THE OTHER OPPENHEIMER AND HIS PALACE OF WONDER

One Oppenheimer brother fell but the other rose to spark a world of wonder.

TEACHERS, teachersThe AtticJuly 5, 2024Frank Oppenheimer, The Exploratorium, Science museums, Trinity test, J. Robert Oppenheimer Comments

THE JEWEL OF THE SUMMER -- FREEDOM SCHOOLS

In a savage and sizzling summer, Mississippi’s Freedom Schools were beacons of hope.

TEACHERS, teachers & healers, TEACHERS & HEALERS, teachersThe AtticJune 21, 2024Freedom Schools, Freedom Summer, 1964, Mississippi, Civil Rights Movement Comments

A MIND FOR THE MASSES

Martin Gardner was interested in everything and made everything interesting.

TEACHERS & HEALERS, teachers & healers, TEACHERS, teachersThe AtticFebruary 28, 2024Martin Gardner, Scientific American, Mathematics, Recreational math, puzzles, Alice in Wonderland, The Annotated Alice Comments

THE EINSTEIN OF GREEN LIVING

Critics scoffed but Amory Lovins has stayed on “the soft path” to renewable energy.

HEROES, TEACHERS, TEACHERS & HEALERSThe AtticDecember 15, 2023Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, RMI, Environment, Environmental Movement, Solar Energy Comments

TRUTH'S OWN HISTORIAN -- JILL LEPORE

Despite three jobs — professor, New Yorker writer, mother — Jill Lepore solved the mystery. “Who Killed Truth?”

BATTLING THE B.S., TEACHERS, teachers, TEACHERS & HEALERSThe AtticSeptember 21, 2023Jill Lepore, American history, These Truths, The New Yorker, Harvard University Comments

KEEPING A WATCH ON BIRDS

Using apps and A.I., Cornell’s Lab of O keeps our eyes on the birds.

TEACHERS, TEACHERS & HEALERS, teachersThe AtticJuly 20, 2023Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Birds, bird watching, Audubon society, citizen science Comments

THAT ADORABLE GENIUS

More than “Henry’s brother,” William James opened his mind to spirits, drugs, life. . .

TEACHERS, teachers, TEACHERS & HEALERSBruce WatsonJune 14, 2023William James, Henry James, The James Family, Pragmatism, The Varieties of Religious Experience Comments

AMERICA THE PHILOSOPHICAL

Out of the academy and into the agora, Americans are thinking and questioning in ways that would make Socrates smile.

TEACHERS, teachers, BOOK-ISHBruce WatsonMay 25, 2023philosophy, American philosophy, Michael Sandel, justice, education Comments

MEET THE FIRST ANTI-RACISTS

When America used “science” to back white supremacy, Franz Boas and his students battled the B.S.

BATTLING THE B.S., TEACHERS, teachersThe AtticMarch 9, 2023Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Gods of the Upper Air, Ruth Benedict, white supremacy, Edward Sapir, anthropology, Nazi eugenics, eugenics Comment

DOWN THOSE SESAME STREETS

Children’s TV was a wasteland. Then Joan Ganz Cooney took us all to “Sesame Street.”

CREATIVES, TEACHERS, teachers, TEACHERS & HEALERSThe AtticMarch 3, 2023Sesame Street, PBS, Children's Television Workshop, Educational TV, Joan Ganz Cooney, Big Bird, The Muppets Comments

SWEET HONEY'S ENDURING ROCK

From the trenches of Civil Rights to the concert stage, Bernice Johnson Reagon has sung the praises of black culture.

TEACHERS, FOLKIESThe AtticFebruary 4, 2023Bernice Johnson Reagon, SNCC, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Civil Rights Movement, Freedom Songs, Sweet Honey in the Rock Comments

W.E.B. DUBOIS AND THE GREAT RACE DEBATE

When W.E.B. DuBois debated Lothrop Stoddard, white supremacy was laughed off the stage.

TEACHERS, HEROESThe AtticJuly 14, 2022W.E.B. DuBois, Lothrop Stoddard, Race in America, Racial debate, eugenics, The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy Comments

WHO IS AMERICA'S GREATEST THINKER?

Think the Midwest is just corn country? The annual Great American Think-off will make you think again.

TEACHERS, teachers, teachers & healers, TEACHERS & HEALERSBruce WatsonJune 2, 2022Great American Think-off, Philosophy, American philosophy, Thinking Comment

"BIRTH OF A NATION" AND THE BIRTH OF BLACK HISTORY

When the first blockbuster movie spread dangerous myths, one man rose to challenge them. And seeds were sown.

teachers, TEACHERS, TEACHERS & HEALERSThe AtticJanuary 27, 2022Birth of a Nation, Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson Comment

THE PREACHER, THE SLAVE, AND THE VAXX

When smallpox ravaged Boston, Cotton Mather turned to science to stop this “Destroying Angel.” American medicine was never the same.

TEACHERS & HEALERS, TEACHERSThe AtticSeptember 2, 2021Vaccination, Smallpox, Cotton Mather, Anti-vaxx Comment

LIFE AND LIFE SENTENCES

When Will Durant asked the wise about “the meaning of life,” he got the usual answers. Then he asked a prisoner.

teachers, TEACHERS, teachers & healers, BOOK-ISHThe AtticApril 22, 2021philosophy, will durant, meaning of life, Owen c. middleton Comment