Children and "Bad" Words

NRP has an article, titled "Why Kids Curse," that is worth reading. There is also an audio link on that Web page.

Ultimate Fighting Children

A link on Drudge Report on March 27 leads to a story concerning support for a program wherein parents allow their children to participate in ultimate fighting activities like adults. I guess my question is: Is this something social services should investigate?

Toxic Toys Report on PBS

Here is a link to a PBS Now Program video concerning toxic toys.

Google Wants to Target Ads to Children

I found an article at Slashdot, a tech news site, that reveals that Google has applied for a patent to detect, track, and target advertisement to children. This idea is unsettling to me. The article also has a link to the patent application.

Not Easy Being Green

I found this story on DRUDGE concerning a teacher/coach/mentor being sent home because he dyed his hair green for St. Patrick's Day. This incident occurred in Richland, SC at Richland High.

Most interesting for me is a memory of growing up in Charleston, SC, where an elementary teacher dyed her hair different colors, including orange, regularly without a problem in the 50s. My mother often told the story that the teacher responded after being asked why she dyed here hair different colors that she liked being different.

The Richland story has many angles to it. The "green-haired monster" was an African-American celebrating an Irish holiday is one angle. Another angle is that the teacher was helping to bring fun in a non-threatening way. I wonder whether schools are wound so tightly that it can't identify light teachable moments because it is focused is on the negative more often. Now, how many years have we known that positive reinforcement work much more often than negative reinforcement?

Profiling Children for Future Crime

My first thought when I read this article concerning a proposal in Britain to collect DNA from children as young as 5 years of age who may later be a criminal, was of the Tom Cruise movie where people were being arrested for "pre-crimes." Understanding that some young troublemakers have become U.S. presidents, sports heroes, bank presidents, and have held other high level positions in society, a plan to identify children for future crime seem utterly absurd.

Safe Toys Update

Did you know that some toys are made out of PVC? I never thought about PVC being used in toys. Well, PVC contain phthalades, an additive that is used to soften vinyl, and phthalates is linked to a variety of health problems according to an article in the USA Weekend (March 14-16, 2008, p. 6) newspaper insert. The article also indicates that phthalades in toys will be banned in California starting in 2009 and is already banned in the European Union and Japan. The HealthyToys Web site is also cited in the article as a search location to query PVC amounts in toys from a 1,200+ toy database.

Protecting Children with Consumer Alerts

When the media were up in arms about lead in toys from China last fall, I thought issuing consumer alerts as the solution was wimpy. Now Science Daily is reporting that consumers have arrived at the same view conncerning consumer alerts involving children. Read more here .