Readers — One of the fundamentals of Free-Range Kids is that kids are not in constant need of adult supervision. That includes adult-supervised enrichment. Some enrichment is fine — better than fine, it’s good! But replacing all free time with adult-led activities is like replacing all whole grains with enriched white flour. At some point in society, we thought that was for the best. It was new and improved! Now we are rethinking it. That’s why I love the work of Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn. I also appreciate this essay, “The Kids Don’t Play Anymore,” by…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — It’s great to be neighborly and share info. It’s less great when little blips turn into fears turn into anger turn into the quote in the headline, which comes to us from this Facebook exchange, sent in by a reader named Adam Parson (who deleted all the other last names). – L Cathy: Just an FYI, there was a silver/gray mid size car sitting at the bus stop this morning, car running and headlights on. When I got to the stop with my child, the car slowly pulled up, drove around the cup-de-sac, and left. I couldn’t see…
Folks — This story is one that is perhaps a little less egregious than it appears at first blush. On Monday, a middle school banned its students from wearing t-shirts memorializing a 6th grader, Caitlyn Jackson, who died of leukemia over the weekend: …as students arrived in the memorial shirts Monday morning, school administrators asked them to change the shirts, turn them inside out, or put duct tape over Caitlyn’s name. That’s ridiculous. Agreed. The school’s reasoning? Jones said the district’s decision was based on its “crisis management plan,” which she said is “based on a lot of research and…
Readers — This is a fantastic essay from Parents, by Kara Corridan, the magazine’s health editor. Read the whole thing here. – L Worry Doesn’t Equal Love by Kara Corridan Lately I’ve felt as though I’m part of a competition I didn’t enter. It’s called “Who Loves Her Child More?” And I seem to be losing–if the only way to succeed in it is to worry. It started at the church carnival. My almost-4-year-old found one of the few rides she was tall enough to go on, the kind where you sit in an “animal” that goes up and…
Readers — This tragedy happened over the summer, but recently resurfaced as an investigation opened. Briefly: A British man was taking photos of teens vandalizing his hanging plants in order to give their pictures to the police. But he was mistaken for a “pedo” taking pictures of teens for kicks. When the police came to get him, the neighborhood screamed, “Pedo! Pedo!” as he was led away. Although the police quickly realized their error and understood the man was perfectly innocent, he was murdered two days later. Here’s the note I got about it: Dear Free-Range Kids: Proud Free-Range mom…
Okay, if you’ve seen this before, maybe you can remain composed through the end. Otherwise — good luck. The Free-Ramge angle? Um…I’m not sure, except that let’s not underestimate kids. Ever. – L. Pass it on!
Readers, I’m sure that plenty of people think that it is a GREAT idea to stage the mock abduction of a child and then get all the local crime fighters involved. But not me. Staging an event like this makes it seem as if stranger abductions are common, or at least on the increase. In fact, they are the rarest of crimes. And, according to Kenneth V. Lanning, a 30-year vet of the FBI, who consults on crimes against children: “I am aware of no research that indicates that children today are any more likely to be abducted by sexual…
Readers — Why are more kids coming down with rickets? Possibly because they aren’t getting enough sunlight. And why is that? Of course a helicoptering society plays its role. But so does atrocious city planning, as you’ll feel in your (possibly softening) bones when you read this fantastic essay by Rachel Cooke in The Guardian: Rickets is on the rise, but let’s not consider it a Victorian throwback, more of a symptom of our airless lifestyle by Rachel Cooke Do you ever feel like you are living in a dystopian novel by JG Ballard? I know that I do. Take…
Folks — All I have to go on, regarding this story, is this one kind of confusing article about an Oregon school district that seems to be trying to comply with state-mandated physical education goals by having its kids, K-5, simply walk or run around a track for their recess (which sounds like it either doubles as gym class or IS their gym class — can you figure it out?). Parents and kids of Jacksonville Elementary School say physical fitness shouldn’t be limited to endless circles on the school’s track in order to comply with the state’s physical education mandates.…
Readers — To use my friend Gever Tulley’s term, we are geniuses when it comes to “dangerizing.” To dangerize is to take a hitherto normal activity or item and re-interpret it as something dangerous. That’s how we get baby knee pads — we dangerize crawling. And Halloween restrictions — we dangerize trick or treating. And now, a school in British Columbia has banned kindergarteners from touching each other at recess: According to The Globe and Mail: Why did the school make the new rule? The [school’s] letter cites playground injuries that have come from games and other forms of hands-on…