Good morning! We have 8 ideas for teaching the midterms, and a special edition of “Ask a Journalist” to help with our memoir contest. — The Learning NetworkTeach the 2026 midterm elections
Our lesson plan offers eight ideas for bringing the midterms and what’s at stake into your classroom — all using New York Times maps, graphs and reporting that are, as always, free as long as you access them from our site. Then, in a related Student Opinion question, we invite students to tell us: What gives you hope about politics right now? What troubles you? How are you teaching the midterms? Let us know at LNfeedback@nytimes.com. Ask a Journalist: How do I craft effective short personal narratives?
Are your students writing college essays? Participating in our Tiny Memoir Contest? If so, they’ll want to learn from Ed Shanahan, the editor of Metropolitan Diary. He joins us this month to chat with teenagers about crafting personal narratives. What questions do your students have? Post them here by Oct. 16. Slang, social media and more from The Learning Network
Recent Times reporting about education
See what teens are saying about football after the newest study on C.T.E.
We asked teenagers: Should we still be watching and playing football? The conversation that resulted shows how young people are grappling with the sobering reality of what the new data shows about the risks. Coming into high school, football gave me friends and I learned to develop and become more mature. If we banned the N.F.L., you wouldn’t just take away a sport, you would be taking away millions of jobs, connections to the sport, and fans’ passion. Football brings people together — you could be a radical Democrat and a radical Republican and still, if you’re both Bears fans, you’re going to have common ground. — Patrick, Glen Ellyn, IL Every sport comes with some risk of injury, and I think athletes should be able to decide for themselves whether that risk is worth continuing to play. The statistic that at least 215 out of 878 former N.F.L. players studied had C.T.E. was still shocking to me, especially because that is almost one in four players. — Lily, Valley Stream North High School, NY Football players know the dangers of the sport, especially at the professional level, and it’s their choice to become a pro in most cases. My viewpoint shifts in the case of youth football, since children, or even teens, are unable to make completely informed decisions about the sport. I feel like there should be age requirements before a decision is made. — Andre, Valley Stream North HS, NY The players who are said to have C.T.E. (which can only be identified after death) played at a time when blindside hits, over the top tackles, and unnecessary aggression were accepted and even rewarded. As a high school football player myself, I am no stranger to the return-to-play concussion protocol: two weeks of no contact, endless symptom checkups with the athletic trainer, and multiple cognitive tests to ensure my brain is fully healed and ready to return. With all of these measures in place, at the high school level of football no less, I think that, in the coming decades, we will see a measurable reduction of C.T.E. cases and a safer game which encourages the next generation of kids to pick up the ball and play. — Felix, Glen Ellyn, IL We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to LNfeedback@nytimes.com. More next week.
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