Readers — What’s interesting about this lockdown story, which took place at Wharton High School in Tampa, FL, after a student reported hearing something or other about a gun, is not just that kids were locked in their classrooms for seven hours. It’s not just that one kid admitted (on camera!) that he ended up peeing in a bottle. It’s not even that in the end, a girl said she was grateful to the school for “keeping us safe” — from a threat that never materialized. No, what’s interesting is that I have no idea how we can stop this…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — Let this not be the future of fun (from The Toronto Star): Staff and Grade 8 students at an inner-city Toronto school were looking forward to the three-day graduation trip to an idyllic nature camp in Eastern Ontario — until they were informed they couldn’t canoe, kayak or try archery. And swimming, rope activities and campfires? Only if “sufficient proof of safety” was provided ahead of time, along with “a script of safety routines and insurance in case of injuries.” With the requested documentation and swim tests near-impossible to complete before kids were to leave June 10, the…
Readers — Many of you have sent this story about Hawaii dad Robert Demond who made his son walk home a mile and was found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. For this he was put on one year’s probation, and forced to taking a parenting class and pay a fine. Demond told the judge that it was a common form of punishment when he was a kid and that he didn’t see it as morally wrong or criminal. He had picked his son up from school and questioned him about a matter that came to his attention.…
Hi Readers — Here’s an email exchange from my mailbox. My comments are in red: Hi Lenore! Happy Wednesday I hope you are having a good one. I am writing to you from northern Alberta, Canada with a question I am really just hoping to get your advice on. I have a 9 (going-on-19) year old, very smart, free range daughter. One of her friend’s mother asked me if my daughter could go camping with them this weekend and I so want to say yes but I am really struggling with this one. The two girls have gone…
From my “Let’s totally not believe in our kids” file comes this press release. I say “not believe” because it is only fear that would make anyone think that literacy must be shoved into a 2-year-old — fear that playing and exploring are not enough, fear that a child’s brain is already atrophying, or missing out on “real” education. As if play ISN’T education. As if kids aren’t PRIMED to learn, and must have knowledge crammed into them, or hidden like medicine in “fun and games” directed by adults. This is so false — the idea that kids aren’t learning…
Rachel Fracassa describes herself as a” long-time reader and Free-Range mom of four,” whose family is always “off creating new adventures.” Their latest project is The NightLight, which rates/recommends products for babies and parents. WHAT FRIGHTENS MY FAMILY by Rachel Fracassa Six filthy bare feet run along the gravel drive and hop over a leaf-littered creek to get to the pasture where their father is buried. It’s just a field, like any other along 7 highway, but under a little Swamp Oak is a rock – a rock with my daughter’s scrawl “DADDY.” And beneath that, a grave. We don’t…
Hi Folks — The other day I was visiting friends in Rye, NY, where darned if kids weren’t playing outside,unsupervised, even making up their own games. Our host challenged me to find out: Why? Why are some neighborhoods still Free-Range, while others aren’t? I decided to ask that question of the folks in the RV’ing world, a Free-Range culture if ever there was one, and here’s part of my the piece I wrote up for the Huffington Post: Why Do Helicopter Parents Loosen Up at Campgrounds? Most of us remember playing outside till the streetlights came on, but our kids…
The new Legoland that opened in Somerville, outside of Boston, requires all visitors to come fully equipped with a child, reports Doug Saffir at boston.com. He quotes the tickets page which reads: Please be reminded LEGOLAND Discovery Center Boston is a children’s attraction. Adults must be accompanied by a child in order to enter the attraction. Please book into one of our exclusive Adult Nights, starting this Summer, if you wish to experience the attraction. Have we really come to the point where we see ANY interaction between young and old as the perfect petri dish for perversion? It certainly…
Readers — This is a fascinating piece for us to chew on this weekend by Steven Horwitz, the Charles A. Dana Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. Chew on! – L The Risks of Mental Shortcuts about Risks by Steven Horwitz One of the great things that the Free-Range Kids movement has done is to remind parents that their perceptions of what is dangerous to their kids are often at odds with the statistical facts. The things that we often think are dangerous, like Halloween candy and stranger abduction, are…
Readers — Share some ideas or I will take your toy and hit you over the head with it: Dear Free-Range Kids: I am a Free-Range mom all the way. My problem is that everything has become so skewed in regards to childcare that I don’t even know what’s reasonable. My son is still pretty little (he turns 3 this weekend) but I am trying to implement Free-Range principles even now. He has a lot of unstructured playtime where he is expected to entertain himself, I’ve recently started letting him play alone in our privacy-fenced yard where I can keep…