Apparently, goats and sheep are pretty much the same thing in China. In Mandarin, there is one word to cover both: yang. This issue has come up recently because some English-speaking people seem confused about whether to call the current Chinese year, which began today, the year of the sheep or the goat. In scientific […]
Feb 14 2015
Love Quotes
Go to Google.com today and see two O’s in love. Then click them to bring up an inspiring quote about love. While there, click “Try again” to get another quote. If you love a flower, don’t pick it up. Because if you pick it up, it dies and it ceases to be what you love. […]
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Feb 10 2015
Children Learning Reading Program
Most people do not realize that children as young as three or four are so well focused on learning the sounds and meaning of language that, if properly presented, reading is actually not that difficult. The Children Learning Reading Program uses an approach similar to that of Montessori and Phono-Graphix (upon which I base my […]
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Jan 04 2015
Recent Study Questions Medication for ADHD
Long-term use of stimulants (such as Ritalin and Adderall) for children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) appears to lower both academic performance and emotional functioning, according to a September 2014 study published in the Journal of Health Economics. "We find little evidence of improvement in either the medium or the long run. Our results are […]
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Dec 18 2014
Soy and Health: Urban Myth?
Is soy a wonder food or full of poison? The Weston A. Price Foundation filed a lawsuit on December 16, 2014 against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). At issue is that the FDA allows products to make health claims about soy protein’s effect on coronary heart disease. (Source: Citizens for Health, “Group Files […]
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Dec 14 2014
Children and Fluoridation
An email I sent to Sonoma County on December 4th: To Whom It May Concern: I am appalled that in this day and age, when scientific research has linked fluoridation to health problems, our county would propose such a thing and then proceed to waste our tax dollars on environmental impact studies. Fluoridation of drinking […]
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Nov 28 2014
Children Need to Direct Themselves
Here is evidence that too many children’s lives are over-scripted at the expense not only of their free time, but also of their cognitive development. Psychologists at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO (USA) and the University of Denver in Denver, CO published their research in the June 17, 2014 Frontiers in Psychology journal […]
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Nov 02 2014
Agile Learning
“Agile software development” has been in the tech world since before the term was settled upon in 2001. As a former (and now very part-time) software developer, I have some understanding of the issues. For people involved in education that is truly centered on children (as I am), applying “agile” to “learning” makes sense. In […]
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Nov 02 2014
Ebola and Isolating Unvaccinated Children
Is Mass Inoculation as Good as We are Led to Believe? With the current emphasis on creating a vaccine for Ebola, we can expect that one will be forthcoming eventually, whether it is 100% effective or only minimally so. We can also expect that once it is developed, school-age children will be required to get […]
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Nov 01 2014
Children Get Chronic Conditions Too
In the United States, we entered the new millennium with a dubious distinction: The frequency of autoimmune diseases in children is higher than it has ever been in the history of medicine. – http://www.health.thesfile.com/children/children-alarming-health-trends, citing the book, Healthy Child, Healthy World by Christopher Gavigan (Plume, 2009). I suspect the incidence of autoimmune – and other […]
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