BUILDINGS PUT CLASSROOM FOCUS ON STUDENTS

Winston Churchill famously once said, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” Several local schools are taking this to heart and are expanding or building new campuses — with learning at the forefront of the design.

Hilton Head Christian Academy, Cross Schools, Royal Live Oaks Charter School and the new Polaris Tech Charter School are all embracing student-centered learning, which is characterized by a curriculum that teachers can personalize to fit each student.

HOLISTIC SOLUTIONS TO BEAT HORMONAL HEAT WAVES

One of my favorite funny stories was told by a friend from Memphis. Here’s her account of  a hormone-fueled, inferno moment when all bets and clothes were off. (Feel free to channel her Southern accent as you read it.)

FRIENDS LAUNCH INSPIRING LINE OF KIDS’ CLOTHES

Can a shirt make you feel better about yourself? Hilton Head Island resident Heather Quinn and Jessica Berinato, her best friend of more than 20 years, say yes.

In March, the pair launched Heartward, a line of kids’ clothing devoted to promoting positivity and kindess. The brand’s shirts are made of durable, kid-tested fabric and feature designs relaying positive messages meant to inspire and encourage.

Tom Ferraro, Carolina Energy Conservation

Dear Editor,

I have been in the solar industry for about 9 years and have watched different utilities throughout the country try to restrict solar, as is happening now in South Carolina. Most of the objections to rooftop solar have stated that subsidies for solar customers aren’t fair to non-solar customers. The truth is yes, solar is subsidized. But so are utilities and pretty much any other industry that we want to grow. The opportunity to receive federal tax credits was a big part of the decision to undertake the $9 Billion VC Summer Nuclear Plant. Those subsidies are part of what kept the project afloat for so long.

One Lowcountry dad offers his perspective on parenting

“When I found out we were expecting our first child, I said to myself — like most men, I assume — that I would be happy either way, but I secretly wanted a boy,” said Lee Edwards. “And yet, as soon as our first popped out and I saw it was a girl, I was absolutely thrilled to have a daughter. Maybe even more so than if it had been a son.

TIPS TO HELP YOU STOP STRESSING OUT ABOUT INFERTILITY

The desire to have a child for many hopeful parents can be all-consuming and stress-inducing. Some women might battle conditions like endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome and poor egg quality, while others may find themselves asking, “Why can’t we conceive?”

For decades, scientists have tried to determine if the worry of infertility causes stress, and therefore infertility, or if the everyday stress of our daily lives causes infertility. While there is still no clear answer, researchers agree that managing stress levels may increase your chances of becoming pregnant. Here are three holistic options to help reduce stress.

MUSIC AND ART FESTIVAL JAZZES UP THE CITY IN MAY

If your perfect day includes visiting a fine art gallery or museum, chatting with local artisans, listening to talented musicians or enjoying live theatre, dance or comedy, you need to head to Greenville in May.

The city’s Artisphere festival takes over downtown’s Main Street from May 11-13, showcasing 17 different mediums and more than 250 artists. The weekend also features more than 20 concerts by visual and performance artists, demonstrations, an “Artists of the Upstate” exhibit, and Artist’s Row, featuring 135 artists selected by a jury from more than 1,200 applicants.

Gloria Origgi is an Italian philosopher, and a tenured senior researcher at CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research) in Paris. Her latest book is Reputation: What It Is and Why It Matters (2017), translated by Stephen Holmes and Noga Arikha. 

There is an underappreciated paradox of knowledge that plays a pivotal role in our advanced hyper-connected liberal democracies: the greater the amount of information that circulates, the more we rely on so-called reputational devices to evaluate it. What makes this paradoxical is that the vastly increased access to information and knowledge we have today does not empower us or make us more cognitively autonomous. Rather, it renders us more dependent on other people’s judgments and evaluations of the information with which we are faced.

Carl Stevens, home for the holidays, sent me a photo of an otherworldly landscape, the ocean edging against a snow-white beach. The winter storm had grounded his flight to warm and sunny Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works in creative marketing.

“I have two big fears,” he said. “Snakes and I do not get along. And then I have this huge fear that I’m going to die without really pushing it as far as it goes.”