margonaut musician, librarian, writer, enigmatic weirdo, and lover of the one-ness

reading too soon?

I recently learned that Waldorf Schools don't recommend teaching children how to read until age 7! At first, I thought this was ridiculous, but after learning about how the written word (as opposed to spoken language) affects cognitive development (and the development of entire societies) I am starting to think they might be on to something.

I'm planning on researching this topic further, but here's an article with some insight on their point of view...

Learning to Read & Write in Waldorf Schools
http://www.steinerbooks.org/learning.html
Is it possible that the cultural pressure to teach children to read earlier and earlier promoted in our monolithic school system is misguided by requiring of the child’s lively, intuitive consciousness an inappropriate degree of abstraction too soon? Could linguistic intelligence actually be retarded by leaving the riches of the oral tradition prematurely? Are the outcomes based goals and behaviorist procedures for achieving the ability to read at an early age well supported by developmental research? Is it wise to get on with the program as quickly as possible, with four and five year olds taking home worksheets from kindergarten? Should we then measure through testing the children’s reading progress (disregarding the wide variation of individual developmental differences) and hold teachers accountable for improving test scores? Logically in this approach more resources and skill development time (“drill and kill”) would be devoted to those children below agreed upon benchmarks, targeting exactly their weakness. The result of this paradigm is that whirlwinds of anxiety, stress, feelings of failure, and avoidance behavior rise from the current system meant to address national goals and standards without an understanding of where young children are in their development.

why are so many kids allergic to peanuts now?

It's pretty obvious that peanut allergies have gone up in recent years. Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches were a staple of my childhood in the 70s and 80s but now enough kids have problems with them that many schools ban them completely because peanut allergies can be so severe.

I suspect it has to do with dubious ingredients that are put into vaccines, due to the fact this allergy is more common in "industrialized" nations than in "less developed" ones and the fact it came on so suddenly. I could be wrong though, and researchers are busy trying to develop a peanut allergy vaccine. Only time will tell what the side effects of that will be...

Going Nuts: Why Are So Many Kids Allergic?
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2649
More than one million Americans are severely allergic to nuts (that is, exposure will lead to anaphylaxis). The state of New Jersey is treating peanut allergies as a serious public health issue, spending $250,000 to educate restaurant workers about the dangers of nuts and how and why to take inquiries from patrons about the content of food seriously. But while the public is becoming more aware of food allergies in general, what is not clear is why nut allergies have become such a severe and prevalent problem, particularly among children.

Autism, Allergy, Asthma and Vaccine Induced Autoimmunity
http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/vaccine_awareness/vaccine_induced_autoimmunity.html
Why the "surge" in anaphylactic children entering school a decade ago? These children were among the first to receive an additional vaccination, Hib meningitis. Is it possible that the Pertussis and Hib vaccine, both shown below to cause allergic responses, are creating a hypersensitive immune system in some children? Has any study looked into what happens to atopy incidence and IgE levels when 5 vaccines are given concurrently in infants?

happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! I have so much respect for women who put their all into raising their kids. It's not always easy in the modern world (and no one's mother is perfect) but it's important to take the time to appreciate the gifts our mothers gave us.

Word to the mothers!

encouraging our future innovators

When I was young I was slow at those multiplication tests where you had to answer hundreds of 6x8 type questions. A teacher told me, "Don't worry honey you're just not good at math." Can you imagine saying that to a child?

However, things are changing. This project of the Girl Scouts of America is quite encouraging!

Girls Go Tech
http://www.girlsgotech.org
Even if you don't realize it, math, science and technology play an important part in your life. It is all around you! During your lifetime you will have to depend more and more on your understanding of these subjects, but you'll be surprised how much fun you can have, and are already having, with math, science, and technology.