Capturing the ‘Real World’ transition for Israeli teens

By Celia Soudry
Published on June 12, 2008

"I like to challenge people and show them a side of Israel not everybody sees," the now full-time filmmaker said. "Everyone brings different things to the table and as a result people get different things out of it."

But Can She Sew?

By Michelle Goldman
Published on May 27, 2004

My school has trained us for the academic rigors of a university. However, it has failed in preparing us for the necessities of the real world, or what my grandmother calls the "nuts and bolts of life." We aren't alone. Today, this lack of practical skills among high school seniors is an epidemic. Web sites across the Internet list instructions for college students on everything from how to use a dishwasher to balancing a checkbook.

Reality Doesn’t Bite

By Teresa Strasser
Published on September 6, 2001

Last night, I was watching "Big Brother," a show mocked for its lack of action. Call me crazy, but to me, it's Chekhov; it's all about the subtext. Anyway, a contestant named Bunky was voted out of the house last week. That's when I realized that slowly, quietly, the new breed of reality shows is causing a revolution.

Innocence Lost

By Diane Arieff
Published on May 1, 1997

Little girls at a San Fernando Valley Jewish preschool report for circle time in midriff tops and lipstick. In Hollywood, a teen-ager acquires a tattoo, a designer backpack and a baby within a year of her arrival here from rural El Salvador. A "soccer mom" at a park in Van Nuys chats blithely about buying her 17-year-old daughter breast implants for her birthday. "This is the real world," she says in response to my look of disbelief.