Tag Archives: Culture & Society

A dangerous idea offers hope for girls in Afghanistan

We sometimes take our freedoms for granted—for example, the freedom to learn. One Massachusetts woman, Razia Jan, has worked tirelessly to ensure the right to an education for girls in her native Afghanistan.

The ‘maker movement’ creates D.I.Y. revolution

In recent years, increasing amounts of screen time have contributed to a growing sense of disconnection with the physical world—hence, the birth of the “maker movement,” or a return to hands-on creation. Read about how “makerspaces” are attracting people with different interests who all want to create things they can hold on to.

El Dorado Legend Snared Sir Walter Raleigh

Almost half a millennium ago in the New World, Spanish explorers heard tales of a land filled with gold and treasure. Soon, the myth of El Dorado was born. Read this article to learn the truth behind the myth. Did El Dorado really exist?

1969 Alcatraz Takeover “changed the whole course of history”

In 1969, a few young Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island to protest the United States government’s poor treatment of all Native Americans. Read about what happened as a result of this daring decision.

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

Most people would agree that learning another language has benefits. But this article highlights why people who are bilingual are more cognitively advantaged than those who speak just one language.

Solving a Civil War Photograph Mystery

Even before computers made it easy, people have tampered with photographs. On this web site, you can examine an image from the Civil War and learn how experts determined it was fake.

True Facts About Teens and Media, Now & Then

Check out this infographic which shows how technological advances have hugely changed the social interactions of teens over the last two decades.

What Does it Mean To Be Human?

From cave paintings to the first written words, human beings have been making themselves “heard” for a very long time. This section of the Museum of Natural History’s website provides a quick tour of how our use of language and symbols has grown over many, many centuries.

Holocaust Survivor: Without Music, “I Wouldn’t Be Alive”

In this video clip from the nightly news, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor takes the stage to share the music he played for fellow concentration camp prisoners.

Greed Isn’t Good: Wealth Could Make People Unethical

What motivates us to be greedy? Who is likely to be more greedy: people with more or with less? Read about a study that was designed to answer questions like these.

Revolutionary Limits: Native Americans

What role did Native Americans play in the Revolutionary War? Did they generally side with the colonists or the Crown? Read to find out.

Zach Hodskins, One-Handed Basketball Player, Gets Shot at College Team

Have you ever regarded someone in a certain way at first, but soon realized that you had to shift your thinking? Here’s someone who has revised others’ first impressions again and again. Discover the details of this athlete’s inspiring story.

Too Much TV Linked to Future Fast-Food Intake

Think about the time you spend each day looking at TV. How much is too much? Do you think that what you watch could lead to poor eating habits one day? Read an article that makes recommendations for media exposure.

“Slaves of the Marriage Union”

This article profiles Elizabeth Packard, a woman forced into an insane asylum by her husband during the Civil War. After her release, she became a women’s rights activist who argued that the condition of women was similar to slavery.

A Dual Mission

Amy Guttman’s brief essay describes the tension between the individual and society, detailing the somewhat contradictory American goals of advocating for the individual’s rights while ensuring the common good.

Welcome to the Matrix: Are Humans Just a Computer Simulation?

Stories, novels, and movies allow us to consider possibilities beyond our everyday experiences. Some philosophers and nuclear physicists have begun to question whether the science-fiction movie The Matrix might have touched on a scientific reality.

A moment on ‘Oprah’ made her a human rights symbol. She wants to be more than that.

Clemantine Wamariya talks about her memoir, The Girl Who Smiled Beads, in which she writes about her experiences as a refugee fleeing genocide in Rwanda and rebuilding a life in the United States.