Finding a light when things are so dark is what scientists do, and this is how society will think (not just spend) our way out of this pandemic and all its consequences.

Smaller class sizes, class time spent teaching instead of dealing with behavioral problems, and a rigorous college-prep curriculum were important to me. But times change, and different students thrive in different environments.

Like the lottery for military service during the Vietnam War, what if there was a lottery of a certain number from other segments of society — with no exceptions allowed — who would serve on the meatpacking lines for a month?

Gov. Bill Lee called the day the House passed the school voucher law last year an “historic day.” If so, the bar for historic days is lower than a salamander’s belly.

The operational difference between “Phase 1” and “Phase 2” was always fairly narrow and has grown more so via “phase creep.”

Yes, covering your nose and mouth with a mask is annoying. Yes, it causes your glasses to fog. Yes, it makes communication more difficult. And yes, it stops the spread of disease.

The Forrest statue made the park unusable space for most Memphians. The Sons of Confederate Veterans lost the battle for the hearts and minds of Memphis, thank goodness, long before they lost the legal battle over moving the monuments to Forrest and Jefferson Davis. 

Fred Davis, a charter member of the Memphis City Council, may have left elected office more than 40 years ago, he never stepped aside.

First day back at the gym means you follow new rules, and unless you’ve been very disciplined, you regret your COVID ‘self-care’ choices.

The lack of a national plan to deal with the pandemic led to a disorganized and uncoordinated set of responses. Project Apollo and the Manhattan Project show what we can do when the response to a challenge is unified.

In the age of COVID-19, suspicions that police are not trustworthy must take a back seat to the certainty that this pandemic will spread without adequate safeguards.

At a price tag of about $1 million, the program marks the first major statewide investment in addressing learning loss due to the public health emergency.

Rather than assuming all students are behind when schools reopen, we should begin the school year providing grade-level content and addressing lost-learning challenges as they are identified.

Before the pandemic, the Memphis Zoo was a choose-your-own-adventure endeavor, but for the time being, visitors will be guided in one direction around the exhibits. “If you’re just here to see the giraffes it’s going to take you awhile, because you’re going to have to walk the walk,” says zoo CEO Jim Dean.

Around the world, nurses are demonstrating their compassion, bravery and courage as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Never before has their value been more clearly demonstrated.

It was a Mother’s Day we’ll always remember, though one we’ve declared deserves a do-over.

Just over two years ago, a nonprofit called Memphis Fourth Estate Inc. began operation. I am fortunate to be one of the first two employees of that organization, which would go on to launch The Daily Memphian in September 2018.

With no current Tennessee Democrat available to fulfill Biden’s pledge to choose a woman VP, how about his other promise: to “appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court”? 

The Stockwell and Abbott families started a Downtown lunch spot 40 years ago that inspired a son’s lifelong belief in city-building: ‘Nine-year-old me didn’t doubt Downtown could rally, because I had seen my own family do it.’

The Daily Memphian’s Eric Barnes writes about how the emotional quarantine of dementia is made worse by coronavirus on Mother’s Day.

A German student learns to love America. She also learns that American students are baffled by Trump's election, and that some want to carry guns on campus.

Before Zoom, there were letters. My Mom was the best letter-writer I've ever known. 

Children may face immediate and long-term consequences of COVID-19 – from delays in seeking medical attention for current illnesses, to chronic toxic stress, to the threat of communicable diseases due to delayed vaccinations.

The artist Dolph Smith named his Ripley home Tennarkippi, but it's also a place where the borders of three states merge to create a particular state of mind. 

The diversity of masks and their origins would be charming if it wasn’t yet another sign of official dysfunction in our collective approach to controlling a pandemic.