The students who do it say multitasking makes them feel more productive and less stressed. Researchers aren’t sure what the long-term impact will be because no studies have probed its effect on teenage development. But some fear that the penchant for flitting from task to task could have serious consequences on young people’s ability to focus and develop analytical skills…

Whatever the consequences of multitasking, they’re going to be widespread. A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that when students are sitting in front of their computers “studying,” they’re also doing something else 65 percent of the time…

The current generation of teens “is trying to do lots of multitasking because they think it’s cool and less boring and because they have lots of gadgets that help them be more successful at this,” said David Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “The belief is they’re getting good at this and that they’re much better than the older generation at it and that there’s no cost to their efficiency.” …

Researchers say there isn’t any answer yet to whether multitasking helps, hurts or has no effect on teens’ development…

Multitaskers “may not be building the same knowledge that they would be if they were focusing,” Poldrack said. “While multitasking makes them feel like they are being more efficient, research suggests that there’s very little you can do that involves multitasking that you can be as good at when you’re not multitasking.” …

They might be getting goods grades, Meyer said, but there’s a chance they could be getting better grades if they learned to focus on a single task or academic subject at a time.

Source: Washington Post
http://tinyurl.com/36px3x

Connor McCreaddie is slowly eating himself to death. At eight years old, he tips the scales at 88kg.

Every day he binges on hamburgers, sausages, chips, biscuits and chocolate, and is three times the weight of a normal child his age.

Connor snacks every 20 minutes and gets through four packets of chips, three packets of biscuits and several bars of chocolate outside meal times…

Child protection authorities in Britain are poised to remove him from his family out of concern for his welfare, according to reports.

He could even be placed on a child protection register alongside victims of physical and sexual abuse.

But talk of taking Connor from his family has sparked international outrage…

British health experts say that Connor is in danger of dying by the time he is 30 if his lifestyle does not change.

“I’m not saying they can’t care for him, but what they are doing, through the way they are treating him and feeding him, they are slowly killing him,” pediatrician Michael Markiewicz said.

Source: The Herald Sun
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21298223-663,00.html

Alarmed by indicators of student stress like cheating and substance abuse, a handful of San Francisco Bay Area schools are reducing an education staple: homework…

For two decades teachers have been under pressure to raise academic standards and test scores, but CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports that many are now questioning the value of burying students in homework.

The changes have come as a University of Missouri study found high school students benefit tremendously from homework. In middle school, the results were not as strong, but homework was still found to be beneficial. But on the elementary school level, the same study found homework had no effect on students…

At Duke University, Harris Cooper tells CBS News his research has shown that homework does help learning.

Source: CBS NEWS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/27/national/main2520459.shtml

The news from American high schools is not good. The most recent test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as the national report card, finds that American 12th graders are actually performing worse in reading than 12th graders did in 1992, when a comparable exam was given. In addition, 12th-grade performance in reading has been distressingly flat since 2002, even though the states were supposed to be improving the quality of teaching to comply with the No Child Left Behind education act.

The new scores, based on tests given in 2005, show that only about 35 percent of 12th graders are proficient in reading. Simply put, this means that a majority of the country’s 12th graders have trouble understanding what they read fully enough to make inferences, draw conclusions and see connections between what they read and their own experiences. The math scores were even worse, with only 23 percent of 12th graders performing at or above the proficient level.

Marginal literacy and minimal math skills might have been adequate for the industrial age. But these scores mean that many of today’s high school seniors will be locked out of the information economy, where a college degree is the basic price of admission and the ability to read, write and reason is essential for success.

Source: New York Times
http://tinyurl.com/2zxe42

By kindergarten, most children have outgrown shyness, but about 15 percent of children have a shy temperament, which may remain a part of their personality. At your daughter’s age, it remains to be seen whether this is a developmental stage or an inborn trait, but, either way, there are things you can do to help.

First, do not make the mistake of openly referring to her as shy, as this label can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If she seems nervous when meeting new people, make comments that are supportive and give her some sense of control.” …

Truly shy children often have shy parents. If you consider yourself on the shy side, try to push yourself to act more relaxed in social situations. Your child is always learning from you, and this “fake it till you make it” approach may gradually help both you and your daughter feel more socially at ease.

Source: Indianapolis Star
http://tinyurl.com/377938

It’s a boom time for blogs and similar websites catering to the shopping, networking and shoulder-crying needs of the big-spending modern mom…

“Moms are the ultimate internet networkers,” said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer.com. “They seek out other moms’ advice for what they’re looking for.” All of today’s e-media buzz words, from Web 2.0 to blogging to user-generated content, are “right down the alley of today’s moms.” Ms. Williamson’s recent report, “Mom’s Online: Parenting With Web 2.0,” found that in 2005, 32.2 million internet users — or 18.4% of U.S. internet users — were females with children under 18 in the house, a number that is predicted to rise to 36.6 million by 2010. And mommy-blog readers are a marketer’s dream: Blog-ad firm Blogads in March reported that the average consumer of such content is a 29-year-old female with annual income of $70,000 who taps in to five blogs a day and spends four hours a week on them.

Just how many mommy blogs?
BlogHer, an aggregator for women’s blogs, counts more than 400 mother/family blogs and, by all accounts, that’s a wholly conservative number as Modern Mom, Mommy Track’d and Cool Mom Picks are joined by countless others looking to cash in on moms. Technorati links to more than 1,000 blogs tagged parenting.

Source: AdvertisingAge
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=115194

All the effort to boost children’s self-esteem may have backfired and produced a generation of college students who are more narcissistic than their Gen-X predecessors, according to a new study…

In the study released today, researchers warn that a rising ego rush could bring personal and social problems for the Millennial Generation, also called Gen Y. People with an inflated sense of self tend to have less interest in emotionally intimate bonds and can lash out when rejected or insulted.

“We need to stop endlessly repeating ‘You’re special’ and having children repeat that back,” said the study’s lead author, San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge. “Kids are self-centered enough already.” …

Some of the rise in narcissism was probably caused by self-esteem programs that many elementary schools adopted in the 1980s, the study suggested. It noted that preschools began to have children sing a song to the tune of “Frère Jacques” that proclaims: “I am special, I am special. Look at me.”

Other trends such as permissive parenting, increased materialism and the fascination with celebrities and reality TV shows may also heighten self-regard, said the University of Georgia’s W. Keith Campbell, a study co-author.

Source: Dallas Morning News
http://tinyurl.com/yrfcb6

Parents have continued to abandon the public education system, with non-government schools growing at almost 20 times the rate of government schools in the past decade…

Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said the figures were a wake-up call to the states. “Parents are choosing to pay school fees at non-government schools because of the quality of education provided,” she said…

The Australian Education Union’s Victoria branch president Mary Bluett said the shift was in part a result of reduced federal funding for government schools. “Last year the federal funding share for Victoria was $920 per government school child and $4339 per non-government student … so I think it is influencing this trend,” she said…

Association of Independent Schools of Victoria chief executive Michelle Green said the growth in the sector showed that “more people are prioritising their children’s education”. She expected the trend would continue…

“Parents want their children to have the best opportunities available and apparently they don’t feel confident that is going to be the case in a government school education,” Mr Davis said.

Source: The Age
http://tinyurl.com/25q4wx

Last August, two researchers at the Australian National University released a report - How and Why Has Teacher Quality Changed In Australia? - which concluded that the “literacy and numeracy standards of those entering teacher education courses are significantly lower today than in the early 1980s”.

This followed the Federal Government’s controversial National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy, released in 2005. That report referred to recent Australian research that confirmed “. . . prospective teachers have a positive attitude towards, but poor knowledge of, language structures”, and that “beginning primary teachers are not confident about teaching specific aspects of literacy such as spelling, grammar and phonics”…

Dr Kerry Hempenstall, a senior lecturer and educational psychologist at RMIT, says that her “bright” postgraduate students are embarrassed that they lack the traditional grammar needed to write a competent essay or thesis.

“In discussion, they report that they were never formally taught these aspects of written language,” Dr Hempenstall says.

The big question is: who is ultimately responsible for those teachers and students who fail to grasp English language somewhere along the way? Is it the education system for not teaching the teachers; the teachers’ approach to teaching; an evolving English curriculum that never quite attains perfection; students’ own lack of aptitude; or their need for tailored teaching? …

“The real question is not whether standards have declined - I think they have. The real question is: could we improve them?” …

Underpinning the vast discussion of literacy are many more debates about how to teach it: the whole-of-language approach, the phonics approach, the naturalist theory of language learning, the functional grammar approach…

Source:The Age
http://tinyurl.com/yo25×5

A basketball player struggles with free throws. Parents and coaches tell him not to worry. He just needs “practice.” Children can’t remember their lines for the school play. Parents explain that it takes “practice” and offer to help them rehearse.

So why is it, when children struggle to read, that some parents find it hard to believe that practice is the key to success? …

As the literacy coordinator for Kingsport City Schools for the past six years, Reed-Wright has seen first-hand the difference reading at home can make for children. Success in school starts with reading. When children become good readers in the early grades, they are more likely to become better learners throughout their school years and beyond.
“If you can read, you can do math. You can do science. You can do social studies. You can function. You can be successful in school,” Reed-Wright said.

“It’s critical to success in school to have a reading component in the home. We see a big difference in the schools,” she said. “The children that are read to and that read in the home, there is a difference in their success in school. There’s also a difference in children who continue reading during the summer.”

Learning to read takes a lot of practice - more than children can get during the school day. It’s a process that starts at home with family members, a process that starts very early on…

Research shows that reading at home is one of the most crucial steps a family can take to help children succeed in school.

“In-home reading is important. Critical to a child is 20 minutes of reading a day and that means quality time - a time of no television, time in an environment of reading,” Reed-Wright said…

“We’ve learned a lot today through research that the ‘to’ level begins with reading picture books and being more of a storyteller,” Reed-Wright said. “When a book has no words or few words, a parent needs to become a great storyteller. Go through and make up names for those characters. Tell the story. Talk about the setting. Talk about a plot. Involve the child in telling the story. Have fun with the story,” she said…

“Spending that time reading is the greatest gift you can give your child - the gift of reading, the gift of your time.”

Source: timesnews.net
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=3734127