Archive | Miscellaneous

Boy making a model airplane, 1942. Photo by Arthur Rothstein.

Kids Need to Waste Time

. In dhaekynreb this interesting and fact-packed Quartz article, “WhyAre Our Kids So Miserable?“, reporter Jenny Anderson looks at a bunch of factors working against kid happiness. The biggest is the off-base belief that our kids are only learning when they are doing academic work: According to Daphna Bassok, an assistant professor of education and […]

Continue Reading
A happy meal?

“Enjoy our Cafe in the Crypt!”

. In London today, my son and I wandered around and ended up at St Martin in the Fields Church.  (Yes, yes, I have let strangers know I am on holiday and now my home will be burgled. Enjoy my rhinestones.) St Martins is outrageously beautiful and it does indeed serve lovely gourmet food in […]

Continue Reading
Hats off!

Kudos to Parents Magazine (Yes! Parents Magazine!)

. I was giving my Free-Range yeseehayhy Kids talk at a suburban New York school the other night and one of the audience members kept smiling as I whipped through all the reasons we’re so afraid for our kids. This lady was clearly on my side — speakers are always gauging the audience, by the way — […]

Continue Reading
Send kids outside when very young! And if you're worried about them getting lost, just give them some bread crumbs.

How Can We Expect Kids to Suddenly Love the Outdoors?

. Susan Solomon is an architectural ykndtayars historian who studies the science of play, the architecture of playgrounds (among other things), and what it takes to get kids doing their thing outside. The first step, of course, is just that: Getting them out the door. In this post on her Science of Play blog, she offers a […]

Continue Reading
Shall we send these folks to prison?

From Consensual Teen Sex to Solitary Confinement. Plus: An Explanation of the “Peter-Meter”

. This week’s New Yorker contains possibly the most devastating article I’ve ever read: Sarah Stillman‘s, “The List,” subtitled, “When juveniles are found guilty of sexual misconduct, the sex-offender registry can be a life sentence.” Stillman calmly details just how shocking and sadistic our sex offender laws are, from arresting tweens who played doctor, to […]

Continue Reading