According to Time magazine (subscription required), by the time children turn 18, they’ve spent only 13% of their lives in the classroom. So for all the hand-wringing over schools and teachers and getting your kids in the right classes–and eventually colleges–I think it’s fair to say that a huge chunk of children’s development depends on what they do outside the classroom. As important as school is, that after school job, sport, club, or just plain sitting around and watching TV may impact kids more.
Category Archives: Society
The SpongeBob Smackdown
The whole SpongeBob vs. James Dobson thing keeps getting funnier. Currently MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is giving Focus on the Family what for. While I sympathasize with Dobson for the media misconstruing his statements, they get what they deserve from Olbermann.
What kind of a Christian organization makes such vehemont attacks? What happened to turning the other cheek? I understand the rationale–you can’t just sit back and let society go to hell. But there’s better ways to do that. Attacking individual members of the media isn’t going to accomplish much. I blogged over at Church Marketing Sucks today about the p.r. no-no’s you can learn from the SpongeBob debacle.
Of course it’s no secret I’m not a big fan of Dobson. I’m probably finding a bit too much glee in the whole thing.
Colored Waiting Room
The Library of Congress has an archive of photos showing signs enforcing racial discrimination from the 1930s and 40s. It’s pretty brutal to think of that as a normal part of life. It’s especially jarring to see the photographs out of context–my first thought when I saw the picture to the right was the movie Pleasantville where a black & white town suddenly bursts into technicolor.
Santa Banned from Holiday Dance
Christianity Today’s weblog is reporting on what has to be the wackiest politically correct holiday debate ever. Here’s the story:
Seventh-grader Bryan Lafond dressed up in a Santa Claus costume to attend a holiday dance at his school, Hampton Academy Junior High. Principal Fred Muscara turned jolly St. Nick away out of concern for students with other religious beliefs. So the story goes. School officials later said they turned Lafond away for not meeting the “semi-formal” dress code of the dance. However, Lafond was later readmitted to the dance in shorts and a T-shirt. It gets even weirder as one student reports hearing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” at the dance, a song clearly associated with Santa. As the controversy continues, one of the biggest concerns is that Lafond left the building on his own, creating a safety issue.
Read it for yourself:
Hot Chocolate for Tsunami Relief
Amid all the controversy over U.S. aid for tsunami relief, it’s encouraging to hear stories like this: an 11-year-old Seattle boy opened a hot chocolate stand and raised $255 for relief efforts in Asia. The money will be donated to the Christian relief agency World Vision.
“It’s so horrid, so terrible–such a huge loss of family. And I couldn’t do anything about it,” sixth-grader Thomas Wilson said. “Then I did this hot chocolate stand and it made me feel better.”
What Do You Need To Know?
Marketing guru Seth Godin, author of Free Prize Inside, has been riffing on his blog about education standards and the kinds of things kids should know, which eventually equates to what marketers and business folk need to know. He starts by decrying the fact that his third grader is being taught how to write in cursive and not how to type. In another entry, he offers a list of 20 things everybody should learn by the time they graduate.
He has some interesting ideas, but I’m curious to hear from the educators in the audience:
Poker: It’s Not Just for Old Men Anymore
The newest fad among teens? Sitting around a table in a darkened room shuffling cards and cracking jokes. You’d think they were a bunch of old men. Thanks to the popularity of online poker and cable TV shows like “Celebrity Poker Showdown” and “World Series of Poker,” Texas Hold ‘Em is the latest must-do activity for teens.
And it’s not just for fun. Money definitely exchanges hands, though it may only be in small denominations. State officials say private, social betting is legal — even for minors. But parents should be wary, watching for high-stakes games or a developing gambling addiction.
“Let them play cards, but be mindful of the betting. If you see them betting their allowances, say, ‘Why don’t you play for toothpicks or monopoly money?'” says Frank Ball, the director of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement division.
Toothpicks?
Sex in the Living Room
Teens watching TV with sexual content are twice as likely to start having sex than those with little exposure. And it’s not simply monkey see, monkey do. Shows that simply talked about sex, but didn’t depict sexual behavior, had the same risk level.
The report noted that TV “may create the illusion that sex is more central to daily life than it truly is and may promote sexual initiation as a result.”
Eyeball Jewelry
Ewww! My eyes were watering before I finished the first page of the article.
Living with AIDS for 21 Years
From Rocky Mountain News:
Jonathan Swain did not die.
Of all the twists in his life, that is perhaps the strangest.
He did not die when all the other children died of the plague, as it was called, the killer he named his Secret Monster.
Jonathan Swain did not die even though his mother