Mr. Brooks is one of almost 1,800 employees who handed Amazon a runaway victory in the company’s hardest-fought battle to keep unions out of its warehouses. The result — announced last week, with 738 workers voting to form a union — dealt a crushing blow to labor and Democrats when conditions appeared ripe for them to make advances.
For some workers at the warehouse, like Mr. Brooks, the minimum wage of $15 an hour is more than they made in previous jobs and provided a powerful incentive to side with the company. Amazon’s health insurance, which kicks in on the first day of employment, also encouraged loyalty, workers said.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word incentive 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 incentive can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
If you enjoy this daily challenge, try using multiple Words of the Day in a 50-word story that you submit to our Monthly Vocabulary Challenge.
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.
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
3. The last graph in this section (Graph O) is an image of a “You Draw It” graph that appeared in The New York Times in 2015 and addresses these two questions: How likely is it that children who grow up in very poor families go to college? How about children who grow up in very rich families? Go to the original graph and draw your guess. When you’re done, see how close your line is to the actual graph. How did you do? Were you surprised at all by the actual graph? What does the graph reveal about the answers to those two questions?
Health Inequality Graphs
4. The first graph in this section (Graph P) shows changes in life expectancy for men and women over time, and you may be surprised by what it shows about different income groups. First, answer the same questions from the warm-up. Then, consider the graph’s title “An Expanding Longevity Gap.” What does the title mean, and does the title seem accurate based on what you have observed in the graph?
5.Graph S represents the relationship between smoking and income. Again, use the warm-up questions as a guide to first notice, and then wonder. Next, go to the student discussion we hosted for this graph in our “What’s Going On in This Graph?” feature. Change the “Sort by” setting to “Oldest,” and scroll through a few of the student comments and conversations. Did you pick up any new ideas or information by reading what other students had to say — or by what “Moderator Sharon” from the American Statistical Association (A.S.A.) added? If you are inspired, submit your own thoughts in the comments section.
Coronavirus-Related Inequalities
6. While most of the graphs included in this collection use data taken before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the graphs in this section (Graph V) represent changes during the pandemic. Choose one of the five smaller graphs and then answer the questions from the warm-up. What does the graph that you have selected reveal about changes in inequality during the pandemic?
Going Further
Option 1: Pick a graph, any graph.
Pick any graph from the collection — either one you already looked at closely, or one that you didn’t — and click on the article link at the bottom of the graph. Read the article and then answer these questions:
What does the article reveal about inequality in the United States?
What role do the graphs embedded in the article serve? Do they make the article better? If you were the article’s editor, would you have made the decision to include the graphs? Why, or why not?
What additional questions do you have after reading the article?
Option 2: “The America We Need”
Many of the graphs included in this collection come from the 2020 Times Opinion series “The America We Need,” which explores how widening gaps in income, wealth and opportunity in the years before the coronavirus pandemic left everyone more vulnerable to the disease.
Read the introductory editorial written by The Times’s Editorial Board, and, while you read, choose three sentences or paragraphs that stand out to you. For each, write a response: Why did this excerpt catch your attention? What did you learn? What questions did it raise for you?
Option 3: Are chief executives paid too much?
In our related Student Opinion question, we invite you to weigh in on the question of whether the gap in compensation between executives and their employees is too wide. To answer the question, you’ll look closely at Graph D and read an article about how C.E.O. pay remains “stratospheric,” even at companies battered by the pandemic.
Boeing had a historically bad 2020. Its 737 Max was grounded for most of the year after two deadly crashes, the pandemic decimated its business, and the company announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers and reported a $12 billion loss. Nonetheless, its chief executive, David Calhoun, was rewarded with some $21.1 million in compensation.
Norwegian Cruise Line barely survived the year. With the cruise industry at a standstill, the company lost $4 billion and furloughed 20 percent of its staff. That didn’t stop Norwegian from more than doubling the pay of Frank Del Rio, its chief executive, to $36.4 million.
And at Hilton, where nearly a quarter of the corporate staff were laid off as hotels around the world sat empty and the company lost $720 million, it was a good year for the man in charge. Hilton reported in a securities filing that Chris Nassetta, its chief executive, received compensation worth $55.9 million in 2020.
The coronavirus plunged the world into an economic crisis, sent the U.S. unemployment rate skyrocketing and left millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet. Yet at many of the companies hit hardest by the pandemic, the executives in charge were showered with riches.
The divergent fortunes of C.E.O.s and everyday workers illustrate the sharp divides in a nation on the precipice of an economic boom but still racked by steep income inequality. The stock markets are up and the wealthy are spending freely, but millions are still facing significant hardship. Executives are minting fortunes while laid-off workers line up at food banks.
The article continues:
The gap between executive compensation and average worker pay has been growing for decades. Chief executives of big companies now make, on average, 320 times as much as their typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In 1989, that ratio was 61 to 1. From 1978 to 2019, compensation grew 14 percent for typical workers. It rose 1,167 percent for C.E.O.s.
The pandemic only compounded these disparities, as hundreds of companies awarded their leaders pay packages worth significantly more than most Americans will make in their entire lives.
Do C.E.O.s make too much money? Do you think their pay is too high relative to that of the average worker? Why or why not?
In your opinion, what factors should determine an employee’s pay? To what extent do you think there should there be differences in pay between workers? How big should those differences be, and upon what criteria should they be based?
Do you think executives who made more money during the pandemic were justified in doing so? Why or why not?
What do you know about how wealth is distributed in the United States? Do you think C.E.O. pay should be reconsidered in the context of stark wealth and income inequality and pay gaps along racial and gender lines? (For example, a 2020 New York Times review found that of the people at the top of the 25 highest-valued companies in the United States, only six are Asian or Black; all of them are men.)
Do you think income inequality is a problem? Why or why not? If so, do you think efforts to close the gap should focus on limiting the income of the highest-paid workers, increasing the income of the lowest-paid, or both?
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
Coding can be complicated. Whether you’re a novice programmer or an expert, it’s easy to get lost in all the elements, arrays, and selectors. Plus, with technology constantly evolving, it can be hard staying up to date. Thankfully, there’s a worldwide web filled with resources to help you along your way.
We turned to our community of learners and asked about their favorite programming resources. Here’s what they shared. Below, you’ll find six resources to turn to when you’re stuck on a coding problem or grappling with a new concept.
Google
If you haven’t already, you’ve probably heard a developer jokingly refer to themselves as a professional Googler. While exaggerated, the saying holds a tidbit of truth. Google is a valuable resource for programmers, and many coding problems can be solved with a simple search.
The next time you encounter an error in your code, try searching the error message on Google. You’ll likely be directed to a solution, possibly from one of the other resources listed below.
Stack Overflow
Having trouble finding a solution on Google? Try checking Stack Overflow, like this learner who struggled with dot notation while taking our Python course and received helpful explanations about the distinction between methods and functions.
Stack Overflow is a platform for developers to ask and answer questions about programming. The website is so popular that it receives over 100 million visitors every month. Reach out to a developer you know and ask them if they’ve heard of Stack Overflow. Chances are, they’ll have nothing but praise.
It’s also a great resource for esoteric questions. Wondering why HTML thinks Chuck Norris is a color? Find out here.
MDN Web Docs
MDN Web Docs is a digital encyclopedia of all things related to web technology, including programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Need help understanding a concept? Hop over to MDN for definitions, applications, reference materials, and more.
MDN also offers guides and tutorials for beginner, intermediate, and advanced programmers — along with several tools and resources for checking and optimizing your code.
Corey Schafer’s YouTube channel
Several learners offered Corey Schafer’s YouTube channel as their favorite programming resource. Corey Schafer is a developer who dedicated his channel to “creating tutorials and walkthroughs for software developers, programmers, and engineers.”
Corey’s channel serves as an excellent supplement to our courses, with educational videos on programming languages, libraries, and frameworks like SQL, Pandas, and Django. In some of his most popular videos, he teaches viewers how to set up a Python development environment and walks us through the basics of classes and object-oriented programming.
Darknet Diaries
You know what they say about all work and no play. Building your skills is great, but it’s important that we remember to give ourselves a break sometimes to avoid getting burned out — and what better way to relax than with an educational (yet entertaining) podcast?
Several learners recommended the Darknet Diaries. Created by Jack Rhysider, the investigative podcast tells “true stories from the dark side of the internet.” In between 30 and 90 minutes, you’ll hear captivating stories about cybercrime, hacking, and more. Their most recent episode covers The Pirate Bay, an online directory of famous copyrighted materials.
Pledged to journalistic integrity, the Darknet Diaries verifies the authenticity of all the information within their podcast in hopes of contributing to a better-informed populace. Their reporting has been critically acclaimed by organizations like The Guardian and The New York Times, and they also received the Shorty Industry Award for Best Podcast in Social Media.
Codecademy communities
Last but not least, multiple learners named Codecademy communities like our forums and Discord server as their favorite resource. Both communities are great places to engage and interact with other learners and even Codecademy team members.
Having trouble with one of our courses? Take a look through our communities. You’ll probably find other people who’ve come across a similar issue and found a solution. If not, share your problem on the forum. You’ll find a hoard of people who are more than happy to help. Plus, other learners might be going through the exact same thing, and your post could be just what they need.
Our forums are also a great place to get career advice from experts and professionals. Take this post as an example, where Codecademy community member Ehfaz Rezwan shares their insights from their decade of experience as a programmer, touching on the importance of mastering programming basics, data structures, and algorithms and using these skills to create real-world projects. Alternatively, you could read through our “Day in the Life” series, in which Codecademy team members share their experiences in various roles.
In another thread, community member Pablo Chois discusses the competencies he looks for while interviewing candidates as a Software Engineering Manager, such as familiarity with Command-Line and Git.
Hopefully, these resources will help the next time you’re struggling with a concept, stuck on a coding problem, or just need a break. Think we’re missing something from the list? Leave it in a comment below.
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
In 2017, after spending more than 13 years covering Iraq and China for The New York Times, Edward Wong returned to the United States and began teaching international reporting at Princeton University.
When he wasn’t filing articles about foreign policy and overseas events as a Times correspondent, he was trying to impart lessons from his experiences inside a war zone and the world’s largest authoritarian state. He also discovered that the students weren’t the only ones learning.
“Teaching the basics of journalism reminds me of what matters most in reporting and writing,” Mr. Wong said. “How to find compelling stories and tell them with truth and accuracy, how to ask the important questions, how to keep in mind a moral vision for our work.”
Across The Times, many journalists have divided their hours between the newsroom and the classroom, juggling deadlines with second jobs as professors, even during the pandemic. But the extra work is rewarding, they say.
“Both are professions of passion,” said Lara Jakes, a diplomatic correspondent based in Washington, who teaches a national security and foreign policy reporting course at Georgetown University. “We do them because we care about making an impact.”
Staff members teach more than reporting. Ari Isaacman Bevacqua has balanced media relations for The Times while teaching a course on audience development at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. Marc Lacey, an assistant managing editor who oversees The Times’s live coverage of the news, recently led a virtual class about newsroom management at the University of California, Berkeley.
Teaching gives Times employees a chance to instill the tenets of journalism in the next generation, and it enables journalists to keep in touch with younger viewpoints and newer topics.
“The questions that I get from college students keep me on my toes as an editor,” Mr. Lacey said. “They ask ‘why’ a lot, and force me to explain my decision-making. They’re a great focus group for the challenging journalism calls we have to make every day.”
Journalists also get a chance to teach courses that delve more deeply into their fields of expertise.
Michael Kimmelman, an architecture critic and the founder of The Times’s Headway initiative, which examines global and national challenges, teaches “Cities and Climate Change” at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Peter Applebome, a longtime editor and correspondent on the National desk, teaches “American Voices: Reporting From a Divided Country” at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
Until classes went remote in the spring, Mr. Applebome flew weekly to Durham, N.C., to be with his students. But he still relied on video calls to include colleagues from Times bureaus across the country: “I taught by Zoom, with colleagues as guest speakers, before Zoom was Zoom,” he said.
Journalism and teaching are “a natural fit,” he added. “Journalists are always asking questions and trying to make sense of the world and communicate what they find to others. So do teachers.”
Samuel Freedman, who has taught at the Columbia University School of Journalism for three decades and has published nine books, wrote The Times’s “On Religion” column before his retirement in 2016. Teaching, he said, requires the reporter to codify their practices.
“Doing journalism can be situational to a fault,” he said. “But when you’re teaching nascent journalists, it behooves you to develop and almost formalize your own sense of ethics.”
Mr. Freedman, who teaches a seminar on book writing, seeks to build a community of journalists committed to reporting rigorously and writing with integrity and intentionality. Students have gone on to publish nearly 80 books originating in his classroom.
I took his course in 2015, and he guided us on, among other things, finding “color,” the details in a story that pull the reader into the moment. I carried his lessons with me when I began working as a freelance reporter for The Times a few months later.
Walt Bogdanich, a Times investigative reporter who has won three Pulitzer Prizes, teaches an investigative reporting course at Columbia University and reminds his students that journalism is “the opportunity to leave your mark on your neighborhood, your state, your nation and maybe even the world.”
Mr. Wong, who has worked in places without a free press, has the same mind-set and said that teaching involved encouraging students to “roll up their sleeves” and produce stories that make a difference.
“I want to give them an abiding appreciation of the role of journalism in the civic discourse of a democracy, and to see it as a viable vocation if they’re passionate about it,” he said. “It’s a calling.”
What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can you relate to it personally? What is your opinion of its message?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
At least 19 people were killed and hundreds more injured during days of protests across Colombia, in which tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demonstrate against a tax overhaul meant to fill a pandemic-related fiscal hole.
On Sunday, President Iván Duque announced that he would withdraw the current proposal, and instead seek a new plan, this time borne out of consensus. “The reform is not a whim,” he said. “The reform is a necessity.”
… Mr. Guzmán, with Colombia Risk Analysis, said that there was widespread agreement that fiscal reform was needed to keep the country afloat, but that the government had waited too long to rescind the unpopular tax proposal, allowing the anger, frustration and resentment that had been simmering over the last year to boil over.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word rescind 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 rescind can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
If you enjoy this daily challenge, try using multiple Words of the Day in a 50-word story that you submit to our Monthly Vocabulary Challenge.
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.
Do you have an emotional relationship with famous personalities you follow on social media? Do you feel a connection with reality TV stars or other celebrities? For example, as you watch their Instagram story or YouTube video, do you ever send them a message or leave a comment hoping for a response? Or, as you see them on TikTok, do you ever imagine getting advice from them about how to handle an issue in your life?
In “When Grown-Ups Have Imaginary Friends,” Jessica Grose writes about “parasocial relationships,” the experience of having an emotional relationship with a media personality:
This weekend I had multiple text threads going about Hannah’s issues with her housemates, and whether she was in the wrong in her fights with Amanda, Luke and Kyle. These are not friends of mine; these are people who appear on the Bravo TV show “Summer House,” whose drama I am embarrassingly invested in, and whose psychological motivations I spend time dissecting with friends and co-workers.
The kind of one-way friendship I have with these reality stars has a name in the sociology world: It’s called a “parasocial relationship,” which is an emotional relationship with a media figure. The term was coined in the 1950s by two sociologists who observed that dominant mass media — at the time, TV and radio — created the illusion of a friendship between spectator and performer, and “the most remote and illustrious men are met as if they were in the circle of one’s peers.”
Social media has added another dimension to this dynamic, because occasionally the performers will interact with you, which perpetuates the illusion that you have involvement in their lives.
Though explaining these friendships may make you feel like a creep, they are normal, and quite common, said Alex Kresovich, a doctoral student at the U.N.C. Hussman School of Journalism and Media who has published research on parasocial relationships. “The feelings people have with these media persona are nearly indistinguishable from their friends in real life,” despite the fact that the celebrity in question usually (but not always) has no idea you exist, he said. (A small subset of people may develop an unhealthy obsession with celebrities — it’s called “celebrity worship” in the clinical literature — but that’s not the norm.)
Amanda Hess, a critic at large for The Times, wrote about her parasocial relationship with the Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby, explaining that his “sweetly annoying” conversation helps her sweat through 45 minutes and tricks her into feeling bonded to him. Tara Tsukamoto, 35, a mom of two kids in Elk Grove, Calif., who does daily workouts with Sydney Cummings, a YouTube star with more than 1 million subscribers, said her 4-year-old son recognizes Ms. Cummings and asked if she was going to come over to their house.
“I know we aren’t really friends, but I do kind of feel like I know her,” Ms. Tsukamoto said. “Also even though we’ve never met she provides a lot of what a real friend would: advice, funny stories, inspiration to become a better version of myself.”
What is your reaction to some of the stories and experiences shared in the featured article? Have you ever found yourself connecting or identifying with someone on social media or reality TV who you’ve never actually met?
Do any people you follow online interact with their fans by responding to comments or messages, or doing Live videos and responding to fan questions? How does this make you feel personally closer, or not, to the influencer or celebrity?
Have parasocial relationships become more important or relevant in your life since the pandemic? Why or why not?
Do you think there are good or healthy things about feeling an emotional connection with people you follow? Has a parasocial relationship ever helped you get through a hard time or influenced physical or mental health choices you made?
What are the downsides of identifying strongly with a celebrity? The article mentioned that some celebrities are skeptical of vaccines, and we recently asked students if a celebrity had ever persuaded them to do something. Are there other situations when feeling as if you’re friends with an influencer could be a bad thing?
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
