The Overprotected Kid

A trio of boys tramps along the length of a wooden fence, back and forth, shouting like carnival barkers. “The Land! It opens in half an hour.” Down a path and across a grassy square, 5-year-old Dylan can hear them through the window of his nana’s front room. He tries to figure out what half an hour is and whether he can wait that long. When the heavy gate finally swings open, Dylan, the boys, and about a dozen other children race directly to their favorite spots, although it’s hard to see how they navigate so expertly amid the chaos. It’s still morning, but someone has already started a fire in the tin drum in the corner, perhaps because it’s late fall and wet-cold, or more likely because the kids here love to start fires. The Land is an “adventure playground,” although that term is maybe a little too reminiscent of theme parks to capture the vibe. The playgrounds were novel, but they were in tune with the cultural expectations of London in the aftermath of World War II.

New York Has the Trippiest Reading Exams Composing tests for eighth-graders may not initially seem like the most creative pursuit, but it is lucrative: A company was paid $32 million dollars to revamp the New York state exams last year, and they've come up with something unexpectedly special (if a bit opaque). One question on a recent reading exam is confusing kids, teachers, and parents alike, and features a twist on the tortoise and the hare fable including a talking pineapple, magical animals, and a lot of exclamation marks. Here, just give it a shot: The Pineapple and the HareIn the olden times, animals could speak English, just like you and me. Happy 4/20.

The Original Star Wars Concept Art Is Amazing 32 of the Most Popular Toys From the Last 145 Years | Wired Design Zoetrope reel, 1870s — Before there was Pixar, there was the Zoetrope. The optical illusion was first demonstrated in 1836, over a hundred years before the first Saturday morning cartoons. The device was patented in 1867 by Milton Bradley, the man, not the company, and in many ways can be considered one of the first mass-market toys. Photo: Andy Brown Sindy, 1960s — While she doesn't have the name recognition of Barbie, this doll has friends in important places. "My favorites are the Sindy doll—I had one myself—and any of the teddy bears," says Howell who helped curate the photo subjects. Marbles, 1880s Photo: Andy BrownCare Bear, 1980s. Zoetrope reel, 1870s — Before there was Pixar, there was the Zoetrope. For a child, the only thing worse than a broken bone is a seemingly interminable wait in an emergency room. “The Rubik’s Cube is the most ‘forensically’ shot of all the toys,” says Brown. Brown wanted to present the toys that were the best sellers for each decade.

A Fascinating Way to Put a Stop to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Black Children Photo Credit: advprojectdc; Screenshot / YouTube.com April 7, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Destiny was in eighth grade when, in the middle of an altercation with another student, she grabbed a teacher’s jacket and threw it out of a classroom window. She was enrolled at the Lyons Community School in Brooklyn, N.Y., where almost every kid is black or Latino and living in poverty. New federal data shows that across the United States, schools with demographics like these tend to respond to bad behavior with aggressive force. But Destiny was not isolated, suspended or arrested. As depicted in a 2013 documentary called " Growing Fairness," Destiny accepted her sentence without complaint. These new kid courts, in which students are empowered to set school rules and mete out the punishments for breaking them, are sometimes called “restorative justice.”

Fantasy Book Critic Play Ethic Book: Pat Kane. The Play Ethic. A MANIFESTO FOR A DIFFERENT WAY OF LIVING. (Macmillan, Sep 2004) URL = From the Publisher: "The Play Ethic explores the real meaning of play and shows how a more playful society would revolutionize and liberate our daily lives. Using wide and varied sources – from the Enlightenment to Eminem, Socrates to Chaos theory, Kierkegaard to Karaoke – The Play Ethic shows how play is fundamental to both society and to the individual, and how the work ethic that has dominated the last three centuries is ill-equipped to deal with the modern world. The Play Ethic seeks to change the way you look at your daily life, how you interact with others, how you view the world. Shocking, controversial, yet magnificently argued, The Play Ethic is a book no one who works, or has ever worked, can afford to be without." Conducted by Daphne Dragona for the Greek culture magazine Konteiner (#11) Simply put, the play ethic is what comes after the work ethic.

Embracing a Different Way to Learn | Jonathan M. Brand During a recent dinner, a Cornell College mathematics faculty member recounted a moment when he knew that our One Course At A Time curriculum --where students take only one course during each of eight different 18-day terms -- was the most powerful way for students to learn. A student in his modern algebra class had shared a dream in a voice loud enough to be heard by the entire class. In this dream, mathematics had tied her mother to a tree. The One Course calendar at Cornell College is so immersive that each class truly becomes a part of the student. In October, in the Chronicle of Higher Education's special issue on innovation, Goldie Blumenstyk noted that institutions are increasingly experimenting with different curricular and calendar options. The fact that few schools have embraced such a calendar is not an indication that it fails to deliver our claimed advantages, but rather an indication that a special calendar requires a special institution.

And That’s How You Paint Something Amazing When You Have No Drawing Skills Source: The Meta Picture Artpictures Related Posts « Chinese Ministry Newspaper: GM Soybeans Harm Health of China’s 1.3 Billion People At First I Thought This Was A Food Truck. I Couldn’t Have Been More Wrong…Brilliant!