What is so important to show our schools? This USA Today article that states, unequivocally, our schools are NOT GETTING LESS SAFE and so they don’t need new security measures (boldface mine): It’d be easy to conclude that school has never been a more dangerous place, but for the USA’s 55 million K-12 students and 3.7 million teachers, statistics tell another story: Despite two decades of high-profile shootings, school increasingly has become a safer place. …”I think (the concern) has to do with the psychological impact of some of these incidents,” says David Esquith, director of the U.S. Department of…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — Here’s a letter I just got from a fellow journalist I’ve met a few times, and like: Dear Lenore: I hate to say this but I think the helicopter mommies are right. Now that I am seeing kids in college who grew up this way, I have to admit they are pretty darn perfect. They are getting into the best schools, they are well behaved, they are kind and smart and lovely, they are getting great jobs (oh yes, with their parents’ help but hey it’s working for them!) and they never seem to get into trouble. I…
Readers — This story from The Telegraph makes Kafka look like Louisa May Alcott. I don’t share it as a tale of, “Look what’s happening all the time!” because, thank God, it is unique. What it does illustrate is what happens when the government is allowed to make parenting decisions. Drastic ones. Always, of course, “for the sake of the child.”- L. ‘Operate on this mother so that we can take her baby’ A mother was given a caesarean section while unconscious – then social services put her baby into care by Christopher Booker Last summer a pregnant Italian mother…
From today’s New York Times’ obit about Al Plastino, who drew scores of Superman comic books from the 1940s through the 1960s, as well as the Superman and Batman newspaper comic strips: Alfred John Plastino was born on Dec. 15, 1921, in Manhattan and grew up in the Bronx. His mother died when he was 6. His father, who made hats and sold them from a store on Fifth Avenue, often dropped his son off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where young Al would sketch Monets and Michaelangelos. In other words, Al’s dad left him alone, as a child,…
Readers — It is downright BIZARRE that we have criminalized normal behavior that’s consensual. That’s what has happened to teens who have sex, write Shelly Snow, author of the blog With Justice for All: Dear Free-Range Kids: I just finished reading your birthday blog, and I realized, as I have before, that much that you advocate for is “the way it used to be.” It hit me so strong because I have just had an interesting–to say the least–commenting exchange on an article. I was trying to make the point of the necessity to distinguish between a statutory-but-otherwise-consensual situation, and…
Hi Readers — Today is my birthday, so I’m taking the opportunity to tell you a little bit about what I do besides blogging. (Or you can just watch this video.) I’m a newspaper gal by training. For 14 years I was on staff at The New York Daily News, first as a features writer, then as an opinions columnist. My weekly column is still syndicated. When the News job ended, I landed at The New York Sun, which I loved. That paper is famous for its 1897 column, “Yes, Virginia, There IS a Santa Claus,” and also perhaps for…
Folks — You’ll enjoy this post, “A Terrible Mother’s Holiday Guide to Dangerous Gifts,” by Katrina Fernandez, which begins: … I am terrible mother, with little regard for my son’s safety. I let him play outside after dark, armed with nothing more than a flashlight. For birthdays and Christmas, I buy him things like knives and duct tape. He is routinely left unsupervised in the yard. Sounds Free-Range to me! Anyway, she endorses other gifts, including freeze-dried food and a subscription to Popular Mechanics. I’d add to that list “50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do),” by Gever…
From my mailbox: Hi Lenore, Fadi Adawi, former Deputy County Sheriff in California’s Central Valley, took his career from fighting crime on the streets to developing one of the world’s largest websites, InstantCheckmate.com, which helps people be proactive about their safety. As a former law enforcement officer, Fadi learned that looks can be deceiving—criminals often look just like you and me. Fadi recommends using Instant Checkmate to screen the parents of your children’s friends to know who is supervising their play date…[and] to investigate your college daughter’s new boyfriend to be sure he doesn’t have a criminal record, and much…
Readers — I find this story by Colleen Creamer flabbergasting: A grandmother in the tiny town of Charlotte, TN, allowed her four grandkids, ages 7 – 12, to ride up and down her street. For this she found herself in violation of a 2003 city code that declares no one can “ride an all terrain vehicle, skateboard, roller blades and roller skates or conduct similar activities on city streets, in the city park or on the Court Square of Charlotte.” While that Grinch-y list doesn’t mention bikes, Mayor Bill Davis told The Tennessean paper that it was “absolutely” true that…
From My Mailbox: Dear Blogger: We’ve all seen or heard of the hit movie “Taken” starring the beloved Liam Neeson, where his daughter is kidnapped upon arrival to Europe without a single trace as to where she might have disappeared. Ever since, this movie has given nightmares to parents and travelers alike who can’t anticipate whether they might be the next to be snatched up. What if travelers could be tracked internationally and have access to a phone with an international data plan at their fingertips? Darned if that wasn’t EXACTLY the question I was asking myself: What if MY…