Clipmarks | tumblon's clips

Marian Wright Edelman on Parenting

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:43:40 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: I'm glad to hear her use the word "responsibility."

Parents are their children's most important teachers and mentors, and they bear primary responsibility for nurturing their sons and daughters while keeping them safe. Yet parenting is one of the most undervalued and least prepared for roles in America.

Tags: parenting, education

Beliefs about intelligence malleability affect performance

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:39:50 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: This well-written article highlights what an important role belief plays in performance, and therefore the development of intelligence.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

You might imagine that where you stand on the nature-nurture debate is purely academic. You would be very wrong. Simply holding the belief that genes largely or wholly determine you or your children can be toxic.

Studies have extended these findings into the realm of how your child views its own capacity. Secondary pupils who take a malleable view of their abilities get significantly higher grades than ones who believe they are fixed. When samples of teens and undergraduates are taught to think of themselves as being malleable rather than fixed, they get significantly better grades as a result of the tuition.

Tags: intelligence, education, parenting

Unstructured play essential to development

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:38:33 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: This article in a local paper highlights the importance of creative play for learning problem-solving.

Clip Source: www.wsls.com

“Unstructured activity is an important thing for children because it helps them use their imagination,“ he said. “It causes them to think and problem solve better.“
Farish said certain toys are better suited for unstructured play.
“I think the types of toys you can use your imagination to do things with are better than others,“ he said.

The best toys to encourage a child’s imagination are such items as balls, blocks and art materials, Pritchard-Boone said.
“Paints, glues, glitters - things nobody wants to put in a child’s hand, but that is really important to put in a child’s hands,“ she said.

Tags: parenting, play, education

Early Education Advocates "ecstatic"

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:29:47 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: Obama's appointment of Arne Duncan, and his commitment to fostering early childhood education is cause for tremendous excitement among those who understand the importance of early childhood.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

many advocates are atremble with anticipation over Obama's espousal of early childhood education.

In the presidential debates, he twice described it as among his highest priorities, and his choice for secretary of education, Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools superintendent, is a strong advocate for it.

"People are absolutely ecstatic," said Cornelia Grumman, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group.

Despite the recession, Obama has emphasized his interest in making strategic investments in early childhood education.

It is not as though Obama is running against the wind. Major philanthropists - including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett's children, and George Kaiser, an Oklahoma oil billionaire - are financing regional education efforts for the very young. And the chairman of the Federal Reserve and many governors have said expanding early childhood education should be a national priority.

Tags: parenting, education, policy

Kids need connections and meaning

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:46:24 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: The report referenced is "Hardwired to Connect", produced by the Commission on Children at Risk. It effectively links parenting to moral development.

Clip Source: www.startribune.com

According to the report, recent brain research indicates that children require two kinds of connections to flourish. First, they need strong, stable bonds with family and adults in the larger community. Second, they need a vision of life that offers meaning and purpose.

Our kids are failing to thrive, in good measure, because the social institutions that used to provide both kinds of connections have weakened in recent decades.

The family plays a vital role in moral development. An infant's attachment to its mother and father is biologically based and lays the foundation for future moral development, according to the report.

Children seem biologically primed to ask "Why am I here?" and "What should I do with my life?" If they fail to find satisfying answers, they may turn to self-destructive behavior.

Tags: parenting, education, ethics

Parents: Most accurate predictor of student achievement

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:32:27 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: This report is not a single study. It surveys numerous studies, and notes that parent involvement is the most accurate predictor of student achievement. It points the way toward real change in education: parents.

Clip Source: eric.ed.gov

A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Achievement.

This report covers 66 studies, reviews, reports, analyses, and books. Of these 39 are new; 27 have been carried over from previous editions. An ERIC search was conducted to identify relevant studies. Noting that the most accurate predictor of student achievement is the extent to which the family is involved in his or her education, this report presents a collection of research papers on the function and importance of family to a student's achievement and education in school and the community.

Major findings indicate that the family makes critical contributions to student achievement from the earliest childhood years through high school, and efforts to improve children's outcomes are much more effective when the family is actively involved.

Tags: parenting, education

Brains of low-income kids function differently

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:19:08 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: This UC Berkeley study found detectable differences in the function of the prefrontal cortex (critical for problem solving and creativity) between low-income and higher-income kids. Low frontal lobe response is more likely in kids from low-income families. The authors conclude that environmental factors are tremendously important - simple factors like talking and reading together.

The conclusion is simple: Parents matter a lot. The nurture they provide significantly impacts the brain development of their children - and by consequence their later educational and social opportunities.

Clip Source: www.berkeley.edu

University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids.

In a study recently accepted for publication by the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity.

"In work that we and others have done, it really looks like something as simple and easily done as talking to your kids" can boost prefrontal cortex performance, Boyce said.

"The study is suggestive and a little bit frightening that environmental conditions have such a strong impact on brain development," said Silvia Bunge, UC Berkeley assistant professor of psychology

Tags: parenting, education, medicine, psychology

Social Entrepreneurship in Business Week

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:02:55 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: Business Week recognizes that social entrepreneurship is on the rise - and needs to be on the rise as charity funding diminishes.

Clip Source: www.businessweek.com

Traditional charities and social service agencies often provide Band-Aids for problems instead of long-term solutions. Now a new breed of do-gooder—the social entrepreneur—is trying fresh approaches. While the term is used in many different ways, there's a narrow definition that gets to the heart of what makes these people stand out: Rather than depending solely on handouts from philanthropists, social entrepreneurs generate some of their own revenues and use business techniques to address social goals.

Now that the global financial crisis is squeezing charitable giving, socially oriented organizations are pushing even harder to reduce their dependence on donors and generate their own funds.

In this climate, only the most efficient and effective organizations will thrive.

Tags: entrepreneur, business

Early intervention reduces violence

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:50:30 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: A study from Duke University published in Child Development Journal points to the early roots of teen violence and finds that early intervention with parents and children can prevent serious violent behavior in adolescence.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The researchers tracked 754 children from preschool through adulthood and documented that children who have social and academic problems in elementary school are more likely to have parents who withdraw from them over time. That opens the door for them to make friends with adolescents exhibiting deviant behaviors and, ultimately, leads them to engage in serious and sometimes costly acts of violence.

"The findings indicate that these trajectories are not inevitable, but can be deflected at each subsequent era in development, through interactions with peers, school, and parents along the way," said Dodge, who is the William McDougall Professor of Public Policy and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. "Successful early intervention could redirect paths of antisocial development to prevent serious violent behavior in adolescence," Dodge said.

Tags: parenting, children, psychology

Obama's 0-5 plank

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:17:11 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: This plank of Obama's platform has tremendous potential IF it treats parents as responsible and partners with businesses, schools and organizations to empower them.

Clip Source: www.barackobama.com

Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan

Early Childhood Education

Zero to Five Plan: The Obama-Biden comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, the Obama-Biden plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama and Biden will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.

Tags: education, parenting

Philly Teacher: Communities determine education

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:09:04 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: This teacher is right on - in taking responsibility, and sharing it with other stakeholders.

Clip Source: www.philly.com

There are those who say our communities are an extension of our school system, but I believe it's the other way around: Our school system is an extension of our communities.

Stop demoralizing teachers by making us the eternal scapegoats. In other words, hold parents and the community accountable, too.

Tags: education

Building great business

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:04:59 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: The current economic environment is an ideal time to build a great business - because you are forced to make better decisions from the start.

Clip Source: www.observer.com

great businesses can be built and are built in lean times,"

"Businesses who have to embrace the discipline that you have when capital is constrained are typically stronger than businesses that grow up in a free-spending environment."

Tags: entrepreneur, economy

AAP encourages "true toys"

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:54:37 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: It has come to the time when we need the academy of pediatrics to tell us that blocks and dolls are both good and important.

Clip Source: www.aap.org

A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says free and unstructured play is healthy and - in fact - essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient.

Among the specific guidelines, the report suggests:

Emphasizing the benefits of "true toys", such as blocks and dolls, in which children use their imagination fully over passive toys that require limited imagination;

Tags: parenting, education

Joel Klein on educational change

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:30:31 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: Educational change requires empowering people - parents, students, and teachers.

Clip Source: www.acorn-online.com

Klein oversees a billion-dollar-a-year school district with more than 1 million students. He said despite the amount of money the New York spends on education, funding doesn’t determine education quality.

“If you don’t empower people to make change, nothing changes,” he said.

Tags: education

Op-ed: invest early in kids

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:21:53 GMT

clipped by: tumblon
clipper's remarks: This letter from a veteran early intervention advocate gets it right. The first five years set the trajectory of a child's life.

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

My message is simple: it's never too early to invest in a child, no matter the nation's economic struggles. Access to quality early childhood education is the dividing line for many families between economic isolation and economic opportunity. The most cost-effective and successful way to close the achievement gap is through early intervention and childhood education.

As someone who has spent an entire career in the field of early childhood education, I have seen that quality early childhood education during the first five years of a child's life creates a critical foundation for academic achievement.

Tags: education, parenting