Why toys are toxic to the environment and children’s development

Plastic toys are toxic to the environment and they are unnecessary for the fulfillment of childhood play. Until the mid-20th Century, inexpensive plastic toys were virtually non-existent, yet brilliant children developed into fine citizens and our world flourished. What seems to have been lost by Western society over in the past fifty years is the wonderful experience of kids playing with each other and inventing their own games and toys.Market-driven plastic toy products are replacing self-directed and creative play. Play has become a multi-level branding opportunity for manufacturers and entertainment giants. Huge effort is devoted to gaining the support of consumers-in-training, a.k.a. kids.

What can be done in a world where plastic toys are not going away? We must acknowledge the high costs to our planet and the costs to our children’s skill development in the 21^st century. We must contribute less to the manufacturer of plastic toys, which will in turn decrease the burden on our air and water quality, energy and waste management systems and climate.

The development of creativity from exploration ultimately contributes to a child’s problem-solving capabilities but these skills are being nurtured by plastic toys that work for the child. The child must engage the imagination and use objects in a variety of ways. In schools today we can already see the loss of innovation that our kids will deliver as adults when it is their turn to run the planet. These so-called “awesome new toys” are developing children with low-level skills and cluttering our environment.

1. Playmates should be more important than play things.

2. Teach your children that their imaginations are more fun than most toys. They will explore more and think at a deeper level as natural problem-solvers.

3. Teach your children to recycle – a valuable lesson for their future

4. Limit plug time – replace television, computer time and video games with board games, outdoor activities, books and conversation

5. Discover the adventures waiting for you in different types of nature. Kids love surprises and they will love scavenging for new things.

6. Reuse your stuff by creating an “imagination box” for your child to play pretend with a variety of used clothes, shoes, steering wheels, paper towel tubes, tissue boxes, spoons, etc…

7. Spend at least a half-hour with your children playing actively with simple toys like balls and ropes.

8. Read a story.

No Child Left Inside Act and environmental education

The “No Child Left Behind Act,” has most schools so focused on new testing and curriculum requirements (in language and math) that environmental education is being pushed out of our schools. Hands-on, experience-based environmental education can reconnect kids to the natural world. It will help prepare our children for jobs in environmental fields of the future. We must demand that our children receive a well-rounded curriculum that includes real life experiences.

As a result, the U.S. Congress is working to pass the “No Child Left Inside Act” to get our young people learning outside and reconnected with nature through environmental education. Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island and Congressman John Sarbanes from Maryland are the lead sponsors of the No Child Left Inside legislation.

The No Child Left Inside coalition also recently released a compelling video where you can see firsthand how environmental education is connecting children with the natural world. Go ahead and join the coalition today! Tell your congressmen and women how you feel about narrow focus of “No Child Left Behind.”

Why is paying kids to learn so bad?

The number one trait 21^st century companies are looking for in their employees is innovation.

Innovation is a creative process where you don’t always succeed the first time. “Learn and earn” type incentive programs imply that learning and test scores are black and white. However, we know those who understand the gray are the real winners in society and in the workplace.

Monetary incentives are out of touch with one of the key factors needed to best promote achievement in children – an intrinsic desire or at least an appreciation for the endeavor of learning.

It takes building an academic culture in schools and homes to nurture this, not building a payment structure.

We must address these questions:

• Why don’t children get intrinsic satisfaction from learning in school?
• How can we fix this failing of education?

Let’s pay our children for those things that would cause them to take more pride in their schools, communities and service organizations. Things like:

• Tutoring younger children
• Cleaning up the school grounds
• Assisting with sports programs for younger students
• Researching healthier menus for our school cafeterias and create plans for implementing them

Back in the day, motivation and reward came intrinsically from a fear of failure. You studied and worked hard because failure simply wasn’t an option. Now we offer numerous choices for those who aren’t bothered by failure – GED programs, alternative schools and summer school to name just a few.

What do bribes teach children?

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The surest way to raise selfish, rude, contentious, unhelpful children is to have low expectations for what they can and should offer the family and community!

Early education is the key!  Teach them to become a responsible citizen who loves to learn and you will not need money or alternative programs for those who fail because they simply will not except failure.

Innovation in business and education

Did you see the show on CNBC about the business of innovation in companies today? As an educator who was on the frontlines of preparing “tomorrow’s innovators,” I was intrigued. I learned many things about business operations and employee motivation but most of all I learned that businesses are innovating when schools are not!

Inside of the classroom, you know you should be preparing the children for what their lives are like today and what they will be like tomorrow. However, when faced with outdated text books, bureaucratic red tape to “teach to the test” and a lack of technological tools for promoting innovation, what should one do?

Wikipedia defines innovation this way: The term innovation may refer to both radical and incremental changes in thinking, in things, in processes or in services (Mckeown, 2008). Invention that gets out in to the world is innovation. In many fields, something new must be substantially different to be innovative, not an insignificant change, e.g., in the arts, economics, business and government policy. In economics, the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Innovation leading to increased productivity is the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy.

So… let’s look at this part. “In many fields, something new must be substantially different to be innovative, not an insignificant change, e.g., goverment policy.” Could someone please tell me what plans for educational innovation either of the presidential campaigns is offering? Is government policy going to change? Are we going to continue sinking billions of public dollars into an ancient public education system where the drop out rate is higher than the graduation rate in many states?

OH… and about early childhood education, the only Americans benefitting from those millions at present are the disadvantaged (and they should) but are we innovating the practices for which we offer that money? Be reminded of the other part of the definition: The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. We have been funding early education for the disadvantaged since the 1960’s. How’s it working for us?

Teach a man to fish and he will fish for a lifetime… fish for him and he will always wait for more during his lifetime!

How would you innovate education? I know what I’m doing…

Here we go again – more wasted money attributed to No Child Left Behind

The $1 billion-a-year Reading First program, authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act, has had no measurable effect on students’ reading comprehension. The long-awaited interim report from the Reading First Impact Study , released last week by the Institute of Education Sciences, says that students in schools receiving grants from the federal program have not fared any better than their counterparts in comparison schools in gaining meaning from print.

Its purpose was to help improve reading instruction in the nation’s struggling schools by focusing students on explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

 

So what were the results?  Well… students’ understanding of reading material did not change significantly whether or not they were in Reading First schools. In fact, researchers determined that without the Reading First funding in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, children in grades 1 – 3 would not have lost (in 3^rd grade) or gained (1^st and 2^nd) more than 3 percentage points.  (Source: Institute of Education Sciences)

 

Thankfully, congress cut the budget for the program by 60% in October (for the 2008 fiscal year).  These cuts were driven mostly by federal reports that suggested conflicts of interest had occurred among officials and contractors who helped implement the program. Some contractors were tied to commercial reading programs used in participating schools.

 

However, a bigger problem has plagued the program, the problem of a drastically narrowed focus on basic (low level) skills, at the expense of critical thinking and understanding literature and nonfiction.  Reading instruction is a comprehensive task.  You can’t focus all of the child’s time on basic phonemic awareness and decoding skills and expect to have a fluent reader and writer.  If you teach and expect mastery of only basic skills, you will get only basic results.

 

Background knowledge is crucial in building students’ reading skills and their ability to understand subject-area texts. The teaching of content and interesting content has obviously been neglected through this program.  How is the learning relative to the child’s life and interest?  Why would a child want to read if they are subjected to educational boredom through drill and practice style reading activities?

 

Specific skills are important, but you can’t just teach the low level skills and assume the other skills will emerge by themselves.  Too much time has already been wasted with this program’s basic fanfare, that’s time that’s being stolen from recess, math and science class, and the children are getting nothing in return.  We are in a global society.  We need to connect students learning to 21^st century skills.  We need to empower students to reach higher than a basic level of understanding and knowledge.

 

My opinion – shameful!  Early education is the key to future success.  We must teach our children from birth and we must motivate others around us to do the same.  Give your child the world – set expectations high for educational development before he even begins school!