Schools are discouraging pupils from taking maths A-level in favour of easier subjects to boost their ranking in national league tables, according to one of the UK’s leading science organisations.

Richard Pike, the chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said that the trend threatens the UK’s ability to compete in a global market and also meant that universities increasingly had to offer science undergraduates remedial maths lessons…

“This contrasts starkly with countries like China, in which mathematics is seen as integral to the sciences and to the nation’s economy, and is taught to all up to the age of 18. There, the concept of remedial courses at university would be inconceivable.” …

Source: Guardian Unlimited
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2064609,00.html

It is a guilty secret for many an exhausted parent: the distracting power of CBeebies. But allowing children under three to watch television can impair their linguistic and social development and puts them at risk of health problems, a psychologist told MPs yesterday.

Aric Sigman said letting young children watch as little as an hour and a half of television a day could put them at increased risk of health problems, including attention-deficit disorder, autism and obesity. The average child in Britain watches up to three times this amount - with the typical 11- to 15-year-old in front of a TV or computer screen seven and a half hours a day…

Speaking to MPs and peers at a Westminster meeting yesterday, Dr Sigman said: “Between the ages of nought and three, particularly when children are acquiring language, their brains are going through rapid development and are being physically shaped, like a piece of clay, in response to what they are exposed to. It’s called structural neuroplasticity.

“Key stages of development are language acquisition and social skills and if they’re displaced at this stage, they may be irreplaceable.” Dr Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and member of the Institute of Biology, said exposing children to fast-moving images at a very young age for a sustained time may inhibit their ability to sustain attention…

Source: Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2064185,00.html

A third of female university graduates will never have children because they choose career over motherhood, research suggests.

A study found that 40 per cent of highly educated women are still childless by the age of 35 - an increase of 20 per cent in just over a decade.

While some are making a conscious decision not to have a family, others are simply leaving it too late after taking years to build their careers, buy a home and find the right partner.

And graduates who do become mothers are having fewer children and leaving it later…

The results help to explain the low birth rate which is leading to an ageing population in Britain and much of western Europe…

Professor Heather Joshi, head of the research team, said of the group she studied: ‘They waited to establish their housing, their careers and sometimes to find the right man.’ …

Source: Daily Mail
http://tinyurl.com/2v4kzy

… I brainstormed with Dawn Hallman of the Dallas Association for Parent Education.

She came up with some child-rearing misconceptions she hears regularly:

“You won’t believe how smart my 4-year-old is. Ask him anything about the rain forest. He watches The Discovery Channel for hours.”

Yes, preschoolers will watch TV for hours, but research shows that hurts, not helps, their minds…

“All babies cry. Just close the door and let them cry it out. This is a tough world. Somebody isn’t going to come running every time you squawk. The sooner kids learn that, the better off they’ll be.”

Yes, the world can be tough. But it’s also full of caring people. And the sooner a child feels safe and cared for, the more likely that child will be a happy, caring adult.

“You hear people say, ‘Don’t pick that baby up. It just wants attention.’ Yes! That’s exactly what it wants and needs,” Dawn said. “It says to the child, ‘I’m valuable.’ ” …

“To prepare for the future, my children need lots of technology.”

“Technology changes. The most important human skill is the ability to build relationships,” Dawn said. “What children need to prepare for the future is conversation, time to play with other children, the chance to learn to belong.” …

“Good parents are those who sometimes wonder if they are bad parents,” she said. That motivates them to learn, to go beyond mimicking their own parents.

Source: Dallas Morning News
http://tinyurl.com/2acrnr

A new movement is gaining momentum in Kansas and elsewhere, as experts in neuroscience, education, psychology and politics consider the importance — and impact — of a child’s earliest years.

And how kids start, experts say, is our first and best clue to how they’ll finish…

“Ready to learn” — a phrase being chanted like a mantra by educators and advocacy groups — means more than showing up. More, even, than singing the alphabet or counting to 10.

“Ready to learn” means using the bathroom by yourself, sharing a toy, listening to a story, being curious. It means holding a pencil correctly, treating books gently, asking questions and taking turns.

“We’re talking about kids having academic skills, but also the social and emotional skills they need to be successful,” said Shannon Cotsoradis, executive vice president for Kansas Action for Children…

According to some nationwide estimates, Cotsoradis said, one in three children starts school “not prepared for success.” …

So what causes some children to start school reading, while others can’t distinguish print from pictures?

Early experiences, says Bruce Perry. Lots of them, built up in the brain like bricks in a child’s tower of potential.

Perry, senior fellow of the Houston-based ChildTrauma Academy and a leading authority on child development, says brain research proves how a child’s earliest years affect his future.

By a child’s third birthday, more than 80 percent of his brain is formed, Perry says; by age 5, more than 90 percent. Simple, seemingly insignificant moments — singing lullabies, playing peek-a-boo — become the foundation for everything a child needs to know: how to talk, how to read, how to think, how to love…

Source: Wichita Eagle
http://www.kansas.com/228/story/50944.html

Like many parents, Lea knows that getting children ready for a lifetime of learning begins in utero by having good prenatal care for the mother. But that is only the beginning of the most important five years of a person’s life.

Studies show that cognitive ability is formed relatively early in life and becomes less malleable as children age.

Lea recalled that even Buddhist monks know the value of early childhood development. They have a saying, she said that goes something like this: A child’s whole character is determined be the time they are 5 years old…

James Heckman, Nobel Prize winning economist, says when babies consistently receives what they need — comfort when upset, stimulation that is not overwhelming, and plenty of loving, playful interactions with gentle encouragements, they learn to trust the world. It is through these efforts that toddlers are able to develop the social and emotional skills needed to succeed later in school and throughout life, he said…

Source: Helena Independant Record
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/04/22/helena_top/a01042207_01.txt

Every child deserves a chance to get the best start in life possible. The first five years of life are critical to a child’s development and lifetime success.

Eighty-five percent of brain development occurs by the age of 5. By 3, children develop most of their capacity to acquire vocabulary, which is the foundation for literacy. A 3-year-old’s brain is 2.5 times more active than the brain of an adult. A child’s capacity to make social attachments and control emotions begins at 2…

Early childhood education goes beyond the day-care and preschool setting. It begins at birth with talking to our children. Teachable moments are everywhere in our daily lives. Cooking dinner, folding laundry or going to the grocery store can open a whole new world for children by teaching them about shapes, colors, textures, numbers and counting.

Read to your child. Do more than just read the words on the page talk to your child about the pictures in the book and ask questions about the story. Simple things you can do with your child will have a lifetime benefit.

Source: Evansville Courier & Press
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/apr/22/early-childhood-education-is-vital/

TV-Turnoff Week begins Monday, a yearly effort to pry tens of millions of people away from the tube and into books, onto hiking trails or anywhere except a sofa facing a glowing screen.

The 14th such attempt will open at a tough time for responsible television watching. Today television is blamed for everything from childhood obesity to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Yet television is everywhere: 84 percent of American homes have at least two sets and the average child watches nearly 25 hours of programming a week, according to the National Institute on Media and Family. Plenty of parents still rely on “Sesame Street,” “Blues Clues” and Barney to reinforce spelling and social skills…

There is virtually no question that watching television can lead to obesity, though not the way many people think, said Christakis, who is also director at the University of Washington’s Child Health Institute

Children get fat because they eat bad food while watching “Law & Order” reruns and MTV, he said.

“For each hour of TV they watch,” he added, “they ingest 160 excess calories a day.” …

The pediatrics group recommends no television for children younger than 2, and only one to two hours a day of “quality programming” for older children. It suggests that parents not allow sets in children’s rooms…

Don’t worry, you don’t necessarily have to throw out your TV to be a responsible parent. You just have to work a little harder, experts suggest.

“Our view is balance. We don’t believe in getting rid of technology,” said Robert Kesten, executive director of the Center for Screen-Time Awareness, the force behind next week’s drive…

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/312565_nomoretv21.html

A recent Vanier Institute for the Family study concluded that there are more problem children today than there were 50 years ago, and society at large is to blame.
ertainly isn’t easy to be a parent these days. But with the decision to procreate co
According to study author Anne-Marie Ambert, a former professor of sociology at York University, it is the laissez-faire “enabling environment” running rampant in today’s society that encourages problem children to misbehave.

In other words, busy (or lazy) parents are offloading their parental responsibilities to teachers, neighbours, television sets and computers, leaving their children without a consistent parental role model.

And the human parental fill-ins who have an opportunity to introduce order and discipline into the lives of misbehaving children have instead adopted a non-interventionist “not my problem” approach, sometimes with disastrous results…

“Because parents are spending less and less time with their kids because both parents are working for economic reasons, and because the hold parents have on kids is less and less, it’s a struggle to be the people who determine the identity of your child,” said forensic psychologist Marta Weber, who has studied the effects of parental influence on children…

It cmes a lifelong commitment to the children one is bringing into this world. That commitment should not be taken lightly…

Source: Winnipeg Sun
http://winnipegsun.com/News/Columnists/Boryskavich_Krista/2007/04/19/4067129.html

Once any medical reasons for a child’s eating habits are ruled out, there are a number of things parents can try. The Triple P — Positive Parenting Program has a few suggestions.

One option is to involve your child in your grocery shopping. See if there are foods that your child is attracted to. If children help to choose the food, they may be more likely to eat it.

Another option is for parents to offer a variety of healthy foods. Sometimes children may like (or not like) certain textures, colors or smells. Parents can encourage their child to try new foods and praise him or her for trying a new food. For example, “I really like that you tried the peas today, Eric.”

One important idea to remember is that our children are watching what we as parents do. Think about what your child might see with regard to eating and mealtimes. How are other people in the house eating? What foods are usually served? How and when are new foods tried? As parents, we can decide what types of eating habits we would like our children to develop, and we can work to model those same behaviors.

Another consideration for parents is to look at how mealtimes are organized. Think about how you would like your mealtimes to be. Is mealtime in your family a time when everyone eats together and talks about their day, or do family members eat separately? Different routines may affect your child’s eating. Children may also lose interest in eating if they are distracted by other things. Decreasing distractions (like the television) may help children focus more on eating…

Source: Charlotte Observer
http://charlotte.com/280/story/91174.html