The American Shakespeare Center in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley claims to have the world’s only replica of the indoor venue where Shakespeare’s company performed. And now it’s going to attempt another Shakespearean structure: an actor-led company.
The nonprofit announced Friday that its artistic director, Ethan McSweeny, had stepped down eight days earlier. The theater did not offer an explanation; McSweeny cited financial strain caused by the pandemic, but he was also facing complaints about the workplace climate from some employees.
“While the pandemic crisis metastasized this past fall, I increasingly found myself trying to conceive of an ASC that would enter 2021 tabula rasa, preparing to reshape itself for rebirth into a massively changed arts ecosystem and national economy,” McSweeny said in a statement on Facebook. “It turns out that part of what became necessary to give the company a truly blank slate was to erase myself as well.”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the term tabula rasa in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how tabula rasa can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
I’ll do it myself. You don’t have to bother. I can handle it.
Do these statements sound like you? How willing are you to ask for help when you are feeling lost, confused, overwhelmed or just in need of help carrying something?
Why do you think people sometimes resist seeking out or accepting assistance?
In the guest essay “Self-Sufficiency Is Overrated,” Sarah Wildman writes about how she came to embrace her need for help and, in so doing, found more meaningful connections with people in her life. She begins:
One week this summer, my partner, my children and I borrowed a friend’s house near my parents’ and sister’s places in New Jersey. Before we arrived, my friend asked me what she could leave for us in the house. Milk? Eggs? Fruit? Coffee? I brushed off her offers. Really, I said, we don’t need anything. It’s kind of you just to lend us the space.
Stop saying no, she insisted. Just tell me what you need.
Her entreaties loosened something in me that I’d been holding too tightly, for more than 18 months. “I’m fine,” I have told myself since the pandemic began. I have my groceries delivered. I have my walking route. I sent myself some new walking shoes. (I’ve sent myself far too many things.) I have work.
But my friend’s generosity made me realize that I do want for something. I want someone else to take care of me. Articulating this felt dangerous, vulnerable. Generally, I want to not want.
Considering her change of heart when it comes to accepting other people’s kindness, she goes on to write:
Becoming open again to the generosity of others offers a fresh way to see the world. Small kindnesses from friends and strangers suddenly feel outsize in their humanity. A man at the rental car agency chatting amiably with me makes me swell with good will, as does the gas station attendant who makes sure I buy exactly the right amount of fuel for when I return the car.
I want to hold onto this feeling of appreciation for a beat longer, to recognize how much more human I feel when I accept the plant seller’s offer to drop off the succulent I purchased at no extra charge, or when a friend shows up with an unexpectedly well-considered basket of vodka, chocolate and almonds.
And then there are the enormous kindnesses — the actress who donated her time to teach my daughter acting by video; another old friend who offered to lend us her house in Maine, and then insisted on taking us to her favorite beaches, a precious gift of space and beauty after a year locked away. The childhood friend who patiently stood in the ocean for an hour, putting my kids on a surfboard again and again.
There’s a reason most of us, normally, don’t live cut off from other people. We need others to support us in so many ways — for the teaching of our children, the growing of our food, the caring for our vulnerable. In my family that’s more profoundly evident than in others.
But it is clear that no one feels quite right these days. I ran into a high school classmate I hadn’t seen in a decade on the street; we both described a vague feeling of unease that we can’t seem to shake.
Maybe it would help to relinquish our hard-protected, false sense of self-sufficiency. I’m trying, in these vaccinated, brisk-but-not-terribly-cold days, to gratefully accept offerings from friends, family and strangers: a home-cooked dinner served outside, a house by the sea, a few minutes of unexpected conversation. I feel buoyed by a friend who unabashedly texts “I love you” every now and then, apropos of nothing.
Do you find it hard to let other people help you? How do you generally respond when someone offers to lend you a hand? Why do you think you respond that way?
Have you ever asked for help or shared with someone that you were struggling? Tell us about a time when you accepted help, or even just a kind gesture, from someone after you expressed your needs. How did it feel to share what you were going through? What did the other person say or do to help? What, if anything, did you learn from the experience?
Ms. Wildman gives the example of rejecting a friend’s offer to leave basic grocery items at the house where she and her family were staying. Why do you think people tend to fight offers of such kindness? Have you ever done that? Conversely, has anyone ever resisted your offer of help? What did that feel like?
Ms. Wildman writes about her family’s own experience, “Somewhere along the way, we forgot how to care for ourselves, or how to ask for more support, especially knowing everyone was stretched too thin.” To what degree, if at all, does this statement describe something that you have experienced, during the pandemic or at any other time in your life?
What do you think of the idea put forth in the essay that we have a “false sense of self-sufficiency”? Do you think people need other people? Or, if we try hard enough, can we solve our own problems? Explain.
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
This lesson is a part of our new Accessible Activities feature, which aims to welcome a wider variety of learners to our site and to The Times. Learn more and tell us what you think here.
Three days a week, a bus equipped with showers drives around several neighborhoods in Brooklyn. New Yorkers without regular access are provided with free showers as well as personal hygiene products, gloves and masks.
In this lesson, you will learn about how the shower bus operates. Then, you will discuss or write about a cause that you care about.
Warm-Up
How does your city or community help people in need? What services are available to help people who need food, housing, child care or transportation?
For example, is there a bus service for people who use wheelchairs? Is there a food pantry or community fridge for those who need food?
Make a list of all of the services in your community that provide assistance to those who need it.
Vocabulary
Here are eight words you’ll find in this article that you may not know:
Read the article below, or follow along in the PDF, then answer the following questions:
1. What is the purpose of the Brooklyn Community Services’ shower bus? Do you know of any services like this in your community?
2. How was the bus transformed from a shuttle to a shower bus?
3. What are some of the things that volunteers do on the bus?
4. How do the showers work? How do staff members ensure the showers are clean and safe to use?
5. How many showers does the bus provide each week?
6. According to Jodi Querbach, the chief operating officer of Brooklyn Community Services, what is the significance of the shower bus in people’s lives?
Going Further
What makes your neighborhood or community important to you? How do people show up for each other?
Now ask yourself, what are the needs of people in my community? Do residents in my area have enough food? Shelter? Child care? Transportation? Safe places to exercise or play sports? What other needs can you identify?
Finally, visit our relatedPicture Prompt and answer the questions below:
Do you ever donate time or money to a cause you care about? If you don’t, would you like to? If so, what cause might you choose, and why?
You can share your answers with your class, or post your responses to share with other students around the world via the comments section.
Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.
Here — in a side office, up the stairs of an unmarked building hidden away on a block of the city center jammed with flashy music stores that used thumping loudspeakers to attract customers — was the workshop of one of this city’s oldest and most accordion repairmen.
“Everything I do is to improve the sound,” Ramírez, now 76, likes to say of his work. “I’m a technician, always refining, always refining.”
The pandemic has confirmed that workplace health and safety is essential for the successful day to day running, and long term survival, of a business. Employees are a companies most important resource and so it’s vital that their well being is protected. While many companies insist on employees taking a compulsory First Aid course, these are skills that need to be regularly refreshed in order to be effective.
Being able to contribute to the safety of a workplace is an exceptionally valuable skill that is extremely desirable in the labour market.
If you’re looking for a new job and want to give your CV a boost, a First Aid certificate will give you a real edge.
First Aid is easy to learn but could one day be a priceless skill to possess. This course is a must for all conscientious employees. This qualification should have pride of place on your CV as it marks you out as proactive, thoughtful and prepared.
Accidents can happen in all workplaces and you should be prepared to help your colleagues should something go wrong. By taking this workplace-specific course, you’ll learn how to perform all of the necessary first response procedures, as well as how to make sure that any injured parties remain calm.
While defibrillator training is compulsory in some workplaces, you should make extra sure that you’re qualified to use one should the situation arise by taking this course. Cardiac Life Support (CLS) is easier to administer than it sounds as long as you’ve had the correct training.
This course will teach you how to stay calm and collected and administer the basic life support to someone in need of aid. Depending on the location of your workplace, the time of day, and the sector you work in, it might take the emergency services some time to reach you in the event of an accident. This course covers the essentials of being a first responder.
Stress is one of the main health concerns in the world of work. By successfully learning how to manage and deal with your stress, you’ll find work a happier and more productive experience. This is an aid skill that can just as usefully be applied to yourself as it can to your colleagues. The ability to destress your coworkers is an invaluable skill and will mark you out as a leader.
In an emergency, there’s no time to waste. Many accidents are made worse by first responders not knowing how to efficiently navigate the emergency services. This course outlines the different emergency services and explains which one you should call in specific situations.
If you want to build on your new First Aid skills and convert them into a career in the health industry, head to the Alison Career Guide to explore exciting job opportunities!
If you want to make a difference, few careers make as big an impact on public wellbeing as Public Health Educator. You can go from First Aid student, to First Aid teacher and pass on your new knowledge to students of your own.
Behind every safe workplace, is an effective Health and Safety Engineer. This fascinating career can see you work across a broad range of sectors, as this skillset is valued in every industry. If you’ve got an interest in technology as well as health and safety then this is the course for you.
Our health services are kept running smoothly by the hard work and commitment of Health Service Managers operating behind the scenes. This is a career that requires a super-human attention span as well as an excellent eye for detail.
Golang (or Go) is an open-source programming language created and developed by Google. It’s intended to be a high-performance server-side language that can replace languages like C++ and Java while also being easier and simpler to use.
Golang is used widely for back-end web development, DevOps, machine learning, and blockchain development. It’s still a relatively new programming language with unique features, so a Golang interview will include specific questions about it since employers want to know you’re proficient at using it before hiring you.
Now, let’s get to the questions about Go programming. It’s hard to know exactly what you’ll be asked during your interview, but these will give you an idea of the kind of questions you should expect.
1. What is Go, and what are its benefits over other programming languages?
Go is a general-purpose language designed for systems programming. It was released in 2007 and is strongly and statically typed.
Go has built-in support for concurrent programming (allowing for highly scalable applications) and garbage collection. You build Go applications using packages to manage dependencies efficiently. Go uses the compile and link model to build binary executables.
Despite all the benefits of being a fast, efficient, low-level language, Go also has a simple, readable syntax that you’d usually find in other languages. Since it handles garbage collection for you, it’s easier to use than other low-level languages like C.
2. How do packages work in Go?
Every Golang application is built out of packages. Each application starts in the main package. You build applications by creating new packages that can be imported into the main package or importing third-party packages. Third-party packages can be imported into your application with Git repository paths.
3. How do you handle errors in Go?
Unlike many other languages, Go doesn’t use exceptions to handle errors. Instead, it has multi-value return capabilities that make it easy to report errors without needing to overload the return value.
Golang code uses error values to indicate an error happened. Here’s a common pattern for handling errors in Go:
4. What’s the best way to concatenate strings in Go?
In Golang, every time you manipulate a string, it’ll create a new string because it’s a primitive type in Go and is read-only. To reduce memory copying, you’ll want to use the strings builder class to concatenate strings. Here’s an example:
package main import ( "strings" "fmt" ) func main() { var str strings.Builder for i := 0; i < 100; i++ { str.WriteString("abc") } fmt.Println(str.String()) }
5. What are goroutines?
Goroutines are methods that run concurrently with other Go methods. You can think of goroutines as lightweight threads.
The memory and processing cost of creating a goroutine is low compared to a thread. It's not uncommon for a Golang program to run thousands of goroutines concurrently.
6. What's the GOPATH environment variable?
The location of your Go workspace is stored in the GOPATH environment variable. This variable must be set for you to develop with Golang.
7. What's a workspace in Go?
A workspace is where you keep your Go source code. It's a directory hierarchy that has these three directories in its root:
src: contains Go source code separated into packages
pkg: contains package objects
bin: contain executable commands
8. What's a pointer in Go, and how are they used?
A pointer is a variable that holds the address of another variable. Instead of being that variable, it's only a reference to the original variable. Here's an example of using a pointer in Go:
var y = 2 var p int p = &y fmt.Printf("y = %d", p)
In the code above, you can access y through the variable p. Theoperator is called a dereferencing operator, which is used to access the value in the address. The & operator is an address operator that's used to return the address of a variable.
9. List the types of operators in Go
Arithmetic operators
Bitwise operators
Relational operators
Logical operators
Assignment operators
Misc operators
10. What's the difference between methods and functions in Go?
Methods in Golang contain receiver arguments and functions don't. In object-oriented programming terms, this means that a Go method is a Go function on an instance of an object.
Go doesn't have classes like other object-oriented languages, but you can define a method based on a struct type.
11. What is the GOROOT environment variable in Go?
This environment variable defines the location of the Go SDK in your development environment. You don't have to edit this variable unless you have multiple Go versions on your system and want to be able to switch between them. It points to the Go home language directory and is set when you install the SDK.
Further preparation and next steps
The questions above are a great way to prepare for your upcoming interviews, but if you need a refresher on Golang's methods and functions, check out our Learn Go course.
After you pass your interview, you may be asked to complete a technical interview. Technical interviews are coding challenges you'll complete to showcase your programming skills. They can be pretty intense, so you'll want to be well-prepared before you walk in.
To get started, check out our technical interview guide. Then, take a look through our Career Center for tips from developers and recruiters in the tech industry and other helpful resources.
Every ten years a new census is conducted to track changes in the population of the United States. States then redraw the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts as the population goes up or down. This past August the results of the 2020 census were released, and states are now in the process of finalizing new district maps.
What’s the best way to redraw those maps? What’s the fairest way? And who should decide? Those are very real questions that can determine which party controls the government in each state, and nationwide.
The infographics above show three examples of how district maps could be drawn in a hypothetical state with 25 voters. When you look at those maps, one good vocabulary word to know is “gerrymandering,” which is the intentional distortion of a map of political districts to give one party an advantage.
On Wednesday, Dec. 8, we will moderate your responses live online. By Friday morning, Dec. 10, we will provide the “Reveal” — the graphs’ free online link, additional questions, shout outs for student headlines and Stat Nuggets.
After looking closely at the graphs above (or at this full-size image), answer these four questions:
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order.
2. Next, join the conversation online by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box. (Teachers of students younger than 13 are welcome to post their students’ responses.)
3. Below the response box, there is an option to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to your response which you can share with your teacher.
4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, Dec. 8, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.
5. By Friday morning, Dec. 10, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.
Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.
• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.
• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration — or, tell us about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Post it in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Knobkerry was, Ms. Kitto explained, a brick-and-mortar fixture of the Downtown arts scene, both a trading post and junction point for an ever-evolving cast of the artists, actors, dancers and musicians that created a milieu that sometimes seems in retrospect more legend than truth. Yet it was indeed a yeastier time, Ms, Kitto, 41, claimed.
Consider that Ornette Coleman shopped at Knobkerry. So did Jimi Hendrix, Louise Bourgeois and Lena Horne (and also, at various times in its existence, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mia Farrow, Janis Joplin and Yves Saint Laurent). That a store could function as a salon and gathering place for Black as well as white artists was remarkable even within the context of a Downtown sometimes more diverse in principle than practice, as Ms. Kitto’s book makes clear. Many then, as the artist David Hammons explained to Ms. Kitto, were “afraid to come in when they see all these Black people hanging out.”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word milieu in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how milieu can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
How do you feel when you have it on? How do you think it shapes the way that other people see you?
In “Feeling Rich in the Yeezy Gap Jacket,” André Wheeler dons a Kanye West-designed jacket and walks around New York City, taking note of both how he feels in the garment and how others react to it. He writes:
The first thing you realize, when holding the jacket, is that it is more than a jacket. Made in a Chinese factory out of recycled nylon and polyester fill, it’s also a collection of contradictions. Voluminous, but weightless. A puffer coat with no seams. Warm, but lacking buttons, zippers or any type of closure. A Gap jacket that is suddenly a status symbol.
This month, the Round Jacket — the first release from the lucrative, 10-year deal between the rapper-cum-fashion designer Kanye West and the American retailer Gap, which was first announced last year — has finally begun to land in the hands of fans who bought it for $200, through online pre-orders, during the dog days of summer. Available in shiny red, black or electric blue, the jacket is already being peddled on reseller marketplaces for nearly triple its retail price.
But how does it feel to wear such a sought-after fashion oddity on the streets of New York? It was a question I sought to answer over the course of several days in November.
Wearing the item, I learned a few things: Many people recognized the coat. And they wanted to talk about it.
On my first night wearing the jacket, I had only to strut a few blocks in SoHo before running into a one-time Hinge date. We exchanged awkward hellos. Then he stepped back, took in my recycle bin-blue garment and smirked.
“You look rich,” he said and then flitted off. (He texted me later that night after weeks of radio silence.)
The article continues:
After a week of wearing the jacket in public, I’ve come to believe that for consumers, it represents, most importantly, a link to Kanye and his creativity. It is the most democratic and accessible entry into the vision of fashion he has curated and built over the years. Wearing the jacket seemingly transforms you from a plebeian to a shapeless, off-duty celebrity ready for a paparazzi shot. If not visually, at least mentally.
“I thought you were someone famous!” a 16-year-old girl visiting from Pittsburgh with her family told me on the street. I didn’t believe her.
A few days later, walking through my neighborhood in Bed-Stuy, I saw a young man of color wearing the jacket, slinking down the street with confidence. He couldn’t have been any older than 18. He looked famous too.
What is your favorite article of clothing that you own? Why do you like it? How does wearing it make you feel?
Do you ever wear something that generates a lot of conversation, like Mr. Wheeler’s Yeezy Gap jacket? Do you like to make fashion statements, or do you prefer to keep it simple?
What do you think of the Round Jacket, Kanye West’s release with Gap? Mr. Wheeler thinks it represents “a link to Kanye and his creativity.” Do you agree? Are you interested in owning clothes that connect you to the celebrities or artists who inspire you?
What do you think your clothing choices say about who you are as a person? What elements of your identity, if any, do you like to express through fashion?
If you could own any piece of clothing in the world, regardless of its cost, what would it be? What attracts you to it?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
