Quarantine (Life and Culture)

I was only a few days into a meandering trip across America, and already I was easing into something of a nighttime routine. Earlier in the day I’d pinpointed a promising campsite in Ozark National Forest. Now, I found myself ascending an isolated forestry road to get to it, my tires crackling over its rough,…

If you like looking at trees, and bark, and the pattern of veins in leaves; if you are fascinated by clouds or the spots on a ladybug’s back; if you like to split open rocks and see what’s inside, then you are already an outdoor scientist. The best part is you don’t need any special…

After a year with a marked increase in discrimination and harassment aimed at Asian-Americans across the country, the past few months have been particularly shocking, in both the frequency and violence of attacks. A powerful way to fight racism is education. Conversations about prejudice with your children starting at a young age go a long…

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Last fall, when The New York Times Learning Network invited teenagers across the United States to tell us what living in a pandemic was like, we didn’t expect so many answers — nor did we expect…

As students readjust to school after two years of pandemic learning, many are striving to rebuild their academic confidence. Some educators believe this is a crucial moment for teachers and parents to keep their distance when learning becomes difficult, and to be explicit about the fact that the challenges students may be facing can offer…

The past year has been difficult for many people. The pandemic, the politics, the job loss and the isolation — most Americans have had to find some new coping mechanisms to make it through. Here’s one: erasure poetry.Creativity can be healing in difficult times, but it’s not always easy to tap into those creative juices.…

Have you ever had the dream where you take a test that you haven’t studied for? Or the one where you’re caught in a public place in your underwear? Here’s another common one: You open a door in your home and discover a room you have never seen before. To make this one a reality,…

Imitation is the best kind of flattery. All creative people, whether they be writers, artists, dancers, singers or actors, know that. Think about the performers on a TV show like “The Voice,” who sometimes perform the song of a judge they are targeting. Sometimes, it is imitation that gets them on the team of their…

This week is the one-year anniversary of the At Home section, and what better way to celebrate than with a puzzle containing a hidden picture? Solve the clues and reveal the twist, with a mini shout-out to the section’s basket-weaving activity from August.Write the answers to the 16 clues in the blank spaces on each…

This essay, by Aria Capelli, age 16, from The Athenian School in Danville, Calif., is one of the Top 11 winners of The Learning Network’s Ninth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 16,664 entries.We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up over the next week, and you can find them…