School rivalries · New England
Exeter's Star Halfback Was 27 and Had Raced Horses
In 1893 Exeter beat Andover with a schoolboy who had worked for Barnum and Bailey. Andover was outraged, and then, much later, honest.
1893–1896Read the story
School life, between the linesBy Admissions Diary
Notes from the School Gates
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
New York & beyondHistory · Culture · Parent perspectives
School life · Maryland, Indiana and Chicago
Italian Students Arrived at Blair in the Middle of Spirit Week
In October 2006, eleven students from Rome spent ten days at a Maryland high school. Their first look at American high school was a hallway decorated as Candyland.
Ten days in October 2006, Montgomery Blair High SchoolRead the story
School life · Vermont, Minnesota and New York
Schoolchildren Named the Snowplows. One Planned to Introduce His Cat.
Vermont and Minnesota let students name state snowplows. The results include Luke Snow Walker, Plow-a-Tron 6000 and Blizzo, and one fourth grader with a plan for winter.
One Vermont winter, November 2021 to the thawRead the story
School life · Winnetka, Illinois
Forty-Four Pairs of Twins, and Only Three Look Alike
New Trier's class of 2020 set a world record as freshmen. By graduation the twins had a harder question: same college or not?
New Trier’s class of 2020, from the 2017 record to graduation plansRead the story
School life · Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and a collection of childhood letters
The Tooth Was Lost Twice, So the Teacher Wrote a Reference
Two American schools and a London archive file claims with the tooth fairy. A parent who has been caught on the landing with a dollar takes notes.
Letters collected in 2018 and school rescues in 2019Read the story
School life · Minneapolis
The First Oregon Trail Had No Screen
In 1971 a student teacher in Minneapolis wanted his eighth graders to care about history. His roommates put his board game on a computer in a week. It printed on paper.
Eighth-grade history at Jordan Junior High, Minneapolis, fall 1971Read the story
School life · Connecticut & Wyoming
The Lobbyists Wore Papier-Mâché Dinosaur Heads
In 2017, Connecticut students made a music video to get Dilophosaurus named the state dinosaur. Thirty years earlier, Wyoming fifth graders lobbied for a fossil fish and nearly lost it to a rattlesnake.
Student campaigns, 1987 & 2017Read the story
School life · American kitchens
For 45 Years, Soup Labels Were School Money
Campbell's Labels for Education ran from 1973 to 2018. Families clipped, schools redeemed, and one parent saved the wrong labels for years.
Labels for Education, 1973–2018Read the story
School life · Indiana & Virginia
The Moon Tree Was Found by Third Graders
In 1971 an astronaut carried tree seeds around the Moon. Nobody kept track of where the trees went. In the 1990s, an Indiana class went looking for one.
Moon Trees, 1971–2026Read the story
School life · Mississippi, New York and Connecticut
Children Who Give Up Recess to Forecast the Weather
Mississippi students trade recess for a meteorology program. Connecticut third graders miss their TV weatherman on his days off. A first-grade station took requests.
Young meteorologists, past and presentRead the story
School life · Michigan, Massachusetts and Minnesota
Three Schools Where the Ducks Walk Out Through the Building
Mother ducks keep nesting in elementary-school courtyards with no exit except the hallway. The schools have learned to hold the door.
School duck parades, 2016–2021Read the story
School portraits · New York City
At Stephen Gaynor, the Room 403 Coffee Mystery Pointed Upstairs
Teachers at a Manhattan school for children with learning differences staged a "crime scene" to teach inference. The clues led, correctly, to the top.
A classroom mystery · December 2018Read the story