At this time of year people think about peace. They send holiday cards with peace written on them in attractive lettering and seasonal colors or which have idyllic scenes of snowy nights and animals in the woods or which have gleeful snowman or motorcycle riding Santas. And yet there is no peace on earth. Joshua […]
What are you thankful for?
Robert Emmons in his book Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier cites research that shows that thinking about being thankful can raise happiness levels by 25% and that writing thankful thoughts in a journal leads to better sleep habits and an increase in energy. Wow! Let’s share that happiness with our children. The […]
4 Children’s Books about War
~ The Foolishness of War ~ Armistice or Remembrance Day November 11 was designated a holiday to recognize the ending of WWI hostilities in Europe in 1918. Would that had been the end of all wars as people hoped back then, instead of the beginning of modern warfare. Here are four children’s books that address the […]
Transparency, if not Divestment
By Tim Wolcott The power needs to shift. It didn’t usually take me so long to decide to financially support my university. But this year, I did not contribute until recently. This was after receiving numerous postal, email and telephone requests from Binghamton University to support their mission. It took a particular letter to help […]
A Big Book of Peace
If you were going to make the biggest book in the world, what topic would you choose? What would you have the most to say about? What would you want to tell people that would take thousands of dollars, many years, and the efforts of hundreds? A group of fifth graders chose PEACE. Here is […]
Syria Retaliation: What are we teaching our children?
The new school year has started. Teachers are busy educating their new students about how to behave in the classroom – How to make friends. How to help others. How to deal with bullies. In some school districts and states teachers are implementing new and tougher policies against bullying. These policies are very strict. Here, […]
We are Watching
We are watching. What would you do if you saw someone bullying someone else or someone hurting another person and that person was calling for help? There are three possibilities. Do nothing. Call for help. Take action. The first choice is to make no choice at all. Nothing changes. You have done nothing. The second choice is to call for help. […]
How to be an Ally
What does it mean to be an effective ally in a social movement? To be an ally means to be someone from outside an oppressed group who comes to help those who are discriminated against. The following ideas are summarized from a roundtable discussion broadcast on the radio program Making Contact and reprinted this week […]
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
What does it take to have a war? Soldiers – men and women willing to kill. A cause – any will do. Hatred – You can’t kill someone you love. Some times a children’s picture book can be more profound than the greatest philosopher. A children’s book puts into pictures and words concepts that are […]
Can you detach your child from the screen?
The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, is sponsoring Screen Free Week for April 29-May 5. Young children now spend 32 hours a week in front of screens – TVs, computers, iPads, and cell phones. Recent research on the effect of the overuse of computers and hours spent indoors on the vision of children strongly suggests that screen exposure […]
3 Poetry Books for April
April is National Poetry Month. What books are you reading to your children? Are they full of hippity hoppity bunnies and spring flowers? Nothing wrong with that. But how about trying one or more of these. Here are three poetic books to share with your children. Each one is completely different from the other, but […]
Albany says, “Cut Back.” We say, “Fight Back!”
By Tim Wolcott Weather was on our side as blue skies and mild temperatures bathed the crowd of stomping, chanting Elmira Heights School District families, staff and friends on March 9, 2013. The stadium P.A. system beat out familiar rhythms between questions from an announcer that asked why some school districts must be forced to […]
