Growing up, I always had an uncanny ability for imaginary games. I had an entire collection of Barbies, but I hardly touched them; they were too simple. If I played with the Barbies, I wanted to be the...

My fingers traced a grin on my face. Smile. My forefinger rotated in a circle by my head. Wonder. I was silently talking — communicating with sign language. I first saw sign language at a rock concert...

I’d like to tell a parable. I wish this parable were as simple as "a fool and his money are soon parted," but, because of the complexities of brand name marketing and the human brain, it isn’t. To...

Smoking, the most preventable cause of disability and death in Missouri, causes nearly 10,000 Missourian deaths each year, according to the Missouri Department of Health. To combat this problem, Rep. Mary...

This morning when my alarm went off, the last thing I wanted to do was lace up my shoes and hit the sidewalk. I would have preferred to curl up in my mound of comforters and ease back into sleep. But,...

Effective classroom management arises from experience. A competent teacher’s students will gain 52 percentile points over a year’s time, whereas those of an ineffective teacher will only gain 14 percentile...

With the world rapidly bending to the will of technology, there are few defenses left to combat the influence devices such as iPods, kindles and cell phones have on Americans' lives. As a generation mesmerized...

In his most recent State of the Union address, President Obama proposed that every state raise the dropout age to 18. Like many of the Obama administration’s proposals, this idea is well-intentioned,...

I launched my senior year fired up about succeeding in class and getting into a spectacular college. I worked at the same pace I had throughout my high school career and applied to many schools. However,...