as an FBI agent later noted –Continue Reading
During WWII and beyond, blue ticket discharges carried powerful stigma—and serious negative consequences. In May 1944, Lemuel S. Brown, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II, received a blue slip of paper from the military, notifying him he was being dismissed from duty. The reason? “Undesirable” behavior—specifically,Continue Reading
The 1969 Stonewall Riots marked a historic turning point for gay rights, but several smaller uprisings preceded Stonewall as LGBTQ communities pushed back against harassment and inequality. The Stonewall Riots of 1969 are arguably the most famous and impactful uprisings for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) rights. ButContinue Reading
Striking Minneapolis teachers rallied in March 2022 at the state capitol. Their new contract contains a provision protecting minority educators from layoffs. Education reformers have long argued that “last in, first out” policies on teacher layoffs are educationally harmful. When teachers are retained based solely on seniority and not effectiveness,Continue Reading
Biden SEC chairman Gary Gensler The Biden administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission is suing the city of Rochester, New York, contending that “rampant overspending on teacher salaries” plunged the Rochester school district into “extreme financial distress,” misleading investors who bought municipal bonds. The legal action is unusual. Sure, the federalContinue Reading
What was the Difference Engine? It was an automatic calculating machine designed by Charles Babbage (1791– 1871), English mathematician and polymath. He conceived the machine in 1821, in response to a dismaying number of errors in mathematical tables calculated by hand. The supposed infallibility of machinery would eliminate the riskContinue Reading
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, author of the Wolfson History Prize shortlisted book God: An Anatomy, discusses what ancient biblical texts tell us about the body of God. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, she traces the origins of God back to an ancient deity called Yahweh, and talks about the challenges of working onContinue Reading
Education Next senior editor Paul E. Peterson recently spoke with John P. Spencer, associate professor of education at Ursinus College and author of In the Crossfire: Marcus Foster and the Troubled History of American School Reform. Marcus Foster Paul Peterson: Black Power has moved to the center of American education’sContinue Reading
The document was designed to prove to the world (especially France) that the colonists were right to defy King George III’s rule. For many Americans, the entirety of the Declaration of Independence can be summed up by Thomas Jefferson’s stirring preamble: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that allContinue Reading
Teacher Natalie McGhee works with 3rd grade students in a classroom in Mansfield, Ohio. For much of the past year, growing evidence on pandemic learning losses painted a dire picture. Fortunately, the latest test data from Ohio suggest that we may have turned a corner, with students beginning to makeContinue Reading
