49 Up: Ongoing Portraits of Life
"49 Up" is the latest installment in Michael Apted's long-running 'Up' Series. In 1964, Apted began this documentary project with an intriguing concept: he interviewed 14 British children, all age seven, representing diverse classes and backgrounds. Then, at seven year intervals, for the remainder of the century, he would seek out those same 14 people and spend a day catching up with them. Togethe... posted on Jan 31 2007, 2,991 reads

Diversity Makes A Difference
Arguments for equal opportunity are often based on moral reasons; Sociologist Cedric Herring recently decided to take things one step further. Given that discussions about morality are often divisive, he decided to take a more scientific approach. In other words, beyond the question of whether diversity is a good thing, is there evidence that it makes a difference? Herring found that companies tha... posted on Jan 28 2007, 2,105 reads

The Challenge of Our Moment
As the unpredictable forces of change transform every sector of planetary life and culture -- societal, technological, environmental, geopolitical -- the terrain of our global village is morphing beneath our feet, bringing with it an increasingly complex, interwoven web of problems requiring our attention, demanding a response. But what sort of response will truly meet the tests ahead? What are th... posted on Jan 25 2007, 2,053 reads

Children Learn What They Live
"Children Learn What They Live", an unassuming poem that is at once simple and profound, is today something of a child-rearing anthem, posted on refrigerators around the world. Perhaps no one was more surprised by its success than its own author, Dorothy Law Nolte. Nolte was on deadline in 1954 for a newspaper column in California; she wrote the poem in her kitchen, sent it off, and thought no mor... posted on Jan 17 2007, 4,435 reads

MLK's Influence On You
Almost 40 years after his death, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his vision continue to provide hope and inspiration to the world. Marian Wright Edelman -- activist and winner of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism -- offers reflections on her mentor's life and message based on their friendship. In this article, Edelman lends insight into King's definition of service, and encourage... posted on Jan 16 2007, 1,696 reads

The GoodWork Project
How many of us find our work meaningful? How many of us feel able to do our best work? And how often do we stop to consider the consequences of our work on others, or its impact on society as a whole? Such opportunities to consider the meaning of work are rare, and challenges are salient across stages and fields. To create a paradigm shift, researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and Claremont Graduate ... posted on Jan 08 2007, 3,512 reads

Mountaineer Brings Attention To Depression
Step by step. That's how people defeat depression and it's also how Joe Lawson climbs mountains. Lawson's father committed suicide in 1986 when he was 16. Today, at 36, Joe is funneling his passion for mountaineering into Expedition Hope, a quest to scale the seven summits -- the tallest mountain on each continent -- to focus awareness on depression. Lawson sees strong parallels between depress... posted on Jan 05 2007, 2,558 reads

Many Faiths, One Heart
Louisville, Kentucky is the annual home of the Festival of Faiths, which brings together many religious and spiritual traditions of the world in an effort to both recognize diversity and celebrate unity. With a general theme of faith and cooperation, new conversations explore aspects of traditions that foster cooperation and dissolve barriers of fear. The Festival believes that a key component in ... posted on Jan 01 2007, 2,294 reads

Inspiring Story Behind Teach For America
Wendy Kopp proposed starting a sort of Peace Corps for teachers in 1989 -- a program that would recruit fellow Ivy Leaguers to teach for two years in the nation's toughest schools, and got a surprising response: "My dear Ms. Kopp, you are quite evidently deranged." Today, Teach for America, as Kopp's program came to be known, is one of the most respected initiatives in American education. This Jun... posted on Dec 29 2006, 2,307 reads

Art Students Gift Portraits to Orphans
Compassion: a word worth a thousand pictures. Striving toward a more compassionate society, the Memory Portraits program organizes advanced high school and university-level art students in creating original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world. Given that children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused, or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the... posted on Dec 25 2006, 3,395 reads