The Most Memorable Family and Education Interviews of the Year

Read: Why Your Kid Loves the Garbage Truck So Much

“Peanut butter was a logical choice: It’s easy to make. It’s fast. It tastes good. And if you happen to be eating at your desk, maybe doing some browsing on the internet—or, before the internet days, reading a newspaper—it was something that was not too drippy.”

—Vern Loomis, a retired structural draftsman from Michigan, on why he likes peanut-butter sandwiches

Vern Loomis was one of several interviewees for a story I wrote in March about people who eat the same thing for lunch every day—he had a peanut-butter sandwich each day at work for, he estimates, about 25 years. At a time when Americans’ beliefs and tastes only seem to grow harder to reconcile, Loomis’s sensible argument for his repetitive lunch stands out to me as a reminder that many individual preferences are apolitical, well reasoned, and endearingly particular to the people who have them. Even in retirement, Loomis eats peanut-butter sandwiches multiple days a week. “I never stopped liking [them],” he told me. “I still do.”  — Joe Pinsker

Read: The People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

“College was so much for me, and for my roommates, about catapulting ourselves outside of our comfort zones—and there were a lot of instances of catapulting that I was not happy with [during my freshman year]. But, I mean, that’s the point of college, and they really enriched me and made me the person I am today.”
—Rachel Harshaw, a Class of 2017 alumna of Hamilton College, on her alma mater’s approach to pairing freshman roommates

I’d long wanted to write a story about the various strategies colleges use for matching up freshman roommates. The idea stemmed from hearing that Davidson College uses the Myers-Briggs personality test in deciding where its incoming freshmen will live, and with whom. While reporting this piece, I discovered that these decisions are both an art and a science—a task that speaks to the larger mission of a liberal education: to help young adults develop their long-term identities. Pairing freshman roommates is high-stakes because of its role in ensuring that students get the most out of their college experience.  — Alia Wong

Read: Colleges Would Rather Freshmen Not Choose Their Roommates

“I think it’s different for parents. We have to protect our children. That’s our No. 1 calling in life, and that comes before everything. You’re not worried about the Church or school—you’re allowed to judge and be cautious and not feel guilty about that, because you’re a protector.”

— An anonymous Catholic father, on his fears about raising a daughter in the Church after revelations of clerical sexual abuse

In early 2019, around the time the Vatican was hosting a major conference on the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal, my colleague Ashley Fetters and I spoke with several Catholic parents about how they were grappling with the ongoing crisis. Some felt they could not justify raising their children in the Church, knowing how some of its clergy had taken advantage of children in the past. Others didn’t want to let those bad actors keep their kids from Catholicism’s spiritual benefits. All had thoughtful, nuanced things to say. My interview with this father, who asked for anonymity because he works for a Catholic organization, sticks out in my memory because he seemed to be of two minds—wanting to protect his daughter even at the risk of being judgmental or overcautious, and, at the same time, wanting the Church to be part of her life. “I want my daughter to find her own way, but there is a place in my heart that still hopes she ends up being part of the faith,” he told me. “There’s a lot of beauty in the Church.” He hadn’t yet decided what to do, and hearing him work through his struggle out loud was a moving reminder that no Catholic family has been unaffected by this crisis.  — Julie Beck