“It’s kinda like I just had a baby,” Wedjeena told me, talking about her ten-month-old brother. “He’ll pull my homework, crumple it up. Eat it.”

As the winter holidays arrive, adults tend to think of youth as the receivers of our largesse. It’s easy to forget that many youth go home from school every day to [...]

Kids recognize on a gut level what cognitive science has shown: you can’t separate emotion from learning.

Students tell how the supportive presence of adults can help as they encounter stumbling blocks at school or in their lives.

How do you support students’ expectation that they can succeed in a learning challenge? Students talk about why that boosts their motivation.

How do kids see their teachers, and how do they imagine their teachers see them? Students talk about their perceptions of the adults they see every day.

Sometimes, Elijah told me, “people just don’t wanna come to school.”

Boredom, distraction, feeling invisible, staying on top of the work—students told me that these are among the struggles they face daily, even when they value their education.

Recognizing and respecting the challenge is half the battle. I hope you’ll want to share these clips [...]