It's Time to Teach from Scripts
Various teaching methods intrigue me. What makes a good teacher or a bad teacher? What makes a kid learn or sleep through class? How can we best prepare the next generation to face an increasingly complex world?
I tend to largely agree with Alex Tabarrok: Heroes are not Replicable.
You know the plot. Young, …
We Still Don't Need to Regulate Toys
I’ve discussed before how toy companies are using ”safety” as an excuse to pile more and more regulations on top of their competitors. Mattel has been blaming China for a recent spate of recalls and using the accusations as leverage to push for more safety regulations.
Turns out, China wasn’t to blame.
Mattel Inc. made …
Dangerous Toys, Redux
Toy manufacturers want to regulate toys coming into the United States, looking for dangerous materials like lead paint. But what’s the real cause of dangerous toys?
Design flaws, not Chinese manufacturing problems, are the cause of the vast majority of American toy recalls over the last two decades, according to a new study by …
How to Legally Hurt the Competition
Mattel, Hasbro, and Lego have figured out how to use the government to hurt their competitors. They’ll ask for more government regulation.
Acknowledging a growing crisis of public confidence caused by a series of recent recalls, the nation’s largest toy makers have taken the unusual step of asking the federal government to impose mandatory …
Why I'll Give My Kids Alcohol
A Toast to Mom and Dad — The family that wines together, shines together.
Observant Jews, for example, traditionally serve children small glasses of wine during Friday night Sabbath ceremonies. Other cultures also begin socializing children into drinking at an early age–including Mediterranean societies such as Italy, Greece and Turkey (and non-Mediterranean societies such …
Learning the Tricks of Children
Babies not as innocent as they pretend | Science | Earth | Telegraph
Dr Reddy said: ”Fake crying is one of the earliest forms of deception to emerge, and infants use it to get attention even though nothing is wrong. You can tell, as they will then pause while they wait to hear if …
What if We Abolished Teenagers?
Psycologist Robert Epstein doesn’t like adolescence.
Psychologist Robert Epstein argues in a provocative book, ”The Case Against Adolescence,” that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them.
The whole culture collaborates in artificially extending childhood, primarily through the school system …
Special-Ed Kids Everywhere You Look
From What special-ed cut means:
Several speech and language clinicians predicted some of the projected savings won’t materialize.
Testing of children diagnosed with only speech and language disabilities will intensify, they said, in search of additional diagnoses — such as learning disabilities, or emotional behavioral disabilities — that would cement the …
Babies and Eco-Crazies
According to radical environmentalists, putting diapers on your baby is a great way to ruin the earth before your grandchildren arrive. Here they are, in their own words:
”There is a way to have a baby and NOT use diapers.”
”When David was born, I started to think about the kind …