UPDATE: The school that suspended 17-year-old Chaz Seale for accidentally packing a beer instead of a soda in his lunch has relented and is now allowing him BACK. Lucky him! Going back to where the folks in charge can’t tell the difference between a crime and a mistake! Anyway, his “minor in possession” charge will be dropped, too. I was happy to read that the superintendent admitted that the school officials botched this. Maybe they can be suspended for 60 days? — L. Readers — I don’t like to simply chronicle the stunningly asinine decisions made by school administrators…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — This is just a rather perfect illustration of the way our society works now, when it comes to parents, schools, media, fear, mistakes and, heck, let’s throw in umbrage. A great-grandpa picked up the wrong kindergartener from school. The two boys had similar hats, and the one gramps took home had his hat pulled all the way over his head. Frankly, I can see how that could happen. Gramps got home, realized his mistake, alerted the school. The principal called the mom to say her son had been accidentally picked up by the wrong man — someone known…
Readers — I was looking up “rat experiments” (don’t ask!) and came upon this incredible comic by Stuart McMillen, tracing the lure of drugs on two sets of rats: One group held in isolated pens, the other in “Rat Park” — a fragrant, outdoorsy pen filled with things to explore and a bunch of fellow rats. If you read the comic, I think you’ll see the rat/kid analogy as plain as the whiskers on your face. Er…nose. While we can’t precisely extrapolate from rats to humans, it does seem significant that when the rats are cooped up, isolated (but safe…
Readers — Please first take a guess as to why the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled these shoes last week. Then, read the real rationale. (Boldface mine.) Recall Date: February 20, 2014 Eastman Footwear Recalls Coleman Runestone Children’s Shoes Due to Laceration Hazard WASHINGTON, D.C. – Consumers should stop using this product unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product. Hazard: The metal rivets surrounding the holes where the shoestring is secured on the shoes can have sharp edges, posing a laceration hazard. Units: About 12,200 Description: The Runestone children’s shoes…
Readers — Welcome to the wisdom of Philip Howard, the lawyer, intellectual, and founder of Common Good, whose book “Life Without Lawyers” opened my eyes to how we got so risk-averse. Here’s that whole book boiled down, more or less, in a recent blogpost by Howard. It explains how we got to the point where we feel free to sue everybody for everything, and the effect this fear of being sued has. The red ink is my effort to BOLD his great points: The Evil of Investing in Litigation, by Philip Howard …A side effect of the 1960s rights revolution…
Folks — Wendy Mogel got the anti-helicopter parenting movement rolling with her book, ‘The Blessings of a Skinned Knee.” Here’s a taste of her fabulous “Overparenting Anonymous” List that I wish I had tattooed (just for the first 20 years or so) on my arm: OVERPARENTING ANONYMOUS A 26-step program for good parents gone bad, by Wendy Mogel I’ve written these steps to provide encouragement to well-intentioned, devoted, loving, intelligent parents who feel powerless to stop themselves from overindulging, overprotecting, and overscheduling their children. Parents who get jittery if their offspring aren’t close to perfect in every area. And parents…
Readers — Sometimes I can’t believe how hard it is for kids to find anyone to play with outside. Some days my sports-loving son, now 15, still comes straight home, only because all the other kids were doing that, too. So — here’s an alternative you might want to try: Rather than relying on parents to spontaneously let their kids go out and play (which I hope will happen again some day), a Florida parent has started organizing “Good Time Sports” every other Sunday at a local park. Kids come and play casually organized games. Parents pay $10, which goes…
Readers — This is a video made by a Norwegian group, SOS Children’s Villages, that gives out coats to Syrians freezing through the war and winter. If you wish to feel good about humanity, click to play. If you wish to help, too, here’s the link. — L
How should the tragic news of a 10-year-old Hailey Owens’ abduction and murder change us? For me, it will mean feeling sickeningly sad for her and her family. And beyond that, it will mean a call for… Nothing. Not more laws protecting kids — there are already laws against murder. Not more police on the street — I don’t want a cop on every cul de sac. Not more stringent laws against those on the Sex Offender Registry — added strictures have not been shown to make kids any safer. So how about more oversight of kids? How about advising…
Hi Friends — I haven’t read this book, so let reader Barbara Crooks explain: Dear Free-Range Kids: I have been reading your blog for a very long time and learned from it that I was a Free-Range parent without knowing it. I learned today just how bad it is in today’s culture for men. How did I come to this understanding you might ask. Well, I was reading a Stephen King novel. It must be truly bad out there when one of the characters in a horror novel (who happens to be our hero) is worried about talking to a…