I was reared in a family in which spanking and yelling at children were a common form of discipline. In fact, it was the only form of discipline. My family laughed when I said that I would never hit my own child.

I know that I will never be able to change their belief about spanking, but I never realized how much it bothered me to see a child hit by an adult until my brother spanked and threatened to spank his 14-month-old son three times during a short visit to my home…

I completely agree with you about spanking. Not only does violence often beget violence, but this sort of corporal punishment also is completely inappropriate for a parent to exercise on a child as young as 14 months. A child that young has very little understanding of actions and consequences; spanking or the threat of spanking is simply useless.

The fact that your brother resorted to this three times during a short visit shows how ineffective this sort of punishment is and how ineffective (or overwhelmed) he is as a parent…

Source: Winston-Salem Journal
http://tinyurl.com/yoa37o

Children who watch less television and engage in more educational play are outperforming their peers on a range of measures by the age of four, a study shows.

It reveals that having well-educated parents, watching less television, and doing more “achievement-oriented” activities such as looking at books, being read to, talking and singing, are the best foundations for sound development…

Parental education levels influenced how much TV was watched and educational play. Jennifer Baxter, a research fellow at the institute and the co-author of the study, said: “Children may be disposed to do certain activities because they have an academic bent, or what the children do may reflect their parents’ priorities.”

Her fellow co-author, Alan Hayes, the institute’s director, said the findings indicated the importance of preschool education to compensate for different experiences at home. “Preschool can give children the opportunity to catch up,” he said…

Source: Sydney Morning Herald
http://tinyurl.com/2k6lh8

Wall Street and Silicon Valley are courting Zhang and graduates like her—students with top grades, finance and math skills and a couple of languages—more heavily than any students since the days of the ‘90s dot-com explosion…

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. students choosing computer science as a major plummeted 39 percent in the five academic years ended in 2006, according to the Washington-based Computing Research Association. Those with technical expertise are the same ones that Yahoo Inc., Google and a growing number of hedge funds and private equity firms also want. ‘‘Technology is the hardest to hire for,’’ Raiffa says. ‘‘We really have to compete.’’

To fill math-intensive jobs, banks are bringing in more non-U.S. employees—people like Zhang who came to the United States to study. They typically started out in countries such as China or India, which have been more focused on math and science education. One dividend is the knowledge of cultures where firms such as Goldman aim to expand.

‘‘We know that we are hot property,’’ says Rishi Dhingra, a master’s degree candidate in quantitative and computational finance at Georgia Tech…

With their ease with technology—the Internet is as basic a tool as pen and paper to them—the Millennials are smarter than their bosses were at the same age, Strauss says. Most don’t see themselves working at their current job for more than a year or two. And having seen their boomer parents struggling to juggle careers and family, they aren’t willing to sign on for a life of 80-hour workweeks…

Source: Daily Report
http://tinyurl.com/ywsprk

Children in the UK suffer greater deprivation, worse relationships with their parents and are exposed to more risks from alcohol, drugs and unsafe sex than those in any other wealthy country in the world. That was the damning conclusion of a recent Unicef report which ranked the UK bottom of the league of 21 economically advanced countries according to its “report card” on the wellbeing of children and young people…

Strong, well resourced early years services have a pivotal role to play in contributing to the wellbeing of the child, developing healthy lifestyles and building community cohesion. The Nordic countries have yielded vital rewards for children and families by investing directly in the early years. Currently, however, Scotland spends just 0.5 per cent as a percentage of GDP on early education and childcare in the pre-school sector, compared with Norway’s 1.7 per cent…

Source: Edinburgh Evening News
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1003462007

A growing number of university students have trouble with basic maths, an expert said yesterday.

Young people are struggling with their degree subject because they lack even basic numerical skills, it is claimed.

Dr Christie Marr, head of the Mathematics Support Centre, based at St Andrews University, said that even the brightest students may need help.

It follows fears by the Royal Society of Chemistry earlier this year that Britain’s economic stability was under threat because levels of basic skills among Chinese students far outstrip those of home-grown school-leavers…

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/27/nfees227.xml

Research has shown that parents can, indeed, increase the intellectual capability of their children. This conclusion was first reached through the renowned Harvard University’s Preschool Project.

A team of researchers lead by Dr. Burton White studied young children aged 8 to 18 months over a 10-year period, hoping to discover which experiences in the early years of life contribute to the development of healthy, intelligent human beings. The results of this important study are summarized below.

1. It is increasingly clear that the origins of human competence are to be found in a critical period of development between 8 and 18 months of age. The child’s experiences during these few months do more to influence future intellectual competence than any time before or after.

2. The single most important environmental factor in the life of the child is his or her mother. “She is on the hook,” said White, and carries more influence on her child’s experiences than any other person or circumstance.

3. The amount of live language directed to a child (not to be confused with television, radio or overheard conversations) is vital to his or her development of fundamental linguistic, intellectual and social skills. The researchers concluded: “Providing a rich social life for a 12- to 15-month-old child is the best thing you can do to guarantee a good mind.” …

Source: Kane County Chronicle
http://tinyurl.com/2npyku

A meta-analysis of 55 published research studies reveals programs designed to teach social skills to children with autism are failing to meet their goals. The study, conducted at Indiana University, found that outcomes for social skills training were poor overall, but programs held in normal classroom settings were more likely to result in positive changes than programs held in other environments…

The reviewed studies included a total of 147 students with an autism spectrum disorder, with students ranging in age from preschool to secondary school. The programs aimed to address skills such as group play, joint attention and language usage, or to improve performance of social behaviors, such as initiating interactions, responding to communication and maintaining interactions. Overall, the programs resulted in little change in the targeted behaviors, and students did not apply the skills outside the programs.

However, students receiving social skills programming in their usual classrooms had substantially more favorable outcomes than students who received services in a pull-out setting. Students in classroom-based programs were more likely to engage the targeted skills during the program, and showed a greater tendency to maintain changes in behaviors and to utilize these skills in other settings…

Source: Indiana University
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5877.html

We never expected obesity to become such a problem amongst Canadian children.

Studies have shown that child obesity has tripled in the last 20 years. In addition, studies show that 25 per cent of 9 year olds and 50 per cent of 14 year olds in Quebec are at risk of developing heart disease later in life. Who would have thought that young children as well as adolescents would have to deal with diabetes type 2, high blood pressure and heart related conditions? The fact that we have become a fast food nation has a lot to do with early childhood obesity in Canada.

With two working parents per household having become a common scenario, drive thru has become a fast and efficient option for many. Parents find themselves rushing to pick up their children from daycares following an exhausting and consuming day at work. Finally, children spend their remaining hours of the night hooked to the TV, snacking on their favourite potato chips or cookies. Does this sound familiar? …

Source: West Island Chronicle
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/article-115816-Obesity-a-growing-concern.html

The rise of online networking has created social and educational opportunities, but that’s not all. It has also created significant risk. The Internet may be the information superhighway, but it has also become a conduit for sexual exploitation of children and teens.

“The Internet has expanded our lives incredibly, but it has also expanded our kids’ availability to predators and lowered the barriers between fantasy and behavior,” said Judy Westberg-Warren, president of Web Wise Kids, an organization founded to educate youth about responsible Internet behavior. According to a recent study titled “The State of Internet Security: Protecting Children Online,” by Webroot Software, 43 percent of children aged 11 to 17 who use social-networking sites reported having been contacted online by complete strangers, while 37 percent said they’ve received a sexually explicit e-mail or pop-up advertisement over the past year.

An April 2007 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks,” had similar findings: Of the 55% of teens who have online profiles on a social-networking site, 43% said they’ve been contacted by strangers. Although 65% of these teens said they ignored the contact or deleted it, 21% admitted following up on the solicitation. And many observers say these numbers are inaccurate, as children are notoriously unreliable when self-reporting behaviors they know will be frowned upon. “The number of kids who are willing to set up meetings with people they don’t know in real life is off the charts,” said Parry Aftab, an Internet privacy and security lawyer and executive director of Wired Safety, a Web site devoted to helping victims of cyber-abuse, ranging from online fraud to cyber-stalking and child safety…

Source: iTnews
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=54809&src=site-marq

Chinese schools in Korea are becoming popular with Korean parents amid a trend for learning Chinese. The parents believe their children can learn Chinese without having to go to China to study the language…

With educational authorities stepping up enforcement of regulations at Chinese schools, many parents have turned to kindergartens that offer legal enrollment for Korean children. But interested parents have flooded some Chinese kindergartens with phone calls several months before the admissions process begins, prompting some schools to accept students on a first-come-first-served basis…

A similar situation occurred in Japan recently. In 2004, the daily Asahi Shimbun wrote, “Unusually, 70 percent of the students at Yamanote Chinese School in Yokohama are Japanese children, with Chinese children accounting for the rest. Only a few years ago the school was on the brink of closing down because of a shortage of students. But this year the school is busy turning down parents’ requests for admission.”

Source: Chosun Ilbo
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200706/200706250007.html