A Call from the Police About My Son (On Christmas)

Ho ho ho, my child was escorted off the Long Island Railroad today for riding without an adult. The police were called. He’s 10.
He – Izzy — has ridden this route solo a dozen times before. It’s a straight shot on a commuter train and, as always, he was being met at the other [...]

Is there any way to lure kids back outside?

This post comes to us from Kenny Felder, a high school teacher and father of four in North Carolina who has been thinking about why our kids are always inside, instead of outside playing. To see the full essay, please go to http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/essays/safety2.html.
 By Kenny Felder
Here is a little science fiction story I made up today.  [...]

Should Santa bring baby an educational DVD?

Ho ho hokum.
Those are my seasons greetings to Baby Einstein and the rest of the infant educational complex. If you’re wondering what to buy baby that’ll guarantee ’em a good time, a bright future and possible admission to a college that Obama went to, so-called “educational” videos are not the way to go. Here’s what [...]

Do kids really need school shooting drills?

A school district in Massachusetts is weighing whether to go ahead and teach students as young as 10 how to fight back against terrorists and Columbine-type shooters.
I guess officials there have not read the statistics.
A child’s chances of being killed at school are .00003% (not counting the ones who die of boredom). So teaching the [...]

Stunting Our Kids With “Safety”

Why do we treat our tweens like toddlers? Because the rules say we have to.
The other day my son had to leave middle school early for the big day: Getting his braces. I planned to meet him at the orthodontist near our home and wrote a note asking for him to be excused at 1 [...]