Tag Archives: children

Principal to parents: Get your middle school kids off Facebook – good conversation to have (HT @etalbert)

via mlive.com
I happen to disagree with Orsini’s position, but I think that it is an excellent discussion for us to have.

Cyberbullying is worse than face-to-face bullying. It is 24/7. It goes on when you are paying attention and when you are not paying attention. It is yet another element of modern society that parents have to develop new tools to address.

With that being said, banning children from using social networking sites is short-sighted. It is the easy way out and, like most solutions of the sort, it is unlikely to help. The bullying will go on with or without your child’s participation. That same bullying will continue to occur amongst those online (and face-to-face) and will hit your child in much the same manner when they return to school and are filled in on the happenings of the previous day/weekend. The reality is that we need to prepare our children to operate in the world as it is, not as we wish it was.

An educator should be more pragmatic than Orsini is being. It is a nice sound bite, but it is an incomplete solution to a complex issue and involves the education of both the abusers and the abused. Removal of a child from a situation should be one tool in a parent’s tool chest, but it is not, nor should it be, the only tool used. Taking incidents of bullying and using them as teachable moments can be valuable. After (but ideally prior to) incidents, parents should teach children how to best deal with bullying: engage, ignore, and report.

I fear that Orsini probably understands this as well, but he has given up on parental responsibility. It is relatively easy to say, “take them off social networks,” but it is much more difficult to address underlying causes of and solutions to bullying. His approach, though, is akin to sweeping the problem under the rug. This is an approach that we can ill-afford to resort to any longer. It has been the default for years, never with satisfactory results.

8-Year-Olds Publish Scientific Bee Study | Wired Science

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via wired.com

What a fantastic way to make the scientific process concrete for these children. I dare say that doing this for many adults might significantly benefit the public’s understanding of science.

The Answer Sheet – Study says spanking can lead to aggressive behavior

Study says spanking can lead to aggressive behavior

A new study finds that children spanked frequently at the age of 3 are more likely to become aggressive when they are 5.

The study, led by Tulane University health researcher Catherine Taylor, says the finding remains true even when other factors–such as the parents’ stress level, depression, substance abuse, neglect, and the presence of other aggression within the family–are taken into account.

The study, “Mothers’ Spanking of 3-Year-Old Children and Subsequent Risk of Children’s Aggressive Behavior,” will appear in the May issue of Pediatrics.

The research study involved nearly 2,500 mothers. Almost 46 percent reported that they had not used corporal punishment on their child in the previous month, while 27.9 percent said they did one or two times and 26.5 percent reported spanking more than twice.

The mothers with more risk factors (stress, depression, drug/alcohol use) were more likely to spank frequently, but even accounting for that, frequent spanking at age 3 increased the odds of higher levels of aggression at age 5.

via voices.washingtonpost.com

Out of my research area, but certainly in my personal sphere. This has been assumed for many years, though little actual research existed to support the findings. I still wonder about the practical relevance. I’d like to know what qualified as aggressive behavior. Was it an unwillingness to share or beating another kid on the playground?

I am of the opinion that spanking is not necessary. Encourage good behavior through positive reinforcement and discourage bad behavior with negative reinforcement (not of the beating kind). In-between, give them attention and love. Ok, I know I sound sappy, but it is what it is.

Totlol – Video for Kids. Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Grade School, Tweens and Parents

Totlol – Video for Kids. Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Grade School, Tweens and Parents

Looking for child-safe videos, this may be the place. It’s tough to know just how well this will work, but if the community grows and becomes active, it could be great. The site pulls content from YouTube and the community moderates it. In addition, no questionable Google Ads along the side advertising “Go Get Your Date On.”

The only problem that I see so far is that they stripped the ability to embed. Ning was able to do it, so I think that it’s doable. They will see adoption lag (maybe deadly lag) unless they do this. It’s all about sharing these days. Mommy and Daddy blogs want to sharing this content. They don’t want to send people off their pages.

Here’s a good example of videos on the site

At this point, there is no advertising. This is good, because who likes ads. It’s bad because without ads they’ll never be able to pay the bills and this will float away. I just hope they don’t ruin everything and throw up Google Ads.

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