Thursday, August 23rd, 2012
As school doors swing open, it will be time once again to engage the homework battles.
A major front, every year, is the parents’ complaint that schools give too much homework. This campaign has received recent reinforcement with the publication of “Teach Your Children Well” by Madeline Levine, a psychologist who treats adolescents in affluent Marin County, Calif. Levine says that high-pressure parenting with Ivy League goals can leave kids feeling empty inside. Family rituals that generate enthusiasm and contentment are being lost.
Canada has gotten this message. The nation’s education minister has directed schools to make sure students are not overloaded. Toronto schools, with nearly 300,000 kids, have limited elementary school homework to reading, eliminated holiday homework and adopted language endorsing the value of family time. (more…)
Tags: Education, Family, parenting, Work-life balance, Youth
Posted in Children, Culture, Education, Family, New York, Youth | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
Column first published in Newsday.
The New York State Assembly passed a bill last week requiring parents to sign a consent form for their kids younger than 18 who want to have a body part pierced.
I don’t normally react badly to nanny state imperatives; I don’t miss the trans fats in my New York City restaurant meals one bit. But the body-piercing age limit struck me as intrusive.
It happens that the week before this bill passed, my 14-year-old told me she might like to pierce her upper ear or navel. Those seemed pretty tasteful to me, and more reversible than a tattoo.
“I suppose I should act shocked so you won’t take your rebellion phase any further,” I joked.
But this is serious. What right does the state have to insert itself into my job as a parent? Forcing my kids to ask permission would turn casual discussions about boundaries and style into high-stakes negotiations. (more…)
Tags: Family, identity, New York, parenting, Youth
Posted in Children, Culture, Family, New York, Public Health, Youth | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
First published in Newsday.
Newsday’s editorial board frequently meets with people in public life: school superintendents, state and local elected officials, law-enforcement agents. And one question that comes up all the time is how to reduce the cost of public services.
It was an issue back when the only urgency was New York’s position as No.1 or No.2 in the nation with the highest combined state and local tax burden – a “distinction” New York trades from year to year with New Jersey. Now, as the Great Recession has tightened the screws on public budgets everywhere, the question is more pointed: Which will it be, raise taxes or cut services?
Elected officials, candidates and community leaders usually don’t want to choose between these unpopular alternatives. Sometimes they try a dodge: “Cut waste, fraud and abuse!” Hard to argue with that. No one ever campaigns for more inefficiency, dishonesty and corruption.
The other dodge – or at least that’s how I thought of it until recently – was, “Cut unfunded mandates!” (more…)
Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Budget, David Paterson, Education, New York, Politics, Right-sizing, suburbs
Posted in Andrew Cuomo, Budget, Consumer Confidence, David Paterson, Economy, Education, NY politics, New York, Politics, Right-sizing | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Regarding the column by Anne Michaud, “Keep school budget talk out of the classroom” [Opinion, Dec. 8], I agree that children need to feel secure in school. Their focus needs to be on learning.
A major part of that learning should, in my opinion, be relating knowledge to reality. What good are the three Rs if we don’t see the issues that are facing us daily?
We live in a society that has a small percentage of people voting in general and school elections. This lack of response leads to lack of control over the direction our country takes and sometimes even to corruption in government.
It is imperative that our children learn to be good citizens and participate in our democracy. If this means bringing up budget concerns to students old enough to understand, then they should be mentioned. An open discussion talking about the whole process and not focusing just on layoffs, would be in order. This hopefully would bring students to begin thinking about mundane issues that our society faces on a daily basis. Opening their young minds would undoubtedly lead to a more involved electorate later on.
Steve Tuck, Huntington
(more…)
Tags: Education, Family, identity, job loss, Middle Class, parenting, Politics, Readers respond, Right-sizing, Shame, social effects, suburbs, Unemployment
Posted in Budget, Children, Economy, Education, Family, Long Island life, Middle Class, NY politics, New York, Readers respond, Right-sizing, Shame, Social problems, Unemployment, Youth, job churn | Comments Off
