Janet wrote:
How should we respond to children bringing their toy gun look-alikes to school and then playing war or fighting games with these? It is not that they are playing the games, but the use of the look alike weapons that I am interested in. Does this in some way do some damage to children because guns/weapons are seen as signifying violence (or protection depending on who you talk to! ) in our culture? Or do adults just end up projecting their fear of these weapons onto the children and a child playing with a look alike weapon is in fact no different from a child picking up a stick and saying bang, bang. I recognize that there may be a range of answers to this depending on the child's background and the culture of the home.

A long time colleague, Kali Woodward, Director at American Youth Literacy Foundation, sent a link to a New York Times article - The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers. The article describes a Harvard study following 12,000 kindergartners for twenty five years and confirms, as many other studies do the long-term impact of early experiences, in this case the value of good a Kindergarten teacher.

The first rung on the ladder holds up the rest. The very early stages of human development provide the foundation for all that follow. As is our habit and social conditioning the research paper focused on Kindergarten Teachers and concluded that the impact of a ‘good one’ translated into lifelong learning and earning potential (in children and therefore long term economic impact) valued at $320,000/year.

James W. Prescott, PhD is causing trouble again (and I’m glad he is.)

Do we have full gender equality? Why not?

At the core of Jim’s research is a mind/body split created by the male dominated intellect constructing images, beliefs, religions moral codes that proclaim the body, its sensations and pleasures, to be evil – resulting in an anti touch, anti sensuality, anti woman campaign perpetuated by men in order to control female sexuality and pleasure. The roots of this Violence Against Women (and children) are deep. Remember the Inquisition and its witch hunts that lasted 300 years?

Suzann Arms of Birthing the Future is planning an international symposium on birth and how it affects the way the brain and therefore how culture develops. She asked for feedback – Though you might be interested…

Suzann 
It is done onto us as we perceive – as we believe – as we do onto others.

The emphasis you placed on birth – being the foundation of human development – is of course critical. I suggest that there is another focus, one that is deeper and more nurturing. The core insight driving all of our activities at Touch the Future is summarized in the preface for a new book in development Kids are NOT the Problem.

There is a pervasive, near universal perception – parenting is about kids. Just about everything a parent does and often thinks about is about ‘the kid.’ An alternative point of view, a completely different paradigm, is that kids provide the necessary catalyst for evolutionary development in adults. The first, parenting is about kids, places children, their care, education and development in the spotlight. They are the goal and focus of attention and resources. The second, becoming a parent is about adult development with kids providing the stimulus for this continuing growth, places the adult center stage. Adult growth and development then becomes the goal, focus of attention and target for resource investments. It sounds selfish but it’s NOT.

A follow up to our

Virtual Reality is Sensory Deprivation
The Emerging Technology Disaster in Early Childhood Education

Commentary by Michael Mendizza
On Fast Companies’ Article - A is for App

see: https://ttfuture.org/files/2/pdf/mm_A%20is%20for%20App.pdf

The Emerging Technology Disaster
in Early Childhood Education

On Fast Companies’ Article - A is for App
See: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/144

To the Editor of Fast Company, Anya Kamenetz, the author, and Paul Kim, CTO, Stanford University School of Education, quoted on the cover.

Just look at Eliana and Germma Singer on the cover, both age three – so cool, so hip, learning their ABCs on the iPhone - the next Technopolitan cover girls. Next to them bold – red “The Real Smart Phone Revolution, How Tech Is Making Kids Smarter Everywhere.”

Sirs and madam, technology cannot and does not make kids smarter. Nothing can be further from the truth. Intelligence is innate, not learned or accumulated, and universally present in every cell of the body and all of nature. To suggest that an iPhone will improve this vast innate intelligence is dehumanizing. How dare you? 1, 2

As you know, yesterday the Supreme Court shredded campaign finance laws and lifted corporate spending restrictions. The reasons I believe everyone should be concerned about this dramatic act, the latest in a very long and continuing pattern, are best described by two people I respect: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jerry Mander, author of The Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, In the Absence of the Sacred and A Case Against Globalization.

Some reacted cautiously to our recent post Why Males Are Disappearing.
First glance reactions often surface. It is called prejudice - a pre-judgment.

This is a serious and important issue, one that demands careful inquiry and deep understanding. I encourage you to revisit our recent newsletter.