Author: Lance Garrison
To the Editor:“Stop Corporatizing My Students,” by Beth Ann Fennelly (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Nov. 15), is a heartfelt reminder that humanistic studies are critical to developing thoughtful, compassionate and functional citizens. Yes, developing skills to make a living is essential, but, as Ms. Fennelly writes, learning to “fail better” and dream must come first, “for a while anyway.”During a time of immense technological change, war and political division, nothing is more important than having the intellectual confidence to challenge what you see, hear and read with thoughtful questions. Humanistic study provides young students with an opportunity to develop their…
Online therapy and mental health apps can help treat anxiety, stress, and depression.
Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, held in Tuscaloosa, Ala., will feature just four candidates — Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie — sparring over everything from abortion to Israel to former President Donald Trump. When we asked Times Opinion columnists and contributors what they would ask the candidates if they were moderating the debate, they came back to us with questions designed to test them on guns and crime, foreign wars and health care — exposing where the field stands on, say, military aid for Ukraine or a draconian state abortion ban. But above all, what they…
In the cold winter of 1972, a schoolteacher in a poor Chinese village asked his whole class: “The U.S. president Nixon and his adviser Dr. Kissinger will be in China. What should we do?”Then 8 years old, I was a good student and had just finished my homework — writing down 50 times in Chinese characters the omnipresent political slogan: “Down with the American imperialists! Down with the Soviet revisionists! Long live Chairman Mao!”So I quickly popped up with an answer: “Arrest them, because they are our enemies!”Within a few years, I realized how wrong I had been. The American…
As the world grows increasingly fractured, taking the time to engage with strangers has become even more important. The artist and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton has created a simple but powerful way for people to connect in an isolated world.In this audio essay, she shares how she brings people together by having them draw each other in public spaces. All it takes is 60 seconds, two pieces of paper, two pens and the willingness to look — really look — at someone you’ve never met.(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available midday on the Times website.)The Times…
Despite all this, Huffman reflected that she felt as if she would have been a bad mother if she didn’t give her child every advantage in the admissions process, which in her case included breaking the law. While that may not make sense outside of her bubble, I think this conundrum is the true key to her actions, and is akin to the motivations of many of the hyperchecking parents I mentioned in last week’s newsletter about online grading portals — parents who obsessively check their kids’ grades in a way that strips those children of any sense of agency.…
In 1950, when Grand Teton National Park was expanded eastward across Jackson Hole, Wyo., its new boundaries nearly subsumed a square mile of state land. Like the national park, forest and elk reserve surrounding it, this is no ordinary piece of ground.Called the Kelly Parcel for its proximity to the village of Kelly, where I’ve lived for 37 years, this 7,000-foot-high stretch of rolling hills, sagebrush meadows and aspen groves has magnificent views of the Teton Range and provides important habitat for elk, moose, pronghorn antelope, bison, mule deer and bighorn sheep. The annual migration of up to 150 miles…
In addition, Kessler wrote, in the past month,The price of gasoline has fallen 20-cents to a national average of $3.24 a gallon. Headline and core inflation have begun their final descent toward benign, historic levels. Interest rates have fallen about 40 basis points in the past several months. The so-called “misery index” (inflation + unemployment rate) could very well be at a level that is incumbent friendly.That said, Kessler continued, there are clear danger signs:Biden won in 2020 because he was perceived as having a more positive brand than the Democratic Party. That brand advantage over the Democratic Party is…
A worthy undertaking, to be sure. But the government’s habit of conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism has had some disturbing effects. Most notably, it has created an atmosphere where advocacy for Palestinian rights or a cease-fire in Gaza is seen as suspect, running afoul of the state-mandated position. The police, for example, have cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests in several cities and outright banned numerous demonstrations.The cultural sector has seen far-reaching acts of censorship, too. The Frankfurt Book Fair canceled an award ceremony for the Palestinian author Adania Shibli, and the Berlin senate cut funds for a cultural center…
I was born in Taiwan, grew up in the United States, worked extensively in China and now live in Taipei. This mix of experiences has given me a front-row seat to the complex, decades-long dance between these nations. Lately, the world is paying considerably more attention to my homeland, especially after the former U.S. House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, visited in August 2022.Kinmen, also known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed by Taiwan that were the front lines of the first and second Taiwan Straits Crises decades ago. They lie just a few miles from mainland China, and these…