children 40
Time To Tell The Truth
How much longer will we prioritize a Wild West notion of freedom over protecting children and teens? The truth is, like cigarettes and alcohol, these devices are incompatible with healthy…
What’s in a Name?
We all have the power to name ourselves—collectively, not individually
Garden With Children
I am happy that the boys enjoy the garden too. But who knows how it will be in five years?
An Inside Job
It’s time to give the kids a better life script, to give them something more to aspire to than slumping over a screen for the rest of their lives.
A Knock at My door
Many who grieve have discovered that we are not weaker but stronger in our newfound awareness of what matters to us.
Cleaning an Empty Home
There is not a lot of time for sentimentality when you’re in the final week of madly preparing to list your empty, but very much “lived-in,” house
The Anti-Anxious Generation with Ashley Fitzgerald
So I'm wondering where the spirit of the American pioneer, where the culture of the can-do man has gone?
Crafting the Ideal School: Finding a Balance Between High-Tech and the Hands
it is through the arts alone that the various branches of learning touch human life.
How to Raise Readers, in Thirty-Five Steps
It is not too much to say that everything in our culture pushes against habits
There’s No Place Like Home
We are desperately in need of a collective vision of what it means to love our homes.
Who Has Children Anymore Anyway?
Without God, a spiraling fertility rate seems certain. But on spiritual grounds, there’s always room for hope and renewal. When the seed is sown on the good soil, it bears…
Hand-Cranked Ice Cream Against Despair
Whether the experience goes beautifully or our best-laid plans go awry, hand cranking ice cream with a few dozen kids is a whole lot more powerful than dithering in paralyzing…
Modernity is a Dirty Diaper
Modernity has become permanently liquid; it no longer seeks solid replacements to the pre-modern world but finds greater value in transience, not just of institutions and things, but of human…
The Cozy Loneliness of Owl at Home
children are inchoately aware of the sadness of the world; it’s another of the human mysteries that they already have access to. Lobel’s genius is in choosing for his subject…
In Defense of Playdates
In a perfect world, our children would romp out the door after completing their chores and their schoolwork (we homeschool) and knock politely at their best friend’s door, who lived…
From Prison to Public School Mentoring
However, my role that day was not to frighten but inspire, as all the other mentors would do. My message was simple: I wanted these energetic students to know that…
Fatherhood: The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love
Fertility rates are low. After going through the pregnancy of our first child, I’m surprised they aren’t lower. Many young people lack the “why” to endure the cultural pessimism around…
I Wish I Were A Mountain Goat: Lessons From Harpers Ferry
We should not reject the good fruits of our modern era, but let us also not neglect the good it does young bodies and minds to run up and down…
In Schooling as in Life, More Than Enough is Too Much
Being a teacher is a demanding job, whether in a college, school, or home setting. It requires tremendous energy, responsiveness, and mental flexibility. It requires that you, the teacher, also…
The Only Way is Up
It is a terrifying responsibility every single day, for a preschooler’s capacity to find ever creative ways to put herself in danger does not always match up with the parent’s…
Joining the Dance: Setting Aside Screens to Build the City
The young pagans band around the picnic table and scrawl inky runes into their hands with cheap pens. Around them, the world falls, and wonders if they will learn to…
The Burden Of Youth
Why are so many of Uncle Sam’s children so miserable? What is going on? The reasons are one part mystery and one part well-known. It is worth reflecting on them.
The Elephant in the Formula Can: Medicine’s Overlooked Influence on Breastfeeding Failure
To acknowledge the harm that has been inflicted on uncountable human lives is to invite doubt about the underpinnings of our technologically sophisticated world. That is an uncomfortable and lonely…
Against Fun: The Ubiquitous Specter of Youth Sports
More to the purpose of this essay, organized youth sports should challenge students to be dissatisfied with amusement or entertainment in their pursuit of excellence. Our culture is soaked in…