On Monday, celebrities walked the red carpet for the annual benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, known as the Met Gala.
Each year the dress code tracks to the theme of the show, which this time around was devoted to the six-and-a-half-decade career of the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019.
Look at these photos from the night and then tell us what were your favorite looks? How well do you think the celebrities paid homage to Mr. Lagerfeld? What would you have worn to the party if you were invited? Which costumes do you think “did the most,” which The Times defines as “not necessarily the best, not necessarily the worst, just the most”?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to see the 17 looks The Times chose.
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 and may appear in print.
The word temperamental has appeared in 59 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 9 in the Opinion essay “How Do You Serve a Friend in Despair?” by David Brooks:
He seemed, outwardly, like the person in my circle least likely to be afflicted by a devastating depression, with a cheerful disposition, a happy marriage, a rewarding career and two truly wonderful sons, Owen and James. But he was carrying more childhood trauma than I knew, and depression eventually overwhelmed him.
At first, I did not understand the seriousness of the situation. That’s partly temperamental. Some people catastrophize and imagine the worst. I tend to bright-icize and assume that everything will work out. But it’s also partly because I didn’t realize that depression had created another Pete. I had very definite ideas in my head about who Pete was, and depression was not part of how I understood my friend.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word temperamental 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 temperamental 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.
To borrow a trite, yet totally true, saying: It takes a village to raise a developer. Okay, we changed the quote a little bit, but the sentiment is spot-on.
The tech industry can be tricky to navigate, especially for self-taught programmers and folks from non-traditional backgrounds who may not have access to some of the resources and opportunities you’d find in college. And it’s not just the technical stuff you have to learn — there are whiteboard interviews, corporate cultures (and subcultures), and soft skills you’ll need as you take on more leadership and responsibility. That’s one of the many reasons why having the right people in your corner throughout your career can be invaluable.
Fortunately, there are tons of organizations out there that help tech newbies grow and build their own circle of supporters, mentors, and collaborators. In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this May, we’re highlighting communities and organizations that are dedicated to empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander professionals in the field.
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Aspire (Asian Sisters Participating in Reaching Excellence)
Aspire is a volunteer-driven organization that helps nurture Asian American girls and women. Many Asian American women professionals face unique obstacles in their careers, including pay gaps and harmful stereotypes. Aspire helps women of all ages prepare for and overcome these challenges by bringing them together for cross-generational dialogue on topics like professional development, confident leadership, and positive relationships.
Want to get involved with Aspire? You can participate in their local events or even apply to join one of their leadership boards and committees. And if you’re looking for a mentor (or open to mentoring someone else), consider joining their 2023 Mentorship Program.
API Who Design
API Who Design is an online directory and community of Asian and Pacific Islander designers, including Web Designers, UI/UX Designers, Product Designers, Illustrators, and more. You can join their roster by submitting your application (you have to share your selfie, portfolio, and social links). Once you’re accepted, you can meet and connect with other API creatives in their Slack channel and even find job postings.
AAMA (Asia America MultiTechnology Association)
AAMA is a global pan-Asian community of tech professionals. It’s the largest in the world, with members in everything from software engineering and robotics to virtual reality and game development. Members (you have to pay to join or get invited to a chapter) get access to exclusive networking events, discounts on various goods and services, and opportunities to connect with other members in chapters in Silicon Valley, Seoul, and Taiwan.
CSPA (California Software Professional Association)
CSPA is a non-profit organization that helps people build leadership and entrepreneurial skills. It was founded in Silicon Valley in 1988, and the group is open to everyone (though they place special emphasis on Asian demographics). CSPA members discuss emergent trends and the how-tos of doing business in the tech industry (finding funding, strategizing, etc.) in various events and conferences, and they also offer opportunities to connect face-to-face in formal and informal settings.
CSPA events are posted on Meetup.com, so just create an account and sign up to get started.
Hawaiians in Tech
Hawaiians in Tech is one of API Who Design’s many sibling sites — it’s an online directory and community of native Hawaiian technologists. (Fun fact: its co-founder Taylor Ho currently works as a Principal UX Designer for Twitch.) You can get involved through Discord, where you can connect with the community and find events like hackathons and other collaborative opportunities.
SASE (Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers)
SASE empowers Asian STEM professionals throughout the U.S. They offer collegiate chapters and employee resource groups that help cultivate community and leadership skills with various networking and skillbuilding events. The organization also has a podcast, The Adult Table, which features more casual conversations around people’s personal and professional lives.
AAASE (Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering)
AAASE helps upskill the next generation of Asian American technologists with mentoring, networking, leadership, and career development initiatives. This organization offers tons of support for high school students, with internship and mentorship opportunities, leadership and entrepreneurship workshops, and awards for participants with innovative projects.
Want to learn more about how AAPI people are making waves in tech? We’ll be sharing stories about AAPI technologists throughout May on the blog and our social accounts. Follow along to get inspired.
Like so many millennials, Taylor Ho’s initial gateway to coding was customizing layouts for his MySpace profile as a teenager. Those early days of writing HTML/CSS purely for self-expression eventually led him to graphic design and web development. Now, he’s a Principal UX Designer at Twitch.
“I’m a strong believer that each skill you pick up is inevitably going to feed into the next things that you do,” Taylor says. “If you have the right mindset, everything stacks up.” In Taylor’s case, he taught himself to program with PHP (he even used Codecademy) to complement his design sensibilities, and kept an open mind to learning new things.
Though Taylor isn’t writing production-grade code every day in his role at Twitch, he views all of his design ideas through an engineering lens. “I sit kind of at that line between design and code,” he says.
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Taylor, who is of Native Hawaiian descent, is also the co-founder of Hawaiians in Tech, a directory and community for Native Hawaiians who work in the tech industry. Last summer, the organization hosted its first hackathon, which was themed around building genealogy tools.
Here’s how Taylor networked his way to a job at Twitch, why his developer background helps his work as a designer, and his advice for folks who want to break into tech.
What got me interested in the job
“For me, it all started with customizing HTML banners in MySpace. This was before social media was what it is now, where your content is kind of your self expression. Back then, MySpace was like your visual display and how you represented yourself. My high school didn’t offer a graphic design class, but we did have a screen printing course. That course introduced me to an immediate application of graphic design, and from there, it just proliferated.
I joined a video production organization, because digital cameras were getting much more powerful. We started collecting so many videos that we needed better control of how we put them out into the world. I said to my buddy, What if we build a website?
Being the self-taught, motivated person I was, I ended up getting a book to learn WordPress, just so I could build this site. This meant I was also learning PHP at the same time. Having a destination in mind made it easy for me to get through the pain of learning this language. Looking back, I can’t believe that PHP is the language I started with. I was picking up things on Codecademy and other sites, just finding all the stuff I could get my hands on, and anything that the internet had to offer.”
How I got in the door
“It had a lot to do with networking. The first year that I moved to San Francisco, I was literally cold calling places to see if they’re looking for a contractor. This was a really interesting window of time, because I pivoted from thinking that I was a Front-End Software Engineer that had a strong knack for design because of my past experience, to actually saying, I am a Designer who can code.
During that year I picked up all kinds of projects. I went to this design conference, and met someone by dropping into the Slack channel just saying, Hey, I need a ride. I don’t have a car! I drove to the conference with them, and that person ended up being my first referral when I got my first job at Unity. When six months had gone by at Unity, I had proof that I could work at a big company. This made for a much easier transition into applying for a company as big as Twitch. My mind was blown when I landed the job.
Because I have a developer background, pixel precision is a big thing for me. I try to produce designs that engineers can trust.
Taylor Ho
Principal UX Designer at Twitch
In 2020, JSConf was hosted in Hawaii. I was lucky enough to get to speak about being a Native Hawaiian in tech, which was an amazing opportunity. The talk is on YouTube, and someone randomly hit me up a couple months later saying, ‘Hey, I saw your video, and it spoke to me.’ Over the course of our conversation, we came to realize that we were people in an industry where we both previously felt like: I must be the only one.
We thought, what if we were to start exploring, helping other people find that community on a platform or website? There’s a ton of really cool websites right now about diversity and representation across different industries, whether it’s design or tech, so Hawaiians in Tech builds off of the ideas and the shoulders of other greats. We’re constantly trying to find ways to broaden beyond representation and this directory of our efforts.”
What I actually do every day
“I am a Principal UX Designer at Twitch. What that means is I’m responsible for maintaining a very interesting and important space, which is our ‘Channel’ page. I also am spending a lot of time in the ‘Browse’ space. Finding content and watching content on Twitch are my primary focus areas. My job also entails being a consultant/advisor for other teams that are looking to design and build.
I’m a pretty versatile designer — jack of all trades, master of none, maybe. I do design from start to end. I work with product partners to explore loose ideas that they’re wanting to chase down, and it’s my job to bring it back to the user experience. We have a really great UX research team, and half my work is reading the research that they put out that’s available to us.
Occasionally I have my hands in code, because I do a lot of prototyping. Our core UI team put together this really stellar prototyping tool, where you just have to know basic React, HTML, and CSS. We use TypeScript as well at Twitch. Because I have a developer background, pixel precision is a big thing for me. I try to produce designs that engineers can trust. I don’t want them to have to guess if the spacing is what I intended or have them to look at my schematics and be like, Uh, should this be that far? I got you. I thought about that.
After experiments are complete, I look at results with Data Analysts, trying to make sense of what ended up happening throughout the experience. Because of my proximity to UX, I’m able to influence pre-, during, and post-experiment product decisions. It’s such a fun space to be in. I love it.”
Here’s what you need to get started
Taylor credits much of his career success to his enthusiasm for learning. “I have a willingness to pick things up based on the needs of the situation,” he says. If you’re interested in working as a developer someday, you’ll constantly be learning new things and picking up new skills.
Whether you’re at the start of your programming journey or are switching careers into tech, it’s important to work on real-world projects that inspire you, rather than solely focusing on coding theory and principles, he says. (Check out our catalog of coding projects for inspiration.)
And if you want to build a strong coding background before jumping into the world of UI/UX, be sure to check out our full catalog of beginner-friendly coding courses and paths.
Learning to code so that you can land a job in tech can feel daunting. That’s why we’re sharing inspiring stories from Codecademy’s community — to show how people like you (yes, you!) can embark on a learning journey and end up with a totally new career. We hope these stories serve as a reminder that there’s no single path to a more fulfilling work life.
Today’s story is from Susanna Chapman, a 28-year-old Trainee Software Engineer at an energy tech startup called Zoa, living in Brighton, England. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month this May, we’re highlighting the techniques and strategies that helped Susanna learn to code as a neurodivergent person. Read more stories from Codecademy learners here — and be sure to share your story here.
Why I chose to learn to code
“I went to university for a long time, and I have two master’s degrees in marine planning and management and urban regeneration and development. In my first master’s degree, I wrote one line of R and I hated it. Clearly, R was not my language. My academic background led me to renewable energy, and I got a job in energy customer services for just over a year. Then I moved up the job title Product Specialist, which was slightly below Product Manager.
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When I got hired to that Product Specialist role in August 2022, one of the ‘nice to haves’ was SQL. And it was like the whole universe conspired to help me learn to code. My former manager who used to mentor me knew about my neurodiversity*, and how logical and stubborn I am. When I told him about SQL, he just looked at me and was like, ‘Hang on a minute — have you ever tried coding? Because I think you’d be really good at it.’
After that conversation, the guy whose job I was replacing said, ‘Have you tried Codecademy?’ I came in on the weekend on August 6, just for one hour, and started a SQL course on Codecademy. I was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I felt so calm, serene, and peaceful. A lady literally remarked on it on the bus home that evening, she was like, ‘You just seem so calm and peaceful.’ I was like, ‘I’ve been coding.’”
* “Neurodiversity” is a concept that refers to the uniquely different ways that people interact with and experience the world. The term “neurodivergent” is typically used to describe people whose brains function differently than the majority of “neurotypical” individuals. It’s also a non-medical umbrella term that categorizes certain developmental or mental health conditions like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and dyspraxia.
How I made time to learn
“I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 22. ADHD comes in many forms and often overlaps with autism. For that reason, due to my particular type of ADHD, I am very comfortable with patterns, logic, and numbers. I like to get very familiar with one topic. Becoming an expert and deep-diving into one thing is much better suited to me and many other people.
Programming, for me, is the only time when life makes sense. Coding literally calms me down and helps me regulate my emotions.
Susanna Chapman
Trainee Software Engineer
I have a natural aptitude for coding, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Codecademy. I feel and believe that, as a neurodivergent person, coding comes to me very naturally. Programming, for me, is the only time when life makes sense. Coding literally calms me down and helps me regulate my emotions. I don’t feel like my ADHD has slowed me down with coding, but it would have had I used a resource that asked me to sit still, watch a video, take notes, and then code. That’s not possible for me.
Codecademy has been the most ADHD-friendly learning resource I have ever seen in my life. ADHD needs interactivity. I am constantly generating ideas and new information; I always want to be doing something. I started with the SQL course, and on the very first page it says: Let’s begin by entering a SQL command. It’s just so satisfying and gratifying. Codecademy allows you to code from line one. There’s that constant feeling of progress, because you move on from one lesson to another. And you have the checklist — who doesn’t love a check?
I love the structure, and I write out a whole syllabus for myself every week, along with sharing an updates document with my boss. One thing I struggle with sometimes is when there is an informational article. When I read, I have to write things down, build my own examples, and take more breaks just to process what I have read. I like to sit down, stay focused for as long as I’m focused, and then take a break when I need to. I just had a conversation about this with my boss, he said, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s okay to take breaks.’”
How long it took me to land a job
“After two months of coding, I knew I loved it so much and I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. On October 15, 2022, I committed to becoming a Software Engineer.
I found ways to give it my all: I was attending every tech event I could; reaching out to anyone that I could to network; keeping a blog, and posting on LinkedIn. There are lots of other things you can do, like GitHub and Twitter, but find what works for you, and do everything you can.
I would not be a Software Engineer today — I’m a Trainee Software Engineer, but still a Software Engineer — without Codecademy. It just would have been impossible.”
How I got in the door
“In November 2022, I started a coding blog, which really helped me. I start each blog with a creative title, I quote an indie song or poem, and I usually put a picture of album artwork or nature. The rest of the blog is just a revision tool for extra coding practice where I make a note of thoughts I don’t want to forget. If I’ve learned a new syntax on Codecademy, like a for loop or whatever, I will write down examples in there. I’ll make up random, fun, made-up examples of my own.
I shared my blog on LinkedIn and an Engineering Manager at work read it, and that got me noticed and put my work on the company’s radar. In February, the company decided to make me a Trainee Engineer within our own internal framework.”
How day one and beyond went
“I have the most amazing manager in the world. Before I started with him, he asked me to make a document about my neurodiversity and how other managers have supported me in the past. It ended up being a 12-page document, and he read it and implemented it.
When my manager introduced me on the first day, he started off saying that I had all these superpowers. I know that not everybody is comfortable with that kind of terminology, but I love that language. I do see it as a superpower. Normally I would not be comfortable with someone else talking about my neurodiversity on my behalf, but he was so kind and said it beautifully. He got me to share a two-page document about my neurodiversity with the whole team.
My working hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and I have an agreement with my boss that I will spend 50-70% of my working hours doing self-study, usually with Codecademy. During a typical day, I might have a few hours of team meetings, one-to-one meetings, mentoring, pair programming, or company-wide meetings. The team I’m in is payments and finances, and I love it. My dream is definitely to go into fintech. Anytime I’m not in sprint and scrum ceremonies, I am literally learning on Codecademy.
Every week I provide my manager with an update of what I’ve learned, what blockers I had, and what percentage of the course I’ve completed. We also have a one-to-one document just for updates and any ongoing issues. It’s always there on paper and I can come back to it when I need it.”
What I wish I knew before I started learning
“Don’t try to do this alone. As a neurodivergent person learning to code, you need people to support you*. Find mentors — there are Slack groups, local meetups, charities, groups online, Meet-a-Mentor programs, etc.
For a lot of us neurodivergent individuals, the coding will not be the hard part. The hard part will be the journey. Having someone to support you on that journey will make all the difference.”
* Want to connect with other people who are learning how to code? Be sure to check out our community chapters, meetups, and virtual events.
Not sure where to start? Check out our personality quiz! We’ll help you find the best programming language to learn based on your strengths and interests.
Want to share your Codecademy learner story? Drop us a line here. And don’t forget to join the discussions in our community.
In her piece, published Jan. 25, she reported that there were more than 150 anti-transgender bills proposed in at least 25 state legislatures. By mid-April, that number had increased to over 400 bills in at least 45 states. At least 29 of those bills have become law.
Do those numbers surprise you? Have you recently noticed more people talking about transgender issues, whether on the news or in your own family, friend groups, sports leagues or schools? Have you heard of any laws related to transgender rights that have been proposed or passed in your own state or around the country?
The flood of legislation is part of a long-term campaign by national groups that see transgender rights as an issue on which they can harness voter anger — as with the campaigns against remote learning and critical race theory that reshaped many school boards and lifted Republicans in Virginia’s elections in 2021 — though the midterm elections provided little evidence of it.
“This is a political winner,” said Terry Schilling, the president of the conservative American Principles Project, arguing that more voters would have been swayed had many Republicans not “shied away” from the subject.
The potential consequences for transgender people, for whom harassment and threats have become common and suicide rates are high, are profound. Many express a sense that the power of their government is being turned against them as they try to live their lives.
“We have shifted this conversation so incredibly far in the direction of restrictions on trans people’s autonomy and rights in a way that was completely unfathomable to many of us even just three or four years ago,” said Chase Strangio, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Legislation in Oklahoma and South Carolina would make it a felony to provide hormonal or surgical transition treatment to transgender people younger than 26 — an uncharted incursion into adults’ health care. Other bills in bothstates, and in Kansas and Mississippi, would ban such care up to age 21. And bills in more than a dozen states would ban it for minors, which Arkansas was the first to do in 2021, against the consensus of major medical organizations.
A bill in Mississippi — declaring that “separate is not inherently unequal,” an allusion to Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 ruling in which the Supreme Court upheld segregation — would define sex as immutably set at birth, denying transgender identities under state law. A measure in West Virginia would define “any transvestite and/or transgender exposure, performances or display” as obscene, potentially outlawing transgender people’s presence around children.
The article continues:
Conservative activists have emphasized parental control and child protection, calling transition care harmful, an assertion rejected by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups. Transgender people have higher rates of depression and suicide, and research shows that transition care — which can involve puberty blockers, hormones or surgery, though minors rarely receive surgery — can improve mental health.
Some activists and politicians also say exposing young people to transgender identities, whether through a book reading by a drag performer or a classroom discussion, “sexualizes” them — an echo of anti-gay campaigns dating to the 1970s, which cast gay people as preying on children.
But the bills arriving in legislatures show a movement expanding beyond what it pitched itself as.
The 25-year-olds who would be unable to receive transition care in Oklahoma and South Carolina are not, after all, children. An Arizona bill would ban drag shows on Sunday mornings whether or not minors were around. (The lawmakers who introduced those bills did not respond to requests for comment.)
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What is your reaction to the growing wave of legislation that seeks to regulate the lives of transgender youths across the United States? Did any particular passage in the article catch your attention?
How have these issues surfaced in the places you spend time, whether at school, among your friends, at home or elsewhere in your community? What effect, if any, have they had on you?
What arguments have you heard in favor of or against these bills? Do you agree with any of those arguments?
Many of these bills focus on young people, including determining what sports teams they can play on, what medical care they can receive, and what can be said about gender and sexuality in schools. What message do these laws send to teenagers? What do you wish lawmakers knew about how this legislation could affect you or others your age?
Is it important to have laws determining the medical care transgender youth receive or the sports teams young people can play on? Or should those decisions be left to others — such as families, schools, doctors or young people themselves? Why do you think the way you do?
Why do you think this flood of legislation is happening right now? What do you think it says about the United States today? What questions do you have?
Over the past three years, Republican state lawmakers have put forward a barrage of bills to regulate the lives of transgender youths, restricting the sports teams they can join, bathrooms they can use and medical care they can receive.
But even by those standards, the 2023 legislative season stands out for the aggressiveness with which lawmakers are pushing into new territory, writes Maggie Astor.
In her piece, published Jan. 25, she reported that there were more than 150 anti-transgender bills proposed in at least 25 state legislatures. By mid-April, there were more than 400 bills in at least 45 states. At least 29 of those bills have become law.
What is in these bills? Why are they being introduced? Who is behind them? And what are the implications for the lives of transgender people? In this lesson we invite students to explore these questions broadly and then share their reactions in our related Student Opinion forum.
Warm-up
Part I: What’s going on in these maps?
Take a close look at the maps below from a Times article that was published on April 15. You can use the following questions to analyze them:
What do you notice? If you are making a claim, where in the graph is the evidence to support it?
What do you wonder?
How does this relate to you and your community?
What do you think is going on in this graph? Write a sentence to capture the maps’ main idea.
Part II: What have you seen or heard about this issue?
These maps show states with laws banning transition care for transgender youth, but there are a number of different laws related to transgender issues being proposed and passed in state legislatures across the country.
What are some of the laws you have heard about, if any? What do you know about them? In which states are they being introduced? Have any been proposed or passed in your state?
1. Ms. Astor writes that a “flood of legislation” regulating the lives of transgender youths has been put forward by state legislatures since the beginning of 2023. What are some of the subjects of these bills?
2. Why, according to the article, are these bills being introduced now?
3. Why does Ms. Astor characterize the potential consequences for transgender people as “profound”? Can you give an example from the article of how one of these bills might affect transgender people?
3. Who are the people pushing these laws? According to them, what is the motivation for this legislation? What evidence have they given to justify the need for these laws? How solid is their reasoning, in your opinion?
4. What do opponents think this legislation is about? What evidence do they have? How solid is it, in your opinion?
5. Casey Pick, who is now the director of law and policy at The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for L.G.B.T.Q. youths, said the political rhetoric among state lawmakers around transgender issues “filters through a constant media cycle on down to dining room tables and family holidays.” Have you witnessed the type of rhetoric you read about in this article in your own family, friend groups, school or community? How has it affected you, if at all?
Going Further
Option 1: Learn more about the experiences of transgender Americans.
Then journal about what you learned. What in these articles stood out to you? What challenged any assumptions you might have had about what it’s like to be transgender in America right now? What affirmed what you know? If you or someone close to you is transgender, you might write about your own experiences and the extent to which what you read in these articles resonated with you.
Option 2: Explore the legislation further.
Since Ms. Astor’s article was published on Jan. 25, hundreds more bills that seek to regulate the lives of transgender people have been proposed in state legislatures across the country and dozens have become law.
Where are we now? You might look at how legislation related to a particular issue is playing out across the country, or focus just on what it looks like in your local community. If you would like to start with Times coverage, we’ve provided some links below, but we encourage you to expand your research and make sure to consult your local news as well as a variety of other sources that feature a range of perspectives. You can find more on the Times Transgender issues topics page.
Here are some questions that might help you track what you’re learning:
What is happening around this issue? Who is affected? What are the implications?
What did you learn? What, if anything, surprised you? What questions do you have?
Who is making decisions related to this issue, nationally, in your community or both?
How are you seeing this issue show up in your own family, school or community, if at all?
What is your opinion of what you have learned? Why?
Transition care
In March, Kentucky passed a bill that bans access to transition care for minors and puts limits on discussing gender and sexuality in schools. A ban on transition care also passed in Utah in January, and similar bills have been proposed in Nebraska and Montana. Here is an explainer on states’ moves to ban transgender health care for young people.
Missouri this month became the first state in the country to severely restrict gender-transitioning care for people of all ages. It follows a series of quieter moves across the country that have been chipping away at transgender adults’ access to medical care.
Participation in sports
The Biden administration on April 6 proposed a rule change that would allow schools to block some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities.
North Dakota on April 12 became the latest state to bar transgender girls and women from joining female sports teams, from kindergarten through college.
House Republicans on April 20 approved legislation that would bar transgender women and girls from participating in athletic programs designated for women, though the law has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden.
Policies on discussing gender in schools
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida last year signed into law the Parental Rights in Education bill, known by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The law constrains instruction on gender and sexuality, and it has been at the center of debate as book bans in schools surge across the country.
In March, the House approved legislation that would require schools to obtain parental consent to honor a student’s request to change gender-identifying pronouns. It has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden.
Drag performances
A bill signed into law in March in Tennessee makes staging “adult cabaret” on public property or anywhere a child could see it a criminal offense. While the bill doesn’t use the word “drag” explicitly, many in the state are still trying to grasp how the measure will ultimately affect drag events, theater performances that involve drag, and even transgender and gender nonconforming people as they go about their lives.
We invite teenagers to tell us what they have seen and heard in their own communities and to share how these bills could affect them and others their age.
About three million Americans — or almost 1 percent of the population — speak with a stutter. President Biden has spoken openly about the embarrassment and pain of his severe childhood stutter.
“I Stutter. This Is What You’re Not Hearing.” is an eight-minute film from the Times’s “Adapt-Ability” Opinion Video series inviting audiences to confront discomfort with disability. It profiles John Hendrickson, who stuttered nearly his entire life. Working with the filmmaker James Robinson, he explores the obstacles and emotional burden of his condition and explains the coping strategies and workarounds he has devised to make it through the day in a world that demands that we speak up and speak clearly.
The film suggests that the problem may lie not with people who stutter but with a society that is largely unprepared or disinclined to accommodate them.
What can we learn from Mr. Henrickson’s story? How can we all help fight the stigmas and shame that surround disabilities like stuttering?
Students
1. Watch the short film above. While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help you remember specific moments.
2. After watching, think about these questions:
What questions do you still have?
What connections can you make between this film and your own life or experience? Why? Does this film remind you of anything else you’ve read or seen? If so, how and why?
3. An additional challenge | Respond to the essential question at the top of this post: How can we better understand and fight the stigmas and shame that surround disabilities like stuttering?
4. 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.)
5. 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.
About three million Americans — or almost 1 percent of the population — speak with a stutter.
For some adults, the stutter is fairly mild and has receded since childhood; President Biden falls into this category. For others, the stutter remains severe; John Hendrickson, a senior editor at The Atlantic, is part of this group.
Over the past few years, Hendrickson has been on something of a mission to educate people about the condition. The role does not come easily to him. He is a journalist, not an activist. Last week, on the night before The Times’s Opinion section published a video about him, he told me he was feeling nervous about the response it would receive.
The video is excellent, and I hope you can find the eight minutes to watch it. I also want to devote today’s newsletter to some of the main points from Hendrickson’s recent work.
Stuttering is one of many disabilities that Americans once treated with disdain. But the disability-rights movement, which took off in the 1970s and ’80s and more recently includes activists like Alice Wong, has helped change attitudes toward human diversity. Of course, not everything has changed.
Discrimination against disabled people — sometimes unthinking, other times deliberate — remains common. For stutterers, it can take the form of assumptions that the condition stems from anxiety or intellectual weakness. It is neither. It is a genetically influenced neurological condition.
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.
What kinds of things stress you out in and outside of school? Does stress and anxiety play a big role in your life?
How do you keep it together? What do you do to get through a particularly tough day, period of stress or when your thoughts are spiraling with what Ms. Stock describes as unhelpful “what ifs”?
What do you think of Ms. Stock’s six ways of dealing with stress? Which of her strategies might you want to try in the future?
Based on your own experiences, what advice would you offer to others to help their lives be less stressful?
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 and may appear in print.
We are all guilty to some degree of overlooking the quiet person in the room and giving our attention and confidence to the loudest individual. It’s often the extroverts who steal the limelight and whose confidence is viewed as being a direct qualification for promotion into a leadership role. But this is a mistake that can cost organisations the intelligence, insights, and qualities that are needed in choosing a great leader.
But introverts have valuable gifts and perspectives to leverage in their supervision roles to change and impact those they lead. If you’re an introvert in a leadership position, then this article is for you. Introverts bring a different style of management to any organisation they’re in and we’ll give you tips on how to make the most of your personality.
Understanding introversion
“Introvert” is the name of the personality trait given to individuals who focus on internal feelings, thoughts, and moods as opposed to external stimulation as in the case of extroverts which lies on the opposite end of the scale.
Introverts are quiet, reserved, and introspective. In a social setting, introverts often feel depleted and need to spend time alone to recharge. Extroverts, on the other hand, are recharged when spending time with large groups of people.
Top reasons why introverts can be great leaders
There’s a big misconception that believes that introverts can’t make effective leaders because of their quiet nature. They wonder if they will be able to stand up for themselves or their team. Do they have the confidence to speak up and contribute in large settings? The answer to these questions is an unequivocal YES! It is some of these understated qualities that will make them excellent leaders.
Good listeners
Good leaders should be great listeners. By nature, introverts are observant, and thoughtful, listen intently to those around them, and can pick up on what is not said. This quality means they can empathise, bring in other perspectives, are open to and value feedback, understand that listening is central to learning, and from this give consideration to what is said. When employees feel heard and respected, they are more engaged and will give more of themselves to the team and organisation.
Cool, calm, and collected
One of the noticeable things about introverts is that they tend to be cool, calm, and collected. this is a great quality in leadership settings because it sets the tone in stressful situations. When you’re calm, it gives you mental clarity to look at the situation and make decisions not based on emotions but by taking careful thought into the scenario. This calm state also gives the team confidence that this situation is under control.
Act with purpose
Albert Einstein said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s that I stay with problems longer.” A good leader sets an example for their employees. They are focused, do what they say they will do, and their team is confident that their leader will make decisions for the benefit of the team and won’t ask them to do something they as a leader are not willing to do.
No micro-managing
Introverts don’t like the spotlight shining on them. They are content with giving their employees the freedom to express their opinion and take ownership of tasks without shirking off their responsibilities. They guide their team, give them room to grow, and are confident in their abilities without watching over every small task and monitoring their every move. This micromanaging behaviour can make employees feel suffocated, and not trusted, and doesn’t give free room for growth and creativity.
Deep thinkers
Introverts focus on and give special attention to their internal world. They take their time and ponder decisions, positions, and other key areas of their lives. They are mindful of their interactions and are deliberate in the solutions, ideas, and creativity they bring forward. As a result, they are not pushy in group settings and consider the flow of discussions and meetings.
Tips to succeed as a leader
Many people are surprised to learn that some of the world’s most successful leaders identify as introverts. Bill Gates, Simon Sinek, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, and Guy Kawasaki are just a few examples. In any industry or speciality, you can find at least one introverted leader. Here are a few tips you can use to harness your leadership skills:
Step up. In times of crisis, this is when you need to step up and out and share the fully formed ideas you’ve mulled over internally. Your analysis of the situation and observation skills are valuable,
Get out of your comfort zone. Big energy and busy settings can be draining for you as an introvert but it’s also important to get out of your comfort zone now and again to network.
Recharge. Group events and activities can be draining for introverts. Set time aside during the day to recharge, contemplate and get back to your best self.
Use communication and collaborative apps. Take advantage of digital communication tools to stay in contact with your team while you preserve your energy for face-to-face meetings with clients.
If you’re an introvert eyeing a leadership role or are already in a leadership role, remember that it is these very traits that you possess that make you a great leader. We are all social beings and regardless of where we find ourselves on the personality spectrum, have something valuable to bring to every situation. The key is to know and understand yourself, your strengths and weakness, and work on leveraging these for success.
Discover more about who you are by taking our workplace personality assessment. The more you know and understand yourself, the better leader you can be.
