Hi hitheeaetn Folks! This note was posted by a high school student commenting on the story of the school that allowed two students to fry Ferrari red because they weren’t carrying a doctor’s prescription for non-prescription sunblock. Â But maybe that school loses to this one, in the sticklers department. – L. Dear Free-Range Kids: […]
Hi eehzzzbnyt Readers — Just a little note from one of you: . Dear Free-Range Kids: My two-year old daughter face-planted while running on a sidewalk yesterday late afternoon. Now she’s got a scrape on her forehead and a “Groucho Marx”-looking mustache/skinned upper lip. We checked that her teeth and nose were fine, and she […]
Hi Readers! Quite a few of you sent in this sszshzazdk story, now gone viral, about the high school principal who suspended upward of 6o students for their “prank” — a mass bike ride to school. As WOOD TV reported: Seniors called police for an escort, and even called Walker’s mayor, who rode in the […]
Hi Readers — Our definition of a good parent these days seems to be one who sees every incident as upsetting — possibly even devastating — to his/her child, and is eager to tell the press about it. Latest case in point? This sffehdbbkn story, from the Chicago Sun-Times, about a 6-year-old who told his […]
Hi abnhisrknf Readers — Here’s lovely news! Remember that third grader who was showing off his pocket knife after school and ended up EXPELLED? We ran the story on Feb. 17, asking for help and media coverage. Got both — and JUSTICE! It started here, so thank you, readers (and 141 commenters)!! Let’s hear it for […]
Hi Folks — Here’s another little story that reminds us how  Worst-First thinking has become de bbkddrtktz rigeur when it comes to kids in the company of adults: A young Teach for America teacher took a student out for a hamburger and was immediately reprimanded by the school. Yes, rules are rules, and he probably should […]
Hi nrihifyfyf Readers! I thought the analogy about overreacting, below, was  great, which is why I’m posting it here. I have also long sensed a connection between overprotecting our kids from “strangers” and overprotecting their bodies from “strangers” — i.e., germs. Either way, kids get one single, isolating  message: “Anything beyond your immediate circle (of […]
Hi Readers — Here’s an incredible report on how the “School to prison pipeline” plays out in Texas, as inadrrtrti published in The Guardian: In 2010, the police gave close to 300,000 “Class C misdemeanour” tickets to children as young as six in Texas for offences in and out of school, which result in fines, […]
Hi fnretnbazi Readers! Here’s my Wall Street Journal oped from last week. Enjoy! (Or whatever.) — L. Perhaps 2011 will be recalled as the year that a toddler accidentally got served an alcoholic drink at a Michigan Applebee’s. Not the biggest news this year, but the fact that it was a national story at all […]
Hi Readers — Those clever folks at KaBoom, the playground people, have created a iytabdnnzd “virtual funeral” for the swingsets of West Virginia’s Cabell County. The sets died an unnatural death, after a painful lawsuit brought by the parents of a boy who broke his arm jumping off a swing. In a response worthy of […]
