Teaching is a creative profession, as much art as science, and for those who go into the field, it can...
Every city-dweller has lived or witnessed some version of it: the mom on a bus struggling to fold a stroller...
Act Naturally: The Benefits of Wet Hands and Muddy Feet
An Interview with Richard Louv
How do we get today’s kids active and in tune with nature? And if the current generation of young parents missed out on personal experiences with nature, who will teach their children?
In the past few decades, public libraries have undergone a quiet transformation from sleepy repositories of books to full-fledged community...
3 Top Takeaways from the Webinar: CSSP Invites Applications for DULCE Initiative Planning Grants
Apply by August 21
Because we can’t take our Early Learning Nation Studio on the road during this time, stay tuned as ELN recaps...
Southern Living magazine calls it the South’s Best College Town, but Athens-Clark County also has its challenges, including a 30%...
Meeting (and Teaching) Families in Unexpected Places Can Transform Cities
Grocery stores, bus stops, laundromats… what’s next?
School is a great place to learn, but it’s not the only place. No matter how excellent our teachers are, no matter how enriching the curricula, school accounts for only about 20 percent of children’s waking hours. That’s why a growing number of education pioneers are building out nontraditional sites for young minds to develop their language skills and to learn about their world.
If Tiffany Gale got eight full hours of sleep a night, she’d never be able to get everything done. In...
Why Don’t We Just Do That?
Over Cocktails, Restaurateurs Hatch a Plan for Literacy
Three years ago, Amanda and John Horne, owners of Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Bradenton, Florida, heard that 51 percent of children in their local Manatee County school system couldn’t read at grade level by third grade. They were appalled.
“This was horrific,” Amanda says. “We had no idea that this was an issue.”
Over cocktails one night, Amanda and John wondered what they could do. Their clientele is largely composed of older “grandparent-type” people. They have four restaurants and a mailing list of more than 24,000 customers. What if they could pair children up with a grandparent figure or somebody who cares about them, read with them and maybe instill them with a love of reading?
Seedlings in the Garden: Childhood Food Sovereignty and the Push to Reclaim Indigenous Foodways
After their food systems were systematically destroyed, America’s Indian Tribes are teaching their children the importance of healthy diets through agricultural education
Every weekday morning, Nichole Efird greets her students with a hug and the promise of another adventure. With a curriculum...
A field trip inside the mind—it may sound like a psychedelic rock song, but that’s the big idea behind AlegreMENTE...
Mobilizing Communities So All Children Make the Grade
Pop Up Neighbor events, community, collaboration, mobilization
Even without advance promotion, when word got out that the SuperMatt Laundromat in Sarasota, Florida, was offering free laundry all day, neighborhood residents formed a steady stream of customers.
Not only was laundry-and-all-the-fixings free—a boon to low-income families who can ill afford the $35 to $50 a week they spend trying to keep their kids in clean clothes—the food bank was there with abundant food to restock their pantries.
Best of all, there were books—lots of books—and plenty of volunteers to read to children while the adults did as many loads of laundry as needed. When the children left, books went home with them.
