The Popczynskis soon received a diagnosis for their son, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D., and were told that they could turn to a stimulant medication like Ritalin. Doctors have ample evidence that stimulants not only calm children physically but may also improve their school performance, at least for as long as they are on medication.

But like most other parents, the couple preferred to avoid drug treatment, if possible. Instead, with the guidance of psychologists at the University of Buffalo, they altered the way they interacted with Peter and his younger brother, Scott. And over the course of a difficult year, they brought about a transformation in their son. He still has days when he gets into trouble, like any other 10-year-old, but he no longer exhibits the level of restless distractibility that earned him a psychiatric diagnosis…

… The science behind nondrug treatments is getting stronger. And now, some researchers and doctors are looking again at how inconsistent, overly permissive or uncertain child-rearing styles might worsen children’s problems, and how certain therapies might help resolve those problems, in combination with drug therapy or without drugs…

Bluntness, for example, is a virtue. Saying to a child, “Would you put your toys back in the box, please?” turns a command into a question. Saying, “Let’s put your toys back in the box,” implies collaboration. An unadorned “Put your toys back in the box” is clearer for everyone, psychologists say, especially so for a child who is highly distractible…

Like most who try to use behavior modification techniques, the Popczynskis relied on a daily report card to keep a running tally of Peter’s specific problem behaviors, like wandering attention, ignoring commands or defiance, and his efforts to correct them.

Source: New York Times
http://tinyurl.com/2mrw8a

Fact one: Learning about sex, drug use, body piercings or smoking will not set your children on the path to perdition.

Fact two: It will not even put ideas in their heads that weren’t already there.
Fact three: All loving parents know talking sex and sexuality is critical and should be part of an ongoing dialogue that reflects the maturity of our children, our morals and the world in which we live…

Fact four: Your kids already know much more about life than you could ever imagine. What do you think they’re talking about on MSN?…

Fact five: Much of what they learn on MSN is wrong, misguided or subject to the wild imaginations of adolescents. It’s your job to straighten them out…

I don’t want to know what my girls are exposed to every single day, but it’s my sacred job not to look away.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/local/story/3821926p-4421239c.html

Chang’s contrasting self-identities reflect what could be defined as the most daunting challenge for teachers at many elementary, junior high and high schools in the nation nowadays - instructing students while being distrusted by them.

“I’m actually scared of students these days. Students have become so mean. I can’t really say things that I want even when students behave badly because they often swear back at teachers,” Chang told The Korea Herald…

As many students face “an examination hell” in Korea where a harsh regime of endless cramming, the memorization of facts, is probably the worst in the world, Chang says an effective teacher has to balance all of the expectations and challenges from students, parents and schools…

“As we all know, traditional public education has been a one-way system in which teachers impose their knowledge on their students and parents. But students and parents are customers in a sense, and it is time for teachers and schools to listen to what kind of education students want, like a custom-made education,” Kim said.

Source: Korea Herald
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/12/22/200612220047.asp

“Like all countries, people in China want the best for their children. And so, this is consistent with what Korea and the Philippines have already done—and that’s require two parents who are in good health and not elderly,” said Cleo Terry, who oversees international adoption at Lifelink, a health and human service organization in Bensenville…

“These are predictable and natural responses to a situation where there are more prospective adoptive parents than there are babies to be adopted,” Atwood said.
Adoption workers said China is simply following in the footsteps of many other countries, including the United States, that have restricted the qualifications of adoptive parents…

“Countries have a right to impose the standards that reflect their culture and understanding of families. And the United States does that too—state by state, we have different rules. So, fair enough,” Stigger said.

“We might find a single mom a perfectly suitable parent for a child. [But] within Chinese culture, these rules make perfect sense in terms of how they view a typical, ideal family.”

Source: Chicago Tribune
http://tinyurl.com/2qhxny

When parents and families get personally involved in education, their children do better in school and grow up to be more successful in life. Sounds like common sense, doesn’t it?

Yet parental involvement is one of the most overlooked aspects of American education today. The fact is, many parents don’t realize how important it is to get involved in their children’s learning…

All parents and family members should try to find the time and make the effort because research shows that when families get involved, their children:

* Get better grades and test scores.

* Graduate from high school at higher rates.

* Are more likely to go on to higher education.

* Are better behaved and have more positive attitudes.

Family involvement is also one of the best investments a family can make. Students who graduate from high school earn, on average, $200,000 more in their lifetimes than students who drop out. College graduate makes almost $1 million more! …

Steps You Can Take To Improve Your Children’s Education

- Read together

- Use TV wisely

- Establish a daily family routine with scheduled homework time

- Talk to your children and teenagers — and listen to them, too

- Express high expectations for children by enrolling them in challenging courses

- Find out whether your school has high standards

- Keep in touch with the school

- Use community resources

Source: wane.com
http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=371979&nav=menu32_21

Parents should stop watching television and start reading to their children and helping them with their homework, says new Education Minister Mark McGowan…

“And I’m not saying that parents should be telling teachers what to do,” he said. “What I mean is, parents assuming some responsibility for their children’s education when the children are not at school.

“So at night, reading to them, assisting them with their homework, doing sums with them, talking to them about the value of education - particularly when they’re young, to get those fundamentals right.

“I actually think that is probably the most important thing that you can do to really support your child…

One theme could be: “Why are you sitting here watching TV when you should be reading to your children?”.

Source: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20939684-5006789,00.html

Adults can start in their children’s infancy by training them for later success.

Thanks to a new, sophisticated, noninvasive imaging technique, called functional magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists can now watch the brain read. This provides exciting new information about the neurological underpinnings of literacy and has significant implications for how we teach children to read.

While reading is a complex process neurologically, functionally it consists of two major skills. They are decoding, or the ability to correctly identify the written word, and comprehension, the ability to understand meaning…

… Long before a child learns to read, he must master three fundamental pre-reading skills: be able to hear the separate sounds or phonemes that make up the word; be able to take them apart and put them back together; and be able to understand that written letters stand for these sounds — the alphabetic principle. That is why a language-rich environment for infants and toddlers is so crucial to later successful reading. Exposure to rhyme, rhythm, songs and word play, as well as exposure to books and oral stories, all train the brain to get ready for reading.

Source: Star-Gazette
http://tinyurl.com/36rh2e

Parents have long suspected as much. Now researchers have found that little boys really do just want guns and trucks while little girls want dolls.

Children are so firmly divided along gender lines by the age of four that despite the best efforts of teachers to prevent stereotypical behaviour, when left to their own devices, boys play pirates and girls play house.

The year-long study, which observed and interviewed pupils in reception classes at three primary schools in the south west, found that even if playtime was set in the relative neutrality of an imaginary castle, boys would kill dragons and chop people’s heads off, while girls would invent domestic stories of mums and dads, or princesses…

… The findings, published in the latest edition of the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, appear to confirm that gender differences are hard-wired into children’s brains from birth. As one parent put it: “Give my girl a truck and she will feed it and put it to bed.” …

The play study also warned against trying to censor children’s “natural” inclinations. “Adult intervention to move children on from gender stereotypical play might be counterproductive and inhibit the development of play,” it said.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/17/ngender17.xml

Ms Bishop said it was taking too long for states to implement the recommendations of the Federal Government’s Teaching Reading report, which urged teachers to go back to basics in teaching children to read, especially in the early primary school years. Research shows that up to a third of primary students may be missing out on elementary reading skills under the literacy methods used in almost all schools.

But change may be difficult, with research showing more than half of beginning primary teachers feel ill-equipped to teach reading using phonics — the technique of breaking words into sound sections…

Ms Bishop’s comments come as the so-called “literacy wars”, fought in the US and Britain, are hotting up in Australia, with university education faculties likely to fight against changing the way they train teachers.

A teaching guide

■The ‘back-to-basics’ style involves teaching children to read by linking sounds with the letters, and to break the ‘code’ of reading by proceeding in small steps.

■’Constructivism’ in education is a cognitive theory about how children learn, as opposed to how they are taught. It emphasises a whole-language or whole-word approach, by which children learn to read by responding to visual clues, such as the word’s context in a sentence, or by memorising unfamiliar words.

Source: The Age
http://tinyurl.com/35jgxq

McGuinty clearly understood that quality child care was about early childhood development, not patchwork custodial babysitting. He called it Best Start. We embraced the vision. Months later, McGuinty became premier of Ontario…

Early childhood development and adult literacy are often discussed as separate topics, yet their interrelatedness is of utmost importance. Recent international evidence exposes two disturbing findings. One: Nearly 9 million adult Canadians lack the literacy skills necessary to cope with everyday life. Two: Among developed countries, Canada comes dead last in spending on early learning and child-care services. Naturally, there’s a connection.

High literacy skills can equip a population to compete for quality jobs, to earn more, be healthier, build safer communities and to take an active role in civic life. Evidence also shows that the benefits of literacy are intergenerational. A child’s best start is closely linked to the literacy levels of the parents…

The evidence is clear. Success in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as success in informal learning and the workplace, gets a good start — or not — depending on early learning and child care.

Source: Toronto Star
http://tinyurl.com/2gqw3m