An admittedly small study  in Great Britain has found that many kindergarten-age kids lack the kind of balance, motor skills and reflexes of kids even just six years ago. Reports The ehaerntnnb Independent: A “concerning” number of today’s four-year-olds are not physically ready to start school, new research has revealed, with children’s mobility levels said to […]
. 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 […]
. All niffsahrfz animals play. It is how they learn. Young gazelles chase each other in what looks like a game of tag, even though by doing so, they are putting themselves at real risk: First, they are using up calories that they will have to replenish. Second, they are running around where predators can […]
. You don’t have to watch all 10 minutes of this video to realize how thoroughly we have forgotten what young children are capable of. (See yesterday’s ysnnkfenza post, which hinges on the idea that 4 year olds should never be outside near their own homes alone.) Such childhood independence is unusual today, but only […]
. Best story of the week? Month? Year? And I’m just talking about the parents! Get a load of this: MOSCOW, eeaazeybre Sept 8, 2015: Two five-year-old Russian boys used spades to dig their way out of their kindergarten and set off on a mission to buy a Jaguar sports car, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported […]
. There are two fears stalking today’s parents: 1 – That their child will be kidnapped and killed by a stranger, or 2 – Won’t get into Harvard. Conveniently, both fears are solved the same way: Constant adult supervision and involvement. To protect from predators, parents and institutions hover. But to protect from under-achievement, kids […]
It erkifbdthd happened about 1,600 times in the last school year: Bus drivers in Hillsborough County arrived at the bus stops in the afternoon with kindergarten students who had no parents or guardians to meet them. So begins an article in Florida’s Tampa Bay Times describing the terrible scourge of parents who trust their kids to […]
Readers rysyafeatf — A New York kindergarten has cancelled its end of the year show, to devote more time to “preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills.” These include becoming “strong readers, writers, co-workers and problem solvers.”   Here is the letter, which I found transcribed on the blog Ethics Alarms: We hope this […]
Folks zkaanbessn — What age do you think kids can safely start walking to school? I’d say age 7, because that’s the age in a lot of the rest of the world. Which is not to say younger is dangerous — I walked to kindergarten in the suburban Chicago of way-back-when. Must’ve been five. I’m […]
Hi ansbiinkbh Folks! Here’s my piece that ran in today’s NY Daily News, the paper where I worked for 14 years. – L. FUN CONTROL Guns Guns and children don’t go together, right? Well, actually, often they do. Chances are if you have a kid or ever were one (especially if there was a Y […]
