I think a lot about the ‘bootstraps’ narrative. You know the one – someone who assumes personal responsibility, works hard, and has strong core values can accomplish anything. We’ve had ...

Earlier this week, the Bulletin published a conversation between States Newsroom’s Elisha Brown and economist Darrick Hamilton about the Trump administration’s new investment accounts for children.

Second, the bootstraps narrative often suggests that benefits programs are counterproductive because they foster “dependency.” That may have been a plausible argument a generation ago, but the ...

Alissa Quart wrote in her March 17 Friday Opinion essay, “ How ditching America’s ‘bootstraps’ myth can open up politics,” that “the bootstrapping story has captured American ...

Back in the 1800s, the expression “pull oneself up by the bootstraps” meant the opposite of what it does now. Then it was used mockingly to describe an impossible act.

There’s a longstanding tradition of prizing “merit” in deciding which students get access to the best educational opportunities in America. The narrative goes that a merit-based system allows anyone ...

The mythical bootstraps, the ones kids are supposed to pull themselves up by to overcome poverty, don’t exist. For starters, know this: The brain rewires itself based on experience all the time.

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Held down by our bootstraps: The myth of American individualism is a poor excuse for inequality “Often we think that if we are not happy, it’s our problem, and we just have to show more grit" ...

Heather Johnston, who has served as the director of development and external affairs for Beverly Bootstraps for nearly a decade, has left to take on a new role at Essex County Habitat For Humanity.