Trapped by Numbers

By On April 20, 2013 · Leave a Comment

This letter from a teacher makes me feel like crying! I came across it on Renée Dinnerstein’s blog:  Investigating Choice Time.

“I am 37 days away from finishing my first year of teaching first grade! My whole life I have dreamed of being a teacher. It wasn’t until college that I [...]

Continue Reading →

“ADHD is not an illness”

By On April 19, 2013 · Leave a Comment

“ADHD is not an illness“, says Dr. Laura Batstra, researcher at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.  She quit her job as a treating psychologist at an institution for child and youth psychiatry when she found that more and more schoolkids were referred for diagnoses of ADHD.

Schools in Holland [...]

Continue Reading →

Children have become commodities

By On April 8, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Jennifer Proseus  sent the following in email and as snail mail, and hopes it comes to Melinda’s attention.

 

To Melinda Gates

From one mom to another,  I’m asking you to please read my letter. I am sure you receive countless pleas for money, but this one is different.

… our children have become [...]

Continue Reading →

The Crucial Voice of the People, Past and Present

By On March 14, 2013 · Leave a Comment

This is the book that parents, teachers, and anyone with a stake in public education needs to read! I had my local library purchase a copy. It is an eye-opener for all parents, but especially for those who, after spending copious amounts of time trying to help improve education in their communities by attending meetings and [...]

Continue Reading →

Let’s care about kids dying of abuse!

By On February 4, 2013 · Leave a Comment

In the Washing Post Answer Sheet :
[Secretary of education] Arne Duncan:We need gun control, more early childhood education.

I  am incensed that children are now used to push for more gun control. People are irrational and think violence can be curbed with laws. No! It can only be curbed by tackling it [...]

Continue Reading →

Rigorous Standards Stifle Children

By On January 30, 2013 · Leave a Comment

“..Recent critiques of the Common Core Standards by Marion Brady and John T. Spencer have noted that the process for creating the new K-12 standards involved too little research, public dialogue, or input from educators…It appears that early childhood teachers and child development experts were excluded from the K-3 standards-writing process.”  (From: A Tough Critique of the [...]

Continue Reading →

Toxic Stress Damages Developing Brain

By On January 29, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Below some interesting key points from The Science of Early Childhood Development ,  a report  by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

..preschool policies and programs that place disproportionate emphasis on didactic approaches to academic skills are less likely [...]

Continue Reading →

Resegregation in Schools

By On November 28, 2012 · Leave a Comment

A letter by Don Perl of The Coalition for Better Education .

Dear Mr. President:

I join the millions and millions of other North Americans in sending heartfelt congratulations for your winning a second term as President of all of these United States.   We know that [...]

Continue Reading →

Impact of Screen Time on Development and Learning

By On November 15, 2012 · Leave a Comment

From a newly released report by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Alliance for Childhood.

Conclusion

More independent research is needed on the impact of screen technologies on young children. But whether you believe that early childhood settings should include screen time [...]

Continue Reading →

Help Advertise Opting out of Testing in Colorado

By On September 25, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Help the www.thecbe.org set up advertising billboards that alert parents they have the right to exempt their children from the fraud of testing in CO.

There’s been a remarkable increase in the number of parents exempting their children each year! Help keep the momentum going.

Two boards costing $1,800 will be up for a [...]

Continue Reading →