By Nathan Holbert, Associate Professor of Communication, Media and Learning Technology Design and Haeny Yoon, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education
When you’re an educator the school calendar becomes your real calendar. The year doesn’t begin in January, it starts around Labor Day—August is when the anxiety dreams hit and September is new haircuts and clothes.
Being an educator in 2025—or a student for that matter—can be a tense experience. Classrooms have never been simply places to learn, but ideological hot zones reflecting adult anxieties, power grabs, and partisan conflicts. Language and curriculum is policed, emerging technologies create suspicion and undermine educators’ professional expertise and students’ opportunities to think and reason, and the world outside the window of the school building seems on the brink of catastrophe. Yet, the classroom is still one of the few places where people from all experiences, histories, perspectives, and values come together as a community to create something new. It’s not always smooth, and certainly there is a lot of room for improvement, but schools matter.
And so to wish you a Happy (safe, productive, and meaningful) New (School) Year, we’ve organized a handful of what we might call “Back to School” episodes to get you excited for what’s to come. Rather than treat education as evaluation or a quick march through content, these episodes consider how the arts, fashion, literature, making, and popular culture foster imagination, creativity, and learning. How can these playful acts, materials, and spaces focus our attention on young people’s personal passions, inquiry, and agency? We invite listeners to ideate with us as we re/consider what schools could be in times of increased division and tension. To all the teachers, students, parents, and those that keep our schools the sacred spaces they are, thank you for your service. We hope this collection will honor your important work and inspire you.
See you in season 6.
#1: FAQs from Adults about Kids' Play and Pop Culture - episode page
#2: Are AI Tools Good for Teaching? - episode page
#3: Do We Need Checklists for Children's Play? - episode page
Rather than treat education as evaluation or a quick march through content, these episodes consider how the arts, fashion, literature, making, and popular culture foster imagination, creativity, and learning. How can these playful acts, materials, and spaces focus our attention on young people’s personal passions, inquiry, and agency?
#4: Can the Arts Save Education? - episode page
#5: Drag and Playing Roles with Lil Miss Hot Mess - episode page
#6: Writing Young Adult Fiction while Navigating Academia - episode page
#7: Learning about Children's Immersive Play from the Experts: Kids! - episode page
#8: Fashion Forward for Back to School with Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz and Olivia - episode page
#9: Choose Your Own Adventure Lit Review with Kids! - episode page
#10: Sewing is NOT a "girl sport" with Yasmin Kafai - episode page
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or search "Pop and Play" wherever you listen to follow and catch the latest episodes.