Getting stories right used to be more important than getting the scoop. Maybe it’s time to return to careful, skeptical and dispassionate reporting. Four jockeys on horseback. (Credit: Jupiterimages) This article was produced exclusively for News Decoder’s...
Sometimes saying yes can seem scary. But if you say no you close yourself off to opportunities. And some of them might be amazing. Photo illustration by News Decoder. “Say ‘yes.’” That’s Emma Bapt’s advice to high school students, especially girls. “I think...
News Decoder has been a return to roots for me — a startup with slim financial returns that belie both its social worth and the joy of working with youth. The author is the founder of News Decoder. This month he is turning over management of the educational nonprofit...
When leading educational publishers look for articles that decode complex issues for youth authoritatively and clearly, they turn to News Decoder. Tira Shubart turns cosmology into understandable stories about the importance of space to humankind. (AP Photo/Stocktrek...
Alternately revered and vilified, Mikhail Gorbachev shaped history as the last Soviet leader. Our correspondents recall his impact and legacy. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev waves during a military parade marking the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, Red...
At a time of sharp division between the West and Russia, News Decoder remembers an era when another intractable divide was bridged. At the height of the Cold War, two adversaries, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, forged an agreement to reduce nuclear arms. Alternately revered and vilified, Gorbachev shaped history as the last Soviet leader and the one whose decisions helped lift the Iron Curtain. To mark Gorbachev’s death, News Decoder correspondents who covered the collapse of the Soviet Union examine how the former Soviet leader’s legacy has evolved over time.
Exercise: Gorbachev left an ambiguous legacy. He is heralded in much of the West but viewed less favorably in Russia. Can your student’s identify other historical or contemporary figures who are viewed in a contradictory way? What’s at the root of such contradictory perspectives?