Hi Readers — Not quite sure what this has to do with Free-Range other than: Never underestimate the power of a 14-year-old girl! The one in this New Zealand incident gave her attacker a whack and lived to tell the (shark) tale. — Lenore
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Here are the rules for a school dance in Wisconsin. As summarized by The Smoking Gun, they include “no ‘sexual bending’ [or] the touching of breasts, buttocks, or genitals. Leg straddling is also verboten. Additionally, students are on notice that ‘Both feet must remain on the dance floor at all times.'” As awkward as the term “sexual bending” might be, I don’t share The Smoking Gun’s obvious scorn for the school banning it. The rules seem designed to keep dance what it used to be: A metaphor for something else, rather than a hands-on demonstration. Old fogey?…
In the interview portion of Saturday Night’s Miss America pageant, Caressa Cameron (Miss Virginia), was asked to talk about childhood obesity. To which she responded, “We need to get our kids back outside, playing with sticks in the street like I did when I was little…Expand your mind, go outside and get to see what this world is like.” She won! For this, we unofficially crown Caressa Miss Free-Range America 2010. If and when we ever meet, we will gift unto her: a stick. Wield it with pride, Caressa. But be careful not to poke somebody’s eye out. — Lenore
Hey Teachers (and everyone else, of course): I’m going to be talking to a few teachers groups in the near future and would love to hear tips from any of you who have figured out how to incorporate some Free-Range ideas into your classrooms. Is there a way you’ve figured out to add free time or encourage independence? Do yo have any great thoughts on making homework shorter and/or recess longer? Or, if you’re teaching older students, any smart ways of helping them to feel and act more grown-up (in a good way)? Any special tips for those teaching special…
Hi Readers — Thought you might enjoy this peek at the lunchtime shenanigans at one American school. (Well, perhaps “enjoy” is not quite the right word, but anyway.) A reader writes: At the beginning of the school year we got a list that forbade nuts and nut products, which is pretty standard these days. My daughter started coming home from school complaining that she was told her apples should have been “without the skin” and that oranges were “dangerous,” because there is a kid in the school who is allergic. I contacted the school and asked them to explain…
Hi Readers! Sometimes I think our society has come so far from darkness to enlightenment (no more Inquisition, for instance; no more Scarlet A’s) that we have come full circle and are now back to being idiots. A case in point? This principal’s letter to parents about why she doesn’t want kids to consider recess “free time.” “[Our school is working to] change the perception of recess from free time away from learning to a valuable learning experience that will teach them and will help them cope in all social settings and environments. When children view recess as “free time”…
Hi Readers — Here’s a great comment that came in response to the blog post, Driven Crazy by Pregnancy Perfectionists. It reminds us of a truth we’ve been encouraged to forget in our “blame the parents” society: We are not in total control, ever. Not of what happens to us, and certainly not of what happens to our children. A reader writes: Sorry, there are no guarantees in life. I followed the rules for the most part, though not to any extreme — probably didn’t eat enough vegetables or get enough exercise (still don’t). But I did have every prenatal…
Hi Readers — As many of you have pointed out today, a grammar school in California has banned the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary because it contains a definition of “oral sex.” I guess the parents who complained would much rather their kid get his sex information from the geniuses on the monkey bars. Here’s the local story. And here’s the one in the Guardian, which points out: The Merriam Webster dictionary joins an illustrious set of books that have been banned or challenged in the US, including Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, which last year was suspended…
Hi Readers! Many of you are already familiar with Gever Tulley, the guy who runs the Tinkering School and did the famous TED speech on the “5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.” (Recently expanded into a book, “Fifty Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do.”) Now he’s come up with a very cool new term, “Dangerism,” which is the idea of looking at the things a particular society at a particular time considers dangerous. He gives some great examples of, for instance, a mom who lets her kids spend the day roaming the countryside behind her…
Oh, Readers: Here’s one from Glasgow, Scotland: By law, any time anyone under the age of 16 is in a “licensed premise” — i.e., a pub, or a restaurant that serves liquor, it seems — he cannot be out of his parents’ sight. Even in the loo. Even if it’s a young man with his “mum,” or a lass with her dad. As nutters as that sounds — don’t the Scots deal with enough under-the-kilt jokes already? — the bathroom angle isn’t even the most disturbing part of this story. No, I’m appalled by the way this local law treats…