Education has become too narrowly focused on academic success and future earning potential. But creative schools and individual teachers are finding ways, new and old, to reverse this trend. From kindergarten to university, writers in this issue of Plough step back to look at education as the holistic task of forming healthy, responsible, passionate humans, and share success stories from the front lines.


On this theme: 


Alex Sosler on innovative schools where students learn a trade and study the humanities.


Brit Frazier on becoming a local volunteer firefighter.


Peter Gray on why free play is essential.


Anthony Garces-Foley on why he chose to teach in a public school.


Stephanie Ebert on reading children scary fairy tales.


Patrick Tomassi on Lernvergnugenstag, when teachers get to teach what inspires them.


Tim Maendel on a public high school that raises deer and fish.


Phil Christmas on why everyone still needs literature.


Benjamin Crosby on how Christian teaching gets passed on.


Frederick K. S. Leung on why math is not merely instrumental.


Also in this issue:


Rabbi Meir Soloveichik on hearing God in the subway.


Grace Hamman on Sister Penelope, mentor to C. S. Lewis.


Paul Coleman on religious persecution in Nicaragua and Finland.


Reviews of Edwidge Danticat’s We’re Alone, John Inazu’s Learning to


Disagree, and H. G. Parry’s The Magician’s Daughter.


New poems by Claude Wilkinson. 


Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.