The Price of a Life in the Great Indoors Countless children and adolescents celebrate the marvels of indoor life. Never before in history have as many children spent as much of their existence sequestered indoors. Their recreation and school work are snugly under cover, shielded from the sun’s penetrating rays. Is this a bad thing? Or is it a trivial concern? A recent article in Science (February 26, 2010) entitled “Dimly Lit Teens,” points to some experimental data suggestin... [More]

A Blog in 4 Parts Concerning Children, Adolescents, and the Media Part 4 – The Games Kids Play Q: “Are there kids in your school who play games too much of the time?” 10th Grader: “Yeah, lots of them”. Q: “What happens to them?” !0th Grader: “They fry their brains.” A report from The Pew Internet and American Life Project (September 2008) revealed that an astounding 97% of teens (12 to 17 year olds) play computer, web, console, or por... [More]

A Blog in 4 Parts Concerning Children, Adolescents, and the Media Part 3 – DVD’s, MP3’s and their Own TV’s   From the threadbare living room couch to the bunk beds in the kids’ digs, from the breakfast table to their desks, and from the passenger seat to the toilet seat, each and every perch provides 24/7 ripe opportunities for kids to link up or plug in to limitless entertainment. With the flip of a switch (sometimes even without it), their eyes and ears ... [More]

A Blog in 4 Parts Concerning Children, Adolescents, and the Media                   Part 2 - Social Lives Online on the Line         The noted French philosopher-author, Jean Paul Sartre, once wrote: “One must choose whether to live one’s life or tell it.” This statement pertains profoundly to contemporary youth. Never before has it been as conv... [More]

Coping with the Spotty Track Record of “Learning Styles” Research    If a child is found to have a one strong pathway of information processing (say visual, verbal, or kinesthetic), will he or she learn best if  a teacher’s  method of teaching takes advantage of this superior pathway?               a). All of the time             b). Most o... [More]

How do we determine whether a 5-ish year-old is ready right now or soon will become ready to be ready for kindergarten or, in some cases, competitive for admission to a demanding private school?  Is this particular fledgling learner prepared to withstand the pressures, interpersonal stresses, academic expectations, and overall rigors of life in a particular kindergarten? Will she or he be able to perform in alien settings: the bus stop, the bus, the classroom, the school toilets, and the ... [More]

“Miss Bundy is so boring - no way I can stay awake in English.” “Algebra is totally, like 100% boring - like 100% of the time! Anyway, I don’t know why I have to learn that stuff, like I’ll never use it.”   “I can’t stand this homework, it’s so booooring.” “My child is gifted, and I think that’s why he finds school so boring. He just doesn’t feel challenged.”   These frequently uttered declaration... [More]

Several years ago I had lunch with a physics teacher at a suburban high school where I was conducting a workshop. Over humble cold cuts and limp coleslaw, he fessed up: “You know, doctor, I’ve been teaching physics for more than twenty years and every year I teach the subject I come to understand it better than I did the year before.” I could not help wondering but discreetly kept to myself: “Well if this guy’s still trying to understand the subject, how well should... [More]

Kids from kindergarten through 12th grade require 9 hours of sleep per night if their brains are to develop and perform optimally. That’s not negotiable. Nor is it easy to achieve. This blog is a response to the outburst of recent research pointing to the importance of sleep when it comes to optimal brain function. Several recent studies have documented the fact that too many children go to school seriously sleep-deprived. Some of them actually fall asleep during classes; others manage to... [More]

“How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” That’s a venerable loaded query encapsulating a solid core of truth - at least on paper. Writing is a mode of reasoning, a way of problem solving, and a path for thought development. Robert Frost once confessed, “I go into a poem to see if I can get out of it.” Our timing could not be better. A recent commentary by Clive Thompson in Wired Magazine welcomes what he calls “the new literacy,” as he obse... [More]