Culture

It’s 2022, But Many Schools Are Reverting to 2020’s COVID Playbook 0
- Culture
- January 4, 2022
It’s 2022 but you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s still 2020—especially if you have children enrolled in K-12 district schooling. Some parents are grappling this week with a return to, or threat of, remote learning first introduced nearly two years ago. Fear of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus is leading school officials across
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The Wackiest Parenting Stories of 2021 0
- Culture
- January 3, 2022
In a crazy year, some stories were crazier than others when it came to kids, parents, worrywarts, scolds—and everything besides COVID-19, which we give a blessed rest in this list! No. 1: WHY CAN’T YOU BE GOOD LIKE ME? A Beaverton, Oregon, man screamed at a lady for leaving her kid in the car while
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Omicron Is Turning Into Om-i-con 0
- Culture
- December 30, 2021
Like many of you, I’ve read numerous articles in the last two years about COVID-19, masks and lockdowns, deaths, vaccines, and mandates. Now the Omicron variation of COVID-19 is inundating the news. There are calls for millions of new virus tests, and in some quarters demands for more lockdowns, more masking requirements, and the cancellation
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Whatever Happened to the Boy Scouts?2
- Culture
- December 29, 2021
It was once an honor to earn a merit badge in the Boy Scouts. Becoming a Star Scout was a privilege, a Life Scout was something fantastic, and an Eagle Scout was the very tip of the apex. Few achieved that pinnacle, and those who did treasured it for their entire lives. But even those
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What Kids Learn When They’re ‘Just’ Playing 1
- Culture
- December 28, 2021
We’re heading into two weeks (or possibly … two months? two years?) of the kids at home. It’s called Christmas break, as if it’s a break from learning. But that’s just our Puritan Work Ethic talking—the idea that if something is fun, it is a pause from our real job, which is to always be hard
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America’s Got Talent and ’Tis the Season to Remember Those Gifts 0
- Culture
- December 23, 2021
A week before Christmas, I attended a performance of The Nutcracker in the Old Opera House Theater in Charles Town, West Virginia. My presence was obligatory. My five-year-old granddaughter and her class of budding ballerinas appeared as dancing Lady Bugs for a brief time on the stage, a part undoubtedly added by the director to
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