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This Labor Day, spend time with seven back-to-school stories about how parents took over dorm life, why middle-school friendships still shape who we are, why we can’t quite escape dreams of being back at school, and more.
How Parents Hijacked the College Dorm
The spaces were once furnished by scrappy kids. Then the adults entered the room.
By Meagan Francis
Why Adults Still Dream About School
Long after graduation, anxiety in waking life often drags dreamers back into the classroom. (From 2022)
By Kelly Conaboy
What Many Parents Miss About the Phones-in-Schools Debate
Some focus on reaching their children in an emergency—and overlook the devices’ everyday threats.
By Gail Cornwall
Why Back-to-School Season Feels Like the New Year—Even for Adults
The arrival of fall and the start of classes seems to many like a beginning, for reasons ranging from biology to nostalgia. (From 2017)
By Emily Richmond
The Worst Advice Parents Can Give First-Year Students
Today’s college students will have ample time to figure out their careers. Before that, encourage them to take risks. (From 2024)
By Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Secrets and Lies in the School Cafeteria
A tale of missing money, heated lunchroom arguments, and flaxseed pizza crusts (From 2019)
By Sarah Schweitzer
The Outsize Influence of Your Middle-School Friends
The intensity of feelings generated by friendship in childhood and adolescence is by design. (From 2020)
By Lydia Denworth
Catch Up on The Atlantic
Culture Break
Illustration by Andy Rementer
Read. With fall around the corner, go back and check out the 24 books that Atlantic writers and editors recommended for this summer’s reading list.
Watch. The great teen movies, such as Mean Girls and Rebel Without a Cause, reveal something about American adolescence, Hillary Kelly writes.
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