Author: Nola Jones

When you first see one, you don’t really recognize it as a monkey. It resembles a tiny ginger cat that chose to stay after wandering too far up a tree. The telltale mane, a thick orange ruff that frames a small black face, is the reason why naturalists continued to draw parallels with cats centuries ago. They were once described by Antonio Pigafetta, who was sailing with Magellan, as lovely little cats that resembled tiny lions. In spirit, if not in taxonomy, the description remained relevant. The lion-maned monkey is a family of four animals that live in the diminishing…

For many years, the discussion surrounding early childhood education in Nigeria sounded like it does in most places with limited resources and conflicting priorities. The language of childhood, nurturing, and moral obligation surrounded it. Everyone agreed that it was necessary, but for some reason, roads, electricity, security, and oil always came in second. Before deciding to completely alter the course of events, the OMEP Nigeria chapter observed this for a considerable amount of time. The cause was not what changed. The vocabulary was the problem. At some point, the advocates of the chapter began using the language of economists instead…

The problem with awards in the early years sector is that, historically, very few people outside the sector have ever heard of them. A brief ceremony, a few well-dressed teachers, courteous applause, and a printed certificate that would eventually be displayed above a coffee maker in a staff room in Drogheda or Limerick. For years, that was the beat. Silent, kind, and mostly undetectable. The ripple hasn’t really stopped since OMEP Ireland took a slightly different action. It started, as these initiatives frequently do, with a single national award honoring an early childhood educator whose work had, by all accounts,…

A tiny word crept into regular texting and would not go away, somewhere between the emergence of group chats and the gradual demise of the unread email. Pin. Four characters. Hardly worth looking at again. However, if you look through practically any phone in a coffee shop these days, you’ll see that little tack icon hovering at the top of someone’s messages, holding a Venmo reminder, a forgotten address, or a friend’s half-serious threat that just says, “don’t be late again.” It’s the type of word that can have multiple meanings depending on the speaker. A teen who instructs her…

You think you’ve misheard the statistic the first time you hear it. Preschoolers, who are three or four years old and occasionally just past potty training, are suspended and expelled at a rate that is about three times higher than that of students in K–12 institutions. Some people are still learning how to grasp a crayon. A director is signing documents somewhere, requesting that they not return. It’s an odd picture to look at. Suspension has always been associated with older children—those who talk back or skip class. However, the data has been telling a different story for some time.…

Hard-throwing pitchers are associated with a certain mythology, and Jacob Misiorowski already possesses more of it than most players twice his age. However, the most important aspect of his story is likely the one that is overlooked or nearly ignored. There was a more subdued era on a small campus in southwest Missouri before the 102.3 mph fastballs, the All-Star selection that divided baseball, and the Brewers cap with the number 32 stitched on the side. No one really wants to discuss the years a player wasn’t a star, so it’s easy to overlook. Neosho, where Crowder College is located,…

At one point during the second quarter at Scott Stadium, it appeared as though Princeton was losing. With a 3-0 lead, Notre Dame resembled the squad that had won two of the previous three national championships. The Fighting Irish exuded the kind of composure that comes from winning, just like champions typically do. For a short while on the afternoon of Memorial Day, it seemed as though the script had already been written. After that, Princeton scored eleven consecutive goals. Eleven. in a championship match. It’s the kind of run that doesn’t typically occur in a national championship game, especially…

Small towns have a certain quiet in the morning, the kind where you can hear a screen door slam from two blocks away. Because there isn’t a preschool nearby, the silence lasts all day in dozens of these rural American towns as well as in rural areas of Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Liberia. Not a nursery. There isn’t a certified early childhood educator at a gate. For many years, this absence was considered an unfortunate consequence of low population density and a fact of geography. It is becoming more difficult to refer to it as such in light of the…

In the weeks leading up to the release of a UNESCO report, education ministries experience a certain kind of silence. It’s evident in the cautious press releases, the abruptly scheduled briefings, and the increasingly elusive officials. This is also true of the 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report, which this year concentrated on equity and access. The World Organization for Early Childhood Education, or OMEP, has given early indications that the United States will not find it enjoyable to read. The report is not a silent document in and of itself. It begins with the startling statistic that, for the seventh…

The word itself sounds almost archaic, like something you might hear in a 1970s courtroom drama. When embezzlement is stripped of its legal significance, however, it refers to something subtly contemporary: the slow, intentional misappropriation of funds or property by a person who was entrusted with its management. It wasn’t a stranger scaling a window. Not a mask-wearing thief. Someone with a name on the company directory, a desk, and a login. People don’t realize how important that distinction is. Since the person had the right to be close to the money, embezzlement isn’t really theft in the traditional sense.…