What happens when something safe is seen through the eyes of cultural prejudice, and thus declared dangerous and depraved? Well, in the olden days, a woman who seemed powerful or spooky might be considered dangerous and depraved: a witch. That sometimes ended in stoning. More recently, a black man looking at a white woman might be considered dangerous and depraved: the equivalent of a rapist. That sometimes ended in lynching. And today, a parent who lets his or her kid wait in the car while running an errand can also be considered dangerous and depraved: A monster. That sometimes ends…
Author: lskenazy
This story by Carol Nestikis, the mom of a 30something, intellectually disabled “sex offender,” is eye-opening and heart-wrenching. The sex offense laws much change. They are not making kids safer. They are just a simple, slimy way for politicians to sound like they are doing something “for the sake of our precious children.” Well the son in this story is a precious child, too: When Adam was a toddler, he was diagnosed as having an intellectual and developmental disability (the updated term for “mental retardation”). Many clinicians over the years have confirmed that he will never have the ability to…
THIS HEADLINE STINKS: “Bergen Boy, 13, Says Men In Landscaping Truck Tried To Abduct Him” You will note from the article that it turned out to be a misunderstanding (the boy didn’t understand the landscapers, who were speaking Spanish) and police determined there was NO ABDUCTION ATTEMPT. But if you glanced at the headline, you’d be scared for your kids — which is exactly what it was designed to do. Attract you, scare you, and add another notch to the site’s metrics as you click. That this is spreading baseless fear, and prejudice, and leading to a society…
So many times, autumn do-it-yourself projects for kids end up being things like, “Take a leaf and make it into a hair ornament by sticking it into your hair.” Over at Let Grow, we’ve got some much more beautiful and scientific ideas. For instance, did you know you can extract the color from a leaf? Be-leaf me, it’s true! Click here to see the list of seven projects. Photo credit: Me! Those are my leaves!
Here’s a plea from a 5th grade teacher who wants parents to stop doing their kids’ homework. He knows it is tempting, he knows it is quicker, he knows that it’s horrible to watch your kid squirm and struggle. But he also knows when you’re stepping in, Steinbeck. Read his thoughts, over at Let Grow, by clicking here. Photo by Taylor Wilcox on Unsplash
You relate? Here’s TV producer Michael Peyton’s take on trying to hold it together while his kids are doing jumping jacks and band practice and his 4th grade son is “heading upstairs with a bag of yeast, a banana, and a plastic bag” for science class. Read Michael’s essay at Let Grow by clicking here. Photo from Unsplash by @mparzuchowski.
Click here and just go enjoy a wonderful, rangy, funny essay by middle school teacher Elizabeth Peyton. She confesses to having a hard time with all the tech: “I barely know how to navigate Google classroom. I deleted myself from the staff email group by accident, lost access to all my lesson plans, blamed my assistant principal, and…” She also delivered part of her class on mute. But she’s also stunned by all the parents showing up online as if they are attending school with their kids. She has a 4th grader of her own, and when he asked her…
It’s never too early! “Teach kids to embrace listening to different points of view,” writes Holly Korbey over at Let Grow. In these polarizing times, it can make a huge difference! Example: When Irshad Manji was 14, she asked “too many questions” during her Saturday religious school, and they kicked her out. Irshad, author of “Don’t Label Me” and Let Grow’s director of courage, curiosity & character, walked the long way home to think about how to present this to her mother. But instead of demanding she go back and beg for forgiveness, her mother asked for something else.…
Vanessa Peoples was at family picnic in Aurora, Colorado, when her toddler wandered off. She noticed him missing and ran after him, but not before a lady had scooped him up and dialed 911 to report a missing child — and bad mom. By the time the fallout from this total non-event was over, Vanessa would be hog-tied by the cops in her own home and carried out, she says, “like a pig on a stick.” You can read the whole story over at the blog Reason, where it was written by my colleague, Diane Redleaf, a lawyer who has…
As horrible as I find banning books, the practice does have one thing going for it: Kids who may not be big-time readers seem to love them. In this extremely cool and original essay over at Let Grow today, Elizabeth Peyton, a middle school teacher, writes that: I’ve found that if I want to pique kids’ interest in a book, I just have to tell them they need a signed permission slip to read it. I teach kids who catch the school bus outside of low-income housing, ride through deprived neighborhoods, and learn in a building where the heat and…