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upworthy

Alisha Huber

Image via Amanda Ripley/PopTech.

Map demonstrating scores of the Program for International Student Assessment for each state compared to a country that has similar scores.


This is not news: America does pretty badly when it goes up against other countries academically.

This is true even if we take it one state at a time—no single state, no matter how wealthy or small, matches the top scoring countries. And yet, the U.S. spends more per student than many other countries in the world.

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Health

Harvard psychologist explains how to achieve happiness—and it's actually simple

It's time to stop giving awfulness the power to bend our lens. Here's how.

YouTube

Shawn Achor explains "The Happiness Advantage"

Anytime you look at the news, it's about death, destruction, abductions, natural disasters...

That kind of thing can mess us up. It makes the world look scarier than it is. It's like wearing the opposite of rose-colored glasses.

Feel like you've fallen into the Matrix yet?

It's time to stop giving awfulness the power to bend our lens. Here's how.
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Sesame Street/YouTube

Jesse Jackson talks to children on Sesame Street

Sesame Street is a national treasure.

I think we can all agree on that.

Sesame Street invented the idea that television could teach children, not just entertain them.

It taught kids letters and numbers and introduced them to talented and famous people, from Savion Glover to Kofi Annan.

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Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

This article originally appeared on November 14, 2014


Van Gough never got to enjoy his own historic success as an artist (even though we've been able to imagine what that moment might have looked like). But it turns out that those of us who have appreciated his work have been missing out on some critical details for more than 100 years.

I'm not easily impressed, OK?

I know Van Gogh was a genius. If the point of this were "Van Gogh was a mad genius," I would not be sharing this with you.
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