A year after supporters of ex-U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol Building, a young poet reflects on the American dream — or nightmare. A police officer stands on the steps of the U.S. Capitol before a prayer vigil marking the one-year anniversary of the...
The term “woke” is caught up in America’s divisive culture wars. Will citizens in other nations adopt the notion describing those alert to social injustice? A demonstrator holds a placard reading “I can’t breathe,” left, during a...
Tibet’s many languages are under threat from Beijing’s policies and economic realities, putting cultural traditions and memories at risk. Tsupkhu Lama in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India in June 2019. (Photo by Li Keira Yin) This story won honorable...
Li Keira Yin of The Thacher School examines the difficulties that minority languages face surviving in Tibet without falling into the trap of concluding that it’s all the fault of the Communist Party leadership in Beijing when economic pressures in a globalized economy are part of the explanation. For her nuanced view, Yin draws from her unique perspective as someone raised in China who is studying in the United States. Her account of the complexities of language in Tibet started when Yin listened to her Chinese grandmother speak a dialect at home while speaking in Mandarin when picking up the phone. “I started wondering why dialects and minority languages have to be overpowered by Mandarin in China, and so I dug deeper,” Yin said. A lesson for other students struggling to understand how their lives fit into the bigger scheme of things.
Exercise: Ask students to discuss when it’s important for authorities to protect minority languages.
Britain’s Queen has turned 95 and her husband has died. Do we need kings and queens? Or will the world always revere splendour and inheritance? Union Jack flags are lowered to half mast around London, England, UK, following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, 9...
Nearly seven decades after it won independence, India is riddled with corruption and ruled by thugs. It’s time to grant independence to India’s 29 states. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) greets school children after he addressed the nation from New...