The Sex-Ed Divide
If Maple Grove Senior High chose a prom queen, Ashley Gort would have had a good shot at the crown. Ashley, a petite and popular junior with delicate features, wore deep-sea blue to the event,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Part-Time Bind
It's easy to see how mothers wind up out of the workplace. Sometimes, a lack of maternity leave turns the birth of a child into an all-or-nothing proposition: Leave the tiny baby before you're ready...
View ArticleSegregation Nation
Tyliesha Tucker attends a well-regarded high school in Nebraska's Bellevue school district. Last year, Tyliesha, who is 15 and "pretty hilarious" by her own description, went to her local school in the...
View ArticleThe International Language of Happiness
The Prime Minister of Bhutan, Jigmi Thinley, presided over the United Nations (U.N.) conference in a beautiful gold and ruby striped gho. Thinley is a small man with a broad smile. As he spoke, his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Sandy Saved Occupy
(Flickr/John de Guzman)Volunteers at an Occupy Sandy distribution center on Staten IslandHow did we get here? This is the question occupying “occupiers,” as they call themselves, at their first...
View ArticlePre-K on the Range
Four-year-old John Kaykay is a serious and quiet boy—“my thoughtful one,” his dad calls him. When the official greeters at the front door of the McClure early-childhood center in Tulsa welcome him with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Even America's Safest Places Need Better Gun Control
Flickr/Doug KerrA garden in Newtown, ConnecticutIf you ever have the chance, you should visit Newtown, Connecticut, a “picture-postcard place in New England, especially in the fall.” Or so urges...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mississippi's Last Abortion Provider
Twelve years ago, Dr. Willie Parker was at home listening to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I’ve been to the mountaintop” sermon. Parker had heard the words many times before. But this time, he found...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Going Back Too Soon
Rex Features via AP ImagesPerla Saenz went back sore and exhausted just four weeks after giving birth—and two weeks after the incision from her C-section reopened. (She had heard her older child cough...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The State of the Kindergarteners Should Be Strong
Flickr/US Army AfricaObama gave the country a glimpse of his new pre-K initiative in last night State of the Union address—and reason to hope that he’ll bring the rest of the country toward the...
View ArticleLeaning Out—of This Fight
I am leaning in just a little as I write this. OK, I’m not. But I am feeling a little sick as I ponder the next unpleasant installment of the “mommy wars” that’s hurtling toward us.This past Friday,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Forty Years Behind on Sick-Leave Policy, But Catching Up
AP Photo/Mary AltafferEmilio Palaguachi, center, speaks at a rally at New York's City Hall to call for a vote on paid-sick-days legislation, which has been held up byIt’s too late for Tonisha Howard,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Underfunded and Under Five
AP Photo/The Winchester Star, Jeff TaylorAs we contemplate the possibly bright future of pre-K laid out in Obama’s state of the union address this year, in which the feds work together “with states to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teachers Left Behind
AP Photo/Randy SnyderKathleen Knauth has had a rough school year. The principal of Hillview Elementary, near Buffalo, New York, has spent so much time typing teacher evaluations, entering data, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rhode Island’s Small Victory
AP Photo/Mel EvansWhen Governor Lincoln Chaffee signed the Temporary Care Giver’s Insurance law last week, Rhode Island became the third state—along with California and New Jersey—to grant paid time...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Happened to Christine Quinn’s Lead?
With Christine Quinn limping toward primary day, the question for many poll watchers is why more women haven’t supported her candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the New York City mayoral race....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Daddy's Home!
AP Images/Edmond TerakopianMany mornings this year Matt Nuttall and his friend Ryan Faulkner met up in one of several neighborhood parks located between their houses in Pleasant Hill, California. While...
View ArticleThe New Push for Paid Family Leave
Today, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced the FAMILY Act, a bill that would grant every employee in the country access to up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical...
View ArticleA Second Chance for the Youngest Americans
Imagine: What if the country could agree on a way to address the huge unmet needs of young children? What if our solution marked a shift in national priorities, directing substantial money toward...
View ArticleThe Abbott District's Fortunate Few
On a warm Wednesday afternoon this September, Joseph Castillo sat at a small desk in the Early Childhood Center in Orange, New Jersey, making a card for his father. Joseph’s letters, scrawled unevenly...
View Article
