Readers — This is just a fascinating artifact from the world of Worst-First thinking, where folks believe today’s children are completely besieged by criminal masterminds (or at least the last of the phonebook users) who are driven in equal measures by rank evil and a love of intensive research. It ran as a letter to the Press Enterprise paper in Bloomsburg, PA (boldface mine): To the Editor: I am writing this letter as a concerned former resident of the Bloomsburg area, and am a reader of the Press Enterprise. I no longer live in the area but still return to…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — While we’re thinking back on news stories that changed childhood (see the post below this one, on Kitty Genovese), take a look at this video just released by the New York Times chronicling the McMartin pre-school Santanic panic. If this intrigues or outrages you (it will), I’d also recommend the incredibly gripping James Woods’ movie about the case, “Indictment,” as well as Debbie Nathan’s book, Satan’s Silence: Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt. Debbie is in the Times’ video, too. – L \
From my piece on Time.com today. (Time writes the headlines, not me): How Kitty Genovese Destroyed Childhood We once may have been too slow to call the cops. Now we’ll dial 911 if we see a couple kids walking alone to get pizza. by Lenore Skenazy Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death 50 years ago today. She was 28. A tragedy. The press reported 38 onlookers heard her screams and decided not to intervene. That account has since come under fire, but it nonetheless created a perception of ourselves (and certainly New Yorkers) as unconscionably reluctant to get involved. We’ve…
…his plans for the future could be DOA. According to David Lohr in the Huffington Post: A high school senior in Ohio is facing felony charges after officials at the technical school he was attending for firefighter training searched his vehicle and found a pocketknife. The young man’s future and his dreams of serving the public are now in jeopardy. “If I am convicted of a felony, I’m never going to be a police officer. I’m never going to be a fireman. I’m never going to be in the military,” Jordan Wiser told The Huffington Post. “I won’t even be…
Parents at North Farmington High School in Michigan want the school to halt production of “Carrie” as this year’s musical, reports Aileen Wingblad in the Detroit Free Press. They say it is disturbing and insensitive. My favorite complaint from a parent at the Board of Ed meeting was this: Lyrics refer to sex, alcohol, marijuana and violence, she noted, which “is making our job as worried parents even harder as we try to keep our children physically and emotionally safe. These lyrics throw all our efforts back in our faces.” I love that she actually refers to her cohort as…
Readers –This is a wonderful and well-researched piece on Slate by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, who seems to have written articles on everything that interests and outrages me, including Satanic panic (a FANTASTIC and oh-so-disturbing story), and how junk science can put innocent people behind bars for a very long time. But this time she’s writing about high-tech baby monitors like the Mimo and Owlet, sold to parents as essential for peace of mind: Linda writes: [The American Academy of Pediatricians advises] “Avoid commercial devices marketed to reduce the risk of SIDS. … There is no evidence that these devices…
Hi Readers! This comes to us from play-writer/thinker Bernie DeKoven. Bernie was a computer game design pioneer and worked with major toy and game companies. Many of his games are taught in elementary schools around the world. His books include The Well-Played Game, Junkyard Sports, and most recently, A Playful Path. He blogs at DeepFun.com, which I was just browsing and found SO MANY fun games, like “Mitt Rowdy.” An inspriation! – L OF SPOONS AND WAR, by BERNIE DEKOVEN It started out as the straightforward game of Spoons. You know the straightforward game of spoons? You place a bunch…
Readers — This comes to us from one of my favorite thinker/writer/lawyers: David Pimentel. In 2012 he wrote the wonderful piece, “Child Neglect and the Free-Range Parent: Is Overprotective Parenting the New Standard of Care?” Alas, in some legal ways, it is. Now he’visiting the issue of what happens when Child Protective Services believes Free-Range Parenting is negligence. It’s not and we have to let the people in power KNOW! (Boldface is mine.) – L. M’am, did you deliberately allow your child to frolic unsupervised? Pimentel writes to us: As many of your posts acknowledge, Free-Range parents are resisting a…
Readers — This is an amazing article from The New Republic by Jenny Jarvie about a phenom called “trigger warnings” — warnings written on blog posts and, increasingly, everywhere else, that tell folks that the material they’re about to read may “trigger” awful thoughts: Initially, trigger warnings were used in self-help and feminist forums to help readers who might have post traumatic stress disorder to avoid graphic content that might cause painful memories, flashbacks, or panic attacks. But they kept spreading, and now: Last week, student leaders at the University of California, Santa Barbara, passed a resolution urging officials to…
Let’s remember we can all BE LIKE THIS LADY! And like the school kids, too. Let’s replace suspicion and fear with WARMTH! God knows this is a winter we really need it! – L.