Some of the articles about children and childhood that I’ve seen in the last few weeks: Parents & preschool Wanted: More Playful Parents http://j.mp/mII7ph Supportive home learning experiences in the early years boost low-income children’s readiness for school. From NYU. http://j.mp/j3JmWs Parents prefer media content ratings system in national study led by Iowa State Uni […]
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RSS feed for this sectionSocial justice articles
Some of the articles about social justice that I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks: Not quite one person, one vote. Stanford paper on democratic discrepancies http://j.mp/kNIRg6 So much for digital democracy: New Berkeley study finds elite viewpoints dominate online contenthttp://j.mp/jaw6vm Prisoners give their time back to community in pioneering project http://tiny.cc/hu2d3 Death by […]
Play & games articles
Some of the articles that have caught my attention in the last couple of weeks: Play Swings & Roundabouts in Whitehall: Pat Kane article for Play England’s Play Today http://j.mp/jKQWXV Wanted: More Playful Parents http://j.mp/mII7ph Games & education How social media and game mechanics can motivate students – http://on.mash.to/ieEOyQ Computer Games and the Future of […]
Underage gaming
I received this note from a friend recently, I wanted to share it and my reply because I think this is an important issue for parents and children. “A lot of children in my son’s class are playing games well above their age, specifically call of duty. My son is 9. He was shown it […]
Families that play together
There’s a lot of research that seems to state the blindingly obvious but sometimes it is reassuring to discover that our innate beliefs are sound. Like having a local park improves your health or this piece from Concordia University published in the journal Family Relations that reminds us that families that play together are more […]
What is school for?
I was party to a fascinating discussion with colleagues from the RSA yesterday about the nature of education: asking the basic question – what’s the point of school? Catalysed by the change in UK government, there seems to be a battle between the idea of school being a place for ‘transferring a body of knowledge’ […]
A degree of value?
Today the UK parliament votes to triple fees to study for a higher education degree. Given the composition of the House of Commons, the outcome of the vote is largely predictable. The effect on future generations is less clear. When student tuition fees were introduced in 2006, Universities UK (UUK), the representative organisation for the […]
Facebook cartoon meme
You may well have seen the campaign on Facebook to change your profile picture to a childhood cartoon character. The changes were accompanied by a status update like this: Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, December 6, there should […]
Creativity, Wooing Women and Disneyland
The evolutionary psychologist, Geoffrey Miller, has published many papers speculating about the development of human creativity – that is, why would we evolve in such a way that we create apparently wasteful artefacts such as art, poetry, humour and music? According to Miller it is all about the Mating Mind – it’s peacock feathers and […]
Failure, Friends and Finding your Feet
I love being a dad. I find it the most astonishing, life-affirming, challenging wonder-filled experience I have ever known and my children keep surprising me and teaching me new lessons. My little boy, Jacob, is 17 months old. He’s been tentatively and briefly on his feet for the last few weeks but mostly he’s been […]