Readers, tomorrow is Take Our Children to the Park…and Leave Them There Day, our fifth annual celebration of the once very normal, unremarkable activity called KIDS PLAYING WITH OTHER KIDS, without a security detail. To celebrate, just take or send your children, generally about age 7 and up, to your local park at around 10 a.m., and figure out a time and way for them to get home. Then tell them whatever they need to know, and say goodbye. This is a lovely way for them to get used to: 1 – Coming up with something to do, without a…
Author: lskenazy
Folks — I have a piece that just went on up Quartz about the future of childhood. Some of the issues and items I discuss you’ve read about here already, but not this one: …By 2024, it’s possible that letting kids do anything on their own will be considered completely irresponsible, or even insane. But just knowing a child’s whereabouts won’t be enough. Parents will also know what’s going on inside their kids. Once DNA analysis upon birth becomes routine, children’s diets and lifestyles will change, says Will Palley, trends strategist at the ad agency JWT. The genomic read-out will…
Readers — Below is a 1962 letter from the British Board of Film Censors to Gregory Peck, who starred as Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It’s fun to read, not just because it’s from before the world knew what a classic the movie would become, but because it’s Free-Range! Paragraph two reads: “The theme is one which touches our work closely. [Remember — these are censors!] We feel that it is not only wrong but impossible to shield children completely from the wickedness of the world, and we feel that through seeing something of it they may discover…
Hey Readers — This far-flung librarian has a question I’d like to know the answer to, too! – L Dear Free-Range Kids: I was hoping you and your readers could help me. I work in an English Library in Japan. Our patrons are expats from many different parts of the world, but primarily American. I have recently had a request from a patron wanting books on “Stranger Danger.” Oh how I hate that phrase. [Lenore here: Me too!] We do have the lovely “Berenstain Bears Learn about stranger,” but I do think we need more, but not…
Readers — This is part of a “rant” from over at BabyCenter. It struck a chord (and not just because it’s partly about piano recitals). As you may know, I am smitten with the work of Peter Gray about how playing (i.e., doing something “just” for fun) is the key to learning. I also loved my visit to the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, MA, where there are no grades (3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.) and no grades (A,B, C,D, F). It seems like it’s a place where all the kids would slack off, but instead they buzz with purpose. They…
Readers, I wish I could remember which of you sent this to me. I love it. It is based on a true story from 1986. Enjoy! – L
Readers — One of you sent me this ad with a nice note about how Free-Range it is. So why is my finger lodged halfway down my throat? Because it reeks of fake. Because it screams “Faaaaaaaaaaaake!” Because it IS fake. It’s fake like the movies about the ’60s that show tie dyed shirts in way brighter colors than were around back then. Fake like the movies about the Depression where you can tell some film studies intern painstakingly created the holes in the sharecropper’s overalls. I DO want kids to play with boxes, to build things together, to hang…
As usual, the “It’s Complicated” author danah boyd has nailed it. In this piece, she contrasts the usual image we have of an online predator (middle aged guys lurking on Club Penguin) with the reality (teens talking sex with each other, or with adults that they KNOW want sex). This reality gap means not only do we teach our kids the least helpful lessons (“Evil strangers are out to get you!”). It also means we encourage cops to masquerade as sexy jailbait on line, as if they are combating an incredibly pervasive crime. This is not to say that no…
Readers — This just in. Literally, this is the whole story, by reporter Carol Robinson. Bigger point? See post below this one: “If You See Something, Say Something.” That poster should come with an asterisk: *WE DON’T LITERALLY MEAN THAT WHEN YOU SEE ANYTHING YOU SHOULD SAY SOMETHING! – L. PLEASANT GROVE, Alabama – Pleasant Grove Middle School was evacuated a short time ago and school is being dismissed for the day after a teacher found a suspicious drink bottle in her classroom. Police received the call about 1 p.m., said Sgt. Danny Reid. The drink bottle is aluminum…
Readers — This whole “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign makes me crazy, since it completely legitimizes — nay, DEMANDS — worst-first thinking: “Oh, a brown paper bag on the subway. It’s not that someone forgot her lunch, it’s PROBABLY A NUKE! I must alert the authorities!” Likewise, when it comes to parenting, we now have onlookers dialing 911 when they see a child waiting in a car or walking home from school, on the assumption that the child isn’t simply on his or her own for a few, inconsequential (even blessed!) minutes, but in GRAVE DANGER of SOMETHING…