How do you grow up in a survivalist family, surrounded by extreme poverty, with no formal schooling until you are 17 years old, physically and emotionally abused by an older brother, and a decade later graduate with a doctorate in intellectual history from Cambridge? This is the story at the heart of Tara Westover’s memoir,…
Category: Education

What do Luka Modric and Affirmative Action have in Common?
Luka Modric is a soccer player for Real Madrid and the Croatian national team. He was the best player in this year’s World Cup, the engine that led Croatia to the final and the winner of the Golden Ball as the tournament’s outstanding player. This is a remarkable ascent for a player who was voted…

Changing lives, one seat at a time: The case of New York City’s “specialized high schools”
A few weeks ago, Slate’s political gabfest discussed Mayor De Blasio’s proposal for amending entrance requirement to NYC’s “specialized high schools” — namely, Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech. Students gain admission to these elite high schools by how they perform on one test that they take as 8th graders. But the test leads to…