Oliver and Gillian Schonrock have inspired a heated debate this week about how much independence children should have. The couple from south London have been allowing their eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son to cycle one mile unsupervised from their home to school.
Continue reading “Set children free by trusting adults”Monkeys mourning? Don’t make me laugh
A handful of chimp mothers carrying around their dead babies is not evidence of ‘human-like’ qualities.
‘Chimps “feel death like humans”’, the BBC reported this week. And according to Scientific American: ‘Like tool use and self-awareness, distinct grief and mourning might be just one more thing we share with our closest living relatives.’
Continue reading “Monkeys mourning? Don’t make me laugh”This isn’t racism – it’s just kids being kids
A new book explodes the myth of racist children and reveals how anti-racist initiatives in British schools have split pupils into ethnic camps.
Continue reading “This isn’t racism – it’s just kids being kids”Battle in Print: comments on Sue Palmer’s ‘Out to Play’
The modern world is damaging children. They are cooped up inside – impassive and apathetic, and unable to create their own fun and entertainment. Their imagination is dulled by too many hours watching the TV and playing on sedentary computer games. Their minds are corrupted by commerce and advertising. They are traumatised by testing.
So we are increasingly led to believe.
Continue reading “Battle in Print: comments on Sue Palmer’s ‘Out to Play’”The determinist myth
The idea that the first three years of our lives make us who we are is scientifically unsound.
Continue reading “The determinist myth”A right to play
A few years ago, in my home town of Trondheim, a five-year-old girl called Silje was beaten up by three boys of her own age, knocked unconscious and left to freeze to death in the snow. People were shocked. Teachers and childcare officers were not alone in wanting to know where the adults had been when this happened. The children, it transpired, had been playing outdoors unsupervised.
Continue reading “A right to play”