Opinion

Generations: The Hidden Curriculum of High School

June 4, 2026

When I look back at my junior year of high school, I think not only of my experiences with friends, my grades, and my favorite activities, but also of what I’ve learned along the way. Although school is mainly designed to teach…

Opinion

Garden Gems: There’s Something About Trillium

May 26, 2026

A few weeks back, I got an email from Native Plant Trust with the breathless subject line, “Trillium week begins this Sunday!” It went on to say, “Trillium Week at Garden in the Woods is just around the corner! Join us for…

Opinion

Generations: In Praise of Life’s Important Little Rituals

May 24, 2026

I write this column in the throes of “Maycember,” that hectic time of year when every minute of every day feels spoken for. If you’re a parent of school-age children, you’ve got concerts, plays, sporting events, award ceremonies, and graduations. Here in…

Opinion

Generations: Revisiting the ‘Sweetest Unadulterated Misery’ of My Teenage Years

May 18, 2026

February 1, 1985- Is there more to life than school and boys and clothes and music? I’m flipping through a musty-smelling composition notebook found in the back of a closet. The handwriting looks familiar, but whoever wrote this is a real piece…

Opinion

Ask Lisa: Understanding Self-Harm

May 4, 2026

This week’s question centers around youth engaging in self-harm. A parent writes: I watched one of your recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey presentations and was taken aback by the data around self-harm: 80 middle and 111 high schoolers are hurting themselves, on…

Opinion

Generations: The Cost of Going to School in Belmont

April 28, 2026

Attending Belmont High School feels a bit like a monthly subscription. Although public school is supposed to mean free education, our high school is set up like a “freemium” service, where the best features are locked behind a paywall. Whether it’s on…

Opinion

Generations: The Optimism of a Quiet Spring Morning

April 23, 2026

Here is a usual kind of spring: in my yard, where all the good soil has disappeared, where nothing grows out of what’s left, where hoping that October bulbs will rise in May is just looking for heartache, here in this yard,…

Opinion

Generations: The Benefits of Keeping Empty Squares

April 22, 2026

I have a precarious relationship with my calendar. I keep a digital calendar, of course, but our family also has an old-school paper calendar hanging on the wall (this year it features photos from the Webb telescope). We all write our meetings,…

Opinion

Garden Gems: Mud Season is for Potting Up Houseplants

April 6, 2026

All Posts Spring is here and “the world,” to quote E.E. Cummings, “is mud-luscious.” As gardeners, we are aware! We long to get out in the garden and sink our hands in the earth but know we must wait for drier, warmer…

Opinion

Generations: Keeping Calm, Carrying On in Face of Lockdown

April 3, 2026

My parents went to school in the 1950s, when they had to participate in the (in)famous “duck and cover” drills. The idea: Hiding under your desk made you safe from a nuclear attack, important at the height of the Cold War. As…

Opinion

Generations: We Didn’t Panic. And That’s What Scares Me.

April 3, 2026

It happened again. I was sitting in my 11th grade English class last month when an announcement came over the intercom: “We are entering shelter-in-place,” a deep, urgent voice warned. I was immediately spooked. So was most of the class. My teacher…

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