The Newsom-DeSantis debate was largely pointless. It involved Ron DeSantis who is running for president but trailing far behind the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, and Gavin Newsom who has stated he doesn’t intend to run for president this election cycle but has been suggested as a potential replacement for Joe Biden if he chooses to…
As a high school student, I began to realize just how differently my female friends and I experienced school compared to our male peers. We faced discriminatory dress code enforcement that treated our bodies as “distractions,” and we were often left on our own to deal with sexual harassment that was downplayed as “jokes” or…
Reposted from Free Youth Now with permission from the author. If I see one more opinion, editorial, policy recommendation, or letter claiming that kids either should or should not be sent back to school, without any reference to the actual opinions or wishes of kids, I am going to lose my mind. I know, I know,…
Reposted from My Unschooling Adventure with permission from the author. As much as I’d like to think otherwise, I haven’t fully recovered from school. Teachers treating me as superior to other students because of my test scores led me to conflate my worth with my achievements. Even now, I have a tendency to think of…
Schools across the country have closed and millions of students now face unprecedented challenges. For some students, this is a period of stress and dealing with new mental health issues and the effects of ageism. For many, it is a period of adjustment to a new learning process and lifestyle. And for some youth rights…
COVID-19 is exposing glaring problems in American society. The rapid spread of the virus has forced all Americans to live differently – from average citizens to experienced politicians. However, as the virus continues to spread and create more issues, American students can find some solace in a return to routine – through the continuity of…
Last week, I found myself packing up my apartment in Washington, D.C. The previous night was spent on a half-empty plane, traveling from my home in Los Angeles to Washington, D.C, where I had spent the last two months in American University’s Spring Semester Program. Even while surrounded by the emptiness of my bare room,…
Renowned critic of compulsory schooling, John Taylor Gatto passed away this week at the age of 82. A teacher for 30 years, he achieved notoriety after quitting teaching upon receiving the New York State teacher of the year award in 1991. He used the opportunity to speak out against the unnatural, restrictive and harmful impact…
Members of Portland Student Rights Union – A NYRA Chapter We originally started the Portland Student Rights Union (SRU) in October 2017 to protest the administration of our school, the Metropolitan Learning Center Administration in Portland, Oregon, taking away all student breaks as a form of collective punishment. Even though we were an unofficial group,…
Time speeds up A year represents less perceived time to someone in their 90s than it does to someone in their teens. You can see how time accelerates as we get older in this interactive visualization by Maximilian Keiner. Keiner argues that to human beings, the first 18 years of life seem just as long…
