Hi Readers! Here’s today’s story from across the pond (thank you, Virtual Linguist, for sending it along): A father who lets his 7 year old daughter walk to and from the school bus stop has been threatened by the authorities who say they may report him to child protective services. And just how far away is the bus stop? 20 yards. The girl has to cross what the dad calls a country lane on the way. He thinks it’s very safe. He thinks his daughter is capable of handling it. But apparently, the local county council does not. And while…
Author: lskenazy
Hey Folks — Look at this illuminating list of what constitutes “news,” at least according to the Minnesota Associated Press guidelines for reporters, as posted on the blog Business Insider and first reported by Libby Reinish on savethenews.org. Note that train wrecks, airplane crashes and drownings are news, as are car crashes if there are “multiple victims or unusual circumstances.” Fatal fires, exceptionally violent robberies, ice storms and damaging floods are also all “news,” while plain vanilla deaths are not. That’s why it always seems like the world is coming to an end: Only the worst, creepiest, goriest stuff, as…
Hi Folks — Read it and weep, but not too hard or you may get suspended from school! Two days after a 16-year-old Texan’s dad died, he decided to return to school to feel a little normal again. Except when he arrived late and went to the office for a tardy pass, the admins noticed his suspiciously red eyes and suspended him for suspected marijuana use. Didn’t matter that he did not appear high, or that no one said they’d seen him smoking, or that there wasn’t any marijuana on him. His mom took him to a doctor who did…
Hi Readers — Here’s a plea for some great ideas from a mom whose “excellent” public school has killed recess. Has your school tried this, too, and realized its folly? If so, how did it come to its senses? Or is your school considering this and you, too, are trying to figure out how to stop the soul-crushing steamroller of “test success at all costs”? Do tell! — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: My son just started kindergarten a few weeks ago and I have been so worried about the lack of “Free-Range”-ness in schools — like free choice and play…
Greetings, Readers, from the land of the free, home of the — YIKES! A stuffed animal! Perhaps you’ve heard this story: Yesterday, a stuffed-animal about 2 feet high standing near a school caused imaginations to go wild in Orlando (where you’d never, ever expect to see a large, fake animal). It was a pony-shaped thing and the bomb squad was summoned. Next thing you know, the school goes into “modified lockdown,” the neighborhood gets cordoned off, a robot is sent it to examine the stuffed animal. In sci-fi, the robots are always smart. But here in the real world, this…
Hi Readers! This woman needs our help devising good arguments to bring to her pre-k’s PTA. Over to you! — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m a regular reader of your blog and love to hear your input and that of your readers on Free-Range issues. Well, my Free-Range issue came up while I was at preschool orientation for parents the other day. The orientation leader announced that all the fund-raising money this year will be used to buy a security system. I first thought I’d misunderstood. I wondered why a small co-op preschool in a church in a quiet neighborhood…
Hi Readers — All of you, including the new ones who caught my piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. It was all about the fact that so few kids are walking to school these days — about one in ten. And here’s a note that sums up the whole craziness: Dear Free-Range Kids: My son started kindergarten and the dismissal procedure is for the teacher to open her classroom door to the outside and let the kids out if she sees a parent or person assigned to pick up the child. When I asked another parent about letting the kids…
One of my sons — I had to swear I wouldn’t tell you which — got 8th place in summer bowling! Out of how many teams? Well, I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but it was a single digit number. Naturally he got a trophy! P.S. For the record, the 9th place winner (can we possibly call him the, er, loser?) gets a “Horse’s A**” trophy, which my son says he was aiming for. Because THAT, at least, would have been pretty cool.
Hi Readers! This cautionary note just in: Dear Free-Range Kids: I wish I had been raised Free-Ranged. What parents don’t seem to realize is that when your parents are constantly hovering, it’s like being told No You Can’t every single day. I am sixteen years old. I am sixteen years old, I don’t drink, I don’t even LIKE parties, and I have never even seen a real joint. I am a straight A student who is currently taking more college courses than a college freshman. I am also, apparently, too irresponsible to ride my bike to school. Or to my…
Hi Readers — Here’s an INSPIRING story about what we can do when life hands us paranoid neighbors, officious cops and maybe a lemon, for good measure. Let’s hear it for Lori LeVar Pierce, the small town mom and teacher we first heard from in 2009 when she let her son walk to soccer and a local police officer slammed her for negligence. Here’s the original piece. And here’s her local paper’s editorial piling on, reminding her that “things are different now,” the days of “Mayberry…are gone,” and rare but terrible things could have happened to her son in the…