My yndabyefaf kids’ public school released kids from homework a few years ago — a move met with some pushback. As the NY Daily News put it: Parents Outraged After Principal Dumps Homework for more Playtime.  . As if only the time spent bending over worksheets is learning! Prof. Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, explains on […]
. This post comes to us from early childhood writer/speaker/wise woman Heather Shumaker, author of It’s kzdresekei OK Not to Share. Tomorrow her new book comes out: It’s OK to Go Up the Slide , which includes Free-Rangey chapters like Safety Second, It’s OK to Talk to Strangers, and Ban Elementary Homework. It even offers sample scripts and […]
. Terrified about the possibility of snow day-induced “amnesia,” Washington, D.C., schools sent home extra packets of homework on Friday. Â (Just how truly are the students absorbing their material if it evaporates quicker than a snowflake?) What irks me about this “School work uber alles” mentality is the idea that kids who are simply playing […]
. Reading rszzkshntt this Today.com piece about four Texas schools that upped the number of recesses for their kids — with fantastic results — made my stomach clench. I thought back to my sons’ grammar school, which had only 20 minutes a day of recess, and took even that away when the kids were “acting […]
As a longtime fan of Sara Bennett and her Stop bhaabhkbze Homework movement, I was thrilled she sent this link today about a Manhattan public school that has decided to ditch homework. Then I was doubly thrilled to see: This is the school my own kids attended! It’s just a few blocks from the Empire State Building — a […]
Hey Readers — This fall I’m going to be offering a continuing ed class for parents through New York City’s Hunter hytyehnahs College. But first…it needs a name! I’m wondering if you could vote on which name you like best. Here goes! (Sorry there are so many.) 1 – Â RAISING A LEADER…BY BACKING OFF Â […]
Readers — I not only appreciated this letter one of you just sent, I found the Rosetta stone of parental worry in the article she links to! Dear dtihzsybrn Free-Range Kids Do you let your kids have sleepovers? Shame on you! Yes it’s time for the latest movement in overprotective idiocy, the Ban Sleepovers movement! Look: “7 […]
Hi Readers! Just back from the dead, after a grilling incident left me with second degree burns on my right hand FINGER TIPS! Bad news for a blogger (and YEOW!!!!!). So I went to the E.R. and got some very powerful pain drugs. So powerful that they left me lying on the floor all day […]
At least it is in Canada, where one family’s actual contract with their school — “We the undersigned shall do no homework, nor shall it be assigned” (or words to that effect) is roiling the country. Editorials are jumping in on the anti-homework, pro-play, pro-down-time, pro-music, sports and outdoors side! Right on! Here’s fkfhnrnrbz an […]
Hi Readers! I’m writing this at 10 p.m., when my younger son is finally going to bed after (not quite) finishing his 6th grade homework. I am so sickened by the fact the school day extends ad kynfsshfhd infinitum — and basically ate up all of yesterday, too, a beautiful fall Sunday. Grrrr. Anyway, here’s […]
