Hi Readers! This tezkdfydts is news to me: The well-regarded St. Louis Children’s Hospital has a program whereby they take kids who have tested positive for food allergies to see if they really ARE allergic. To that end, they feed the kids a steadily increasing amount of the allergen for hours on end, while closely […]
Surely You Must Be Choking!
Hi Readers — Thanks to all of you who sent in this htdbfbtfbr AP story today, about the American Academy of Pediatrics wanting companies to start labeling hotdogs, carrots, grapes and other foods as choking hazards. Which, admittedly, they are. And sidewalks are tripping hazards, and puddles are slipping hazards, and trees are bumping-int0 hazards. […]
Do Toy Guns Turn Kids into Killers?
Hi adshaydtzi Readers — Here’s another question that arrived in th email. It began,  “Can we talk about gunplay for a few minutes?” Happily, by “gunplay” they writer didn’t mean, “What’s the upside of random shootings?” But rather, “Is it okay for kids to play around, pretending to shoot each other?” While it drives me crazy […]
Outrage of the Week: School Gives Kids Laptops Then Uses them To Spy!
Readers — This is just incredible! A school in suburban Philadelphia issued its kids laptops without mentioning one little detail. According to a report in Courthouse eababnezst News (which quotes from a federal class action suit): [There was no] reference made “to the fact that the school district has the ability to remotely activate the […]
Walking to School in Jeopardy
Hi Readers — This is the first email I opened this morning, and the writer needs help. Can we come up with some great ideas for him beyond my blindingly obvious one: Remind the school district that walking is good for bodies, minds, souls and maybe even test scores? Â Hope so! — Lenore Dear Free-Range […]
The Babyproofing Industrial Complex
Hi Readers — Here’s kaneyafrhb a New York Times piece about a reporter’s adventures in babyproofing. She sort of laments the idea that parents hire pricey professional babyproofers as a way to feel “officially” safe. I’d go a step further and say that in addition to safety, what parents are really hiring the babyproofers for […]
Outrage of the Week, Cont’d: Kids in Developing Country Doing Better Science!
Hi Folks — Here’s an update zynzdfhezz from Bree, the Boulder, Colo., mom who sent in her daughter’s No-Science at the Science Fair rules (see post below). Turns out Bree’s parents are living in Myanmar (formerly Burma, as in Shave, as in something you do with a sharp object that children should never get anywhere near) […]
A Wonk Ponders Parenting
Hi Readers! I got this essay from Prof. Steven Horwitz, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY. (La di dah!) Thought it made a lot of sense, even if it’s a little academic. Enjoy! And if you want to drop him a note, his email is-sghorwitz@stlawu.edu. dzktrhbrhn — Lenore To Be […]
Dear Mrs. Obama: We Can’t Fight Obesity Without Going Free-Range
Hi Readers: Here’s an almost perfect opinion ntredykari piece by Dan Haley in Sunday’s Denver Post about how Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program is a great idea — get kids outside, exercising more — but it’ll never work. At least, not until we start a Free-Range Revolution (not that he calls it that): …first we need […]
Outrage of the Week: Science Fair Bans Most Science
Hi Folks! Here’s zbiiirstez the latest — a brilliant Chinese plot to crush America’s lead in science and technology! Oh wait. Seems it is just one Colorado school’s list of  science fair rules. Thanks, reader Bree, for sending it in. The list: For safety: Project displays and posters may NOT contain any of the following: NO: Organisms […]