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Posts Tagged ‘children’

What Authors Say About AI

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 23, 2026| 1 Comment »

Photo: Benedict Evans/The Guardian.
This is 826 Valencia Street, San Francisco, the center for young writers that author Dave Eggers co-founded in 2002.

Authors in general are not OK with the way artificial intelligence undermines the value of human creativity. They also notice faster than the rest of us when AI begins to impinge on our thought processes.

In a long, discursive Guardian interview, Sophie McBain finds that acclaimed author Dave Eggars is not going to take it lying down. She writes, “Eggers had thought, over two decades of working with children, that he had met and seen every educational challenge. Then AI entered the classrooms.

” ‘The AI challenge really is beyond an existential one. Every time I think I’m going to talk to somebody who would never deign to use AI in any form I find there’s this very porous line where, you know, a smart 10-year-old will say, “Well, I don’t use it to write, I just use it to generate ideas,” which is far, far worse.’

“When he hears stories like that, he likes to remind students of their uniqueness. ‘You’re one of one,’ he’ll say. ‘You’re unprecedented in the entire line of human history. Only you have your brain. Only you can think of what you can think of. Only you can tell a story in a particular way. Why would you cede that to a machine?’

“Eggers’s voice, usually quiet, almost monotone, rises as he warms to his theme. ‘Once you have a machine think for you and write for you, you’re cooked as a species. That’s it. That’s the worse dystopian outcome there could ever be,’ he says. He can think of nothing worse than ‘the idea of us willingly, without any overlord telling us so, saying, “I think my voice would be better expressed by an unthinking machine who has plagiarized all of the world’s authors and has come up with this terrible soup of bad writing.” ‘

“For all the dispiriting news about AI-written books and reviews, Eggers believes that eventually there will be a countermovement, much as there is growing resistance to giving teenagers smartphones and social media access.

“Most teachers, he suspects, understand the problem with tech in schools. The problem stems from policymakers. He mentions a speech in which the US education secretary Linda McMahon talks about the benefits of introducing AI into schools, even for children as young as five. …

“Eggers and his wife, the writer Vendela Vida, are part of two class action lawsuits against Anthropic over the AI firm’s unauthorized use of their books to train large language learning systems. ‘I guarantee you they didn’t even think they were stealing anything because it’s just “content” to them,’ he says. Content is the ‘world’s worst word,’ he adds, because it dehumanizes writing and suggests ‘it has no real value inherently, and it doesn’t matter if humans made it or not.’

“He has written two dystopian novels, The Circle (2013) and The Every (2021), about a monopolistic big tech firm that is trying to take over every aspect of human existence, and somehow reality seems capable of outdoing his imagination.

“In The Every, the president communicates in emojis, rather than rightwing memes, and AI is used to sanitisze novels, rather than write them from scratch. He was recently invited by Sam Altman of OpenAI to speak on campus about AI-written novels.

“To everyone’s credit, Eggers says, it was an interesting, open conversation. ‘It was a really nice afternoon, actually, because what we always forget is that the maniacal illusions of a few of the people at the very top are not always shared by the rank-and-file … at least some of the people working there do want to be told what’s right and what’s wrong,’ he says. ‘But I definitely did have to give them the bad news … there’s no such thing as AI art. Only humans can create art.’ At best, the stuff a machine can spit out can be described as ‘computer generated imagery.’ “

More from Dave Eggers at the Guardian, here. A likeminded author, Margaret Atwood, calls AI “garbage in, garbage out,” at Deadline, here. You can probably come up with many more examples.

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Annual Dutch Ritual Makes for Happy Kids

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 9, 2026| 6 Comments »

A great deal of thought has been given to what makes for a happy childhood. Some studies even aim to show which countries have the happiest children.

In the Netherlands, a uniquely Dutch evening ritual may have something to do with overall contentment.

Hannah Docter-Loeb writes at the Guardian, “I shouldn’t have been surprised that the rain didn’t stop the Dutch kids. All day it had been thunderstorming, and the forecast didn’t look so great for the evening. And yet at 5pm, hundreds of kids started arriving – many by bike – with their parents to Amsterdam’s Westerpark, a beloved city park that caters to a more residential area of the capital. Today, it functions as a starting point: volunteers coordinate registration, and groups of children gather, decked out in raincoats and eager to embark on either a 5km or a 10km excursion around the surrounding neighborhoods.

“It’s the second night of Avondvierdaagse (which literally means ‘four-day evening walk’), organized by a group of neighborhood volunteers. It’s not a race, but if children complete every night, they get medals, a bouquet of flowers and, if they’re lucky, a lot of sweets.

“It’s not just Amsterdam; across villages, towns and cities in the Netherlands, hundreds of thousands of Dutch people are doing the same: every year, kids spend four evenings in early summer exploring their neighborhoods with their school friends and parents as part of the Week van de Avond4daagse. … There are also four-day cycling and swimming events. According to the Royal Dutch Walking Association (KWbN), which helps coordinate the events, half a million people take part every year, in 700 locations across the country, powered by tens of thousands of volunteers.

” ‘The event is just so Dutch – they don’t have this really anywhere else,’ says fellow volunteer Judith van Oudheusden as we cycle from one checkpoint to another to catch the wave of kids at another part of the route. We are responsible for stamping cards to confirm they have completed this part of today’s 10km walk. A full card means they can get their medal on the last day, a feat many are determined to accomplish. … Van Oudheusden participated in the activity as a child, she says, and then walked with her own children when they were younger. Volunteering is a full circle moment for her.

“Avondvierdaagse originated from military ideology, explains Inger Leemans, professor of cultural history at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The first march was held in 1909 in Nijmegen as a military training event. But when the second world war broke out, different towns started to organize their own walks for soldiers. After the war, citizens were invited to walk along with them: the four-day marches in Nijmegen grew into an immensely popular event where tens of thousands of soldiers and citizens walked in solidarity.

“Aimed at older crowds, this is now the largest walking event in the world, with 45,000 participants from more than 80 countries, walking the same 30km, 40km and 50km routes each year. According to Arno van Gemert, a team leader for programs and projects at KWbN, the Avondvierdaagse is … mainly aimed at primary school children and their parents. …

“Most people now see it as a national event, comparable to other festivities such as King’s Day, a national holiday to celebrate the Dutch monarch’s birthday, involving street parties, flea markets, and lots of orange apparel. Avondvierdaagse even has its own traditional delicacy: half an orange, topped with a white Wilhelmina peppermint and wrapped in a piece of muslin, for kids to suck on as they walk. …

“While the original walks were not necessarily to promote exercise, Avondvierdaagse has become a way to motivate kids to enjoy being outside and moving their bodies. ‘It’s important that children are physically active and can develop their motor skills from a young age,’ explains Sanne de Vries, professor of physical activity in childhood at Leiden University Medical Center. Encouraging children to go through the whole week of walking – rain or shine – and rewarding them at the end can help build a positive association with physical activity. ‘Positive emotion that sticks is important.’

“It also helps build resilience. ‘It’s been presented to them as a big challenge because it’s 5km and it sounds super hard,’ says Fernanda Gomes, 44, who is walking the shorter route with her seven-year-old daughter, Alicia. … ‘Even if it’s raining, they do it and the message behind it is very great for the children.’

“Dutch kids are consistently judged to be some of the happiest in the world. This year, a Unicef report again ranked them number one out of 44 western countries for overall wellbeing, and for mental health. Rich social relations were cited as a key factor. Research has shown that Dutch children have strong connections with their peers. In addition, many Dutch parents work part-time, so have more time to spend with their children. Children also have increased independence: parents let their kids roam more freely, and many start young.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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A Traveling Bookstore

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 1, 2026| 4 Comments »

Photo: Ruth Fremson.
The owner of Saint Rita’s Amazing Traveling Bookstore & Textual Apothecary, Rita Collins, photographs young customers at a Global Community Day festival.

Today’s story touches on the hunger for reading material that is shared by people of all ages and nationalities. Suzanne’s Mom’s Blog blog has investigated this love of books in numerous posts about traveling libraries. Today’s post is about a traveling bookstore.

Ruth Fremson writes at the New York Times, “Rita Collins’s white Ford transit van has more than 100,000 miles on it, earned on drives through all but 10 of the United States. Parked in front of the Grand Bakery in Dadeville, Ala., on a recent cloudy morning, she watched as a woman walked by, glanced at the van, did a double take, and hesitated.

“ ‘It’s a bookstore,’ Collins said with her big, characteristic smile. …

“Saint Rita’s Amazing Traveling Bookstore Textual Apothecary (its name painted on the sides and back of the van) is a vehicle for the cross-pollination of people and conversation. That’s what has evolved since Collins, now 74, began imagining her retirement dream more than a decade ago — not just selling high quality, inexpensive books, but setting her love of people, places and the wonders of a good read all in motion together.

“Over the years Collins taught, opened a bakery/cafe and did social-services work for older adults. She left the United States after 9/11, and eventually taught English in Romania and the Czech Republic.

“At 60, she said, she decided it was time to return and figure out her next steps. She took a course with the American Booksellers Association, seeking to learn what it would take to open a bookstore in Eureka, the small Montana town where she lived.

“Ultimately she decided that Eureka didn’t have the adult population to support an independent bookstore. Nor did she have the desire to be tethered to a brick-and-mortar business six days a week, impinging on her love of travel. …

“She brainstormed with friends, googled traveling bookstores and got advice from the owner of the only one she could find, located in Swansea, Wales.

“In 2013 her dream became a reality with a minimal investment: a van fitted with wooden shelves at a 15 degree angle so that the 700-book inventory stays in place while she motors around the United States. (Think a library bookmobile that goes well beyond a neighborhood or two.) She named it after Saint Rita, the patron saint of impossible causes. …

“Each year Collins picks a region, plans a precise itinerary and sets up in all sorts of locations: farmers’ markets, festivals, brew pubs, museums and birthday parties, among them. She has been invited to speak to church congregations and book clubs.

“While all the books are donated, Collins curates to be sure the ones on sale are in excellent condition. Hardcovers are $9 apiece, paperbacks $7, children’s books a dollar. …

“She is so often asked what her favorite book is — and has such difficulty answering — that there is a section titled ‘Favs’ for her own ever-changing choices. During this year’s five-week swing through the South, it showcased books by Anne Michaels, Ann Patchett, Willa Cather, Atul Gawande, M.L Stedman and Anthony Doerr, among others.

“During her journeys people frequently give her books, replenishing her stock, though the exchanges can go both ways. At the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., Collins gifted a copy of Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, to Pat Ammons, the center’s director of communications, to thank her for having the bookstore there. …

“Collins does not sleep in the bookstore, but stays mostly in people’s homes, with friends or friends of friends. Sometimes she is hosted by complete strangers.

“Unlike other bookstores, hers offers the singular advantage of one-on-one service for each customer. And the books are just the starting point. …

“She says, ‘When you come, you’re probably going to have a conversation with me. It has allowed me to meet so many different kinds of people.’ …

“Once, in Colorado, a woman who had no money gave her two dozen eggs in exchange for some books. Recently, in Raleigh, N.C., a woman showed up with a gold-framed, 100-year-old lithograph of St. Rita and insisted she accept it as a gift. …

“While there are library bookmobiles and other bookstores housed in trucks — and more food trucks than ever — Collins believes hers is the rare traveling bookstore. She wishes there were more, pointing out that there is little overhead and a lot of freedom to open and close at will.”

More at the Times, here.

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Moomintroll Video Game

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 29, 2026| 7 Comments »

Photo: Hyper Games.
Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson created the happy/sad Moomintroll children’s books. Hyper Games is using the stories in video games.

I’m always surprised to learn that there are people who never heard of Moomintroll or his multitalented Finnish-Swedish creator, Tove Jansson. I knew about the Moomin cartoons even before I met my Swedish son-in-law. (What I didn’t know was that Jansson wrote books for adults, too, including a novel I discovered recently concerning retirees in Florida. It was translated by someone I once worked with.)

The topic today is about what a video game company is doing with Moomintroll and his family. It could almost lure me into gaming.

Lewis Gordon writes at the Guardian, “Sleepy, happy-sad, and imbued with the mildest peril, Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories may seem an unlikely fit for the action-heavy medium of video games. Rather than embark on swashbuckling adventures, these milk-white, hippo-esque creatures prefer to potter about Moominvalley, only venturing further if the weather conditions are just right.

“Yet a small Norwegian video game studio, Hyper Games, is now on its second exquisitely charming Jansson adaptation. The first, 2024’s ‘Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley,’ put players in control of the wily free spirit Snufkin as he dismantled overly ordered nature parks (and evaded authority-loving wardens). The latest, ‘Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth,’ sees young Moomintroll wake up at night in the dead of winter. With his parents still hibernating, the creature is all alone, thrust into a cold and unfamiliar world.

“On this lonesome journey, Moomintroll must reckon with the idea that his snoozing parents won’t be around for ever. ‘[It is] a brush with mortality,’ says lead writer David Skaufjord, who sees the premise, an adaptation of the 1957 novel Moominland Midwinter as emblematic of a franchise which dares to challenge its younger audience with loss, grief, melancholy and nostalgia. ‘Children’s television can be soft-handed,’ he says. ‘The Moomin stories aren’t.’

“In the first 20 minutes of the game, the freezing temperatures claim the life of a squirrel. But Too-Ticky, the androgynous woman who lives by herself in Moominpappa’s boathouse, takes a philosophical outlook on the animal’s passing. ‘Death is a part of life,’ she says serenely. ‘Something is always changing.’

“So much of Jansson’s work, Moomin or otherwise, finds meaning in life’s transitions: humid summer to crisp autumn; sweltering afternoon to cool evening; the still moments that arrive after a storm. Jansson, a writer, illustrator, and political cartoonist, spent many years on the small islands scattered across the Gulf of Finland, folding these experiences into crystalline descriptions and illustrations of the natural world, which the Moomins live in harmony with.

“Though Hyper Games is based in Norway rather than Jansson’s Finland, its Scandi developers were able to draw on a similarly deep relationship with nature. ‘We have all grown up in a country where there’s six to seven months of winter,’ says Skaufjord, “’nd if you don’t learn to enjoy winter, you basically have a bad time half of the year.’ Like these game makers, the summer-loving Moomintroll must undergo his own snowy acclimatization: in doing so, there is a lesson for him and players – of adapting to, and accepting, one’s new circumstances.

“But ‘Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth’ makes enjoying such a chilly time of the year easy: you can fling snowballs and create pathways in knee-high drifts. Even shoveling snow is fun, accompanied by satisfying audio-visual puffs of powdery white stuff. There are many more light and breezy interactions like this, carefully calibrated for both non-gamers and young children alike. …

“I’ve been playing ‘Winter’s Warmth’ with my three-year-old daughter: she sits on my lap as I point at things on the screen, her tiny thumb directing Moomintroll about the enchanting world. ‘That’s how it’s supposed to be played,’ says Skaufjord. ‘That’s how I wrote it.’ …

“It may look like an effortless translation, but the approval process with Moomin Characters Ltd, the company whose job it is to oversee Jansson’s original creations, is rigorous, says the game’s art director Marcus Kjeldsen. … For the previous Snufkin game, Skaufjord wrote that the abrasive teenager Little My should react gleefully about getting rich. But, as the approvals team stressed, capitalism is a construct that has not yet graced the bucolic Moominvalley, so the line was tweaked. …

“There is a reason these stories continue to resonate. They have an anti-fascist bent in their unusual and non-traditional configurations of people and family. But there is also a disquieting sense that the unspoiled Moominvalley sits on the brink of great change. Both games deftly capture these timely aspects of Jansson’s treasured work.”

More at the Guardian, here. Please look at the art.

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Balancing Third Grade and a Grammy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Dee Dwyer for NPR.
Grammy winners Aura Valentina Simmons, 8, and her father, Harold Simmons II, sing during a morning practice session in their home recording space before she goes to school in Charles County, Maryland. They go by the stage names Aura V and Fyütch.

It must take a special kind of parenting to help a child deal with being in the limelight. There are so many cases of celebrated children who more or less crashed and burned. Of course, there’s Shirley Temple, who went on to a fine career as a diplomat.

I am definitely rooting for the young star in today’s story.

Ava Berger reports at National Public Radio (NPR), “Aura Valentina Simmons, aka Aura V, may be the youngest-ever individually named Grammy winner, but in her third-grade classroom, she uses the same blocks to figure out fractions as everyone else.

” ‘I don’t really know about Grammys,’ Pragat Patel, Aura’s desk mate, said with a shrug this week.

” ‘That’s the energy I like — chill,’ Aura said, giggling. …

“Aura and her dad, Harold Simmons II, who uses the stage name Fyütch, won music’s biggest prize in February. Their album, Harmony, won the Grammy for best children’s music album. Before Aura’s win, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter had been the youngest individual Grammy winner.

” ‘I would say it’s the biggest experience I’ve ever had in my whole entire life so far,’ 8-year-old Aura said.

“The 13 songs, which took over two years to write and record, follow themes of love, positivity and inclusion. In ‘I Am Love, I Am Light,’ Aura sings, ‘I love myself, I love me.’

” ‘I like to sing about that because it’s empowering,’ Aura said. ‘It gives hope to people.’ …

“Before heading to school on a recent Tuesday, Aura and her father, wearing matching pops of yellow, practiced in a basement studio at their home in Charles County, Maryland. Aura stays with Simmons during the week because he has a more flexible schedule than her mom, who is a teacher.

“Aura pulled out a violin while Simmons warmed up on the piano. … The pair fell into perfect sync and belted out their album’s title track, ‘Harmony.’ …

“On the red carpet in Los Angeles in February, Aura and Simmons also wore matching colors — this time, lavender. Aura said her fluffy skirt and matching sparkly handbag got lots of attention. …

“Simmons said he was ‘freaking out’ before the announcement, but Aura had a different concern.

” ‘ “Can you get me some popcorn?” ‘ Simmons recalled his daughter asking. ‘I am frozen and I say, “Girl, I’m so sorry — I cannot move right now.” ‘

“When they finally got to the stage to accept the Grammy, Simmons spoke about the power of children’s music.

” ‘Children’s music is more than a genre,’ Simmons said. ‘It is an intention of artists who have dedicated our crafts to educating, entertaining and empowering the next generation, which is our highest calling to care for our children globally.’

“Now, Simmons reflects on what has happened since that history-making moment: ‘Seeing the impact that it’s created — our father-daughter relationship, being a Black dad and daughter — has really put into perspective how important representation is in what we do.’

“Simmons never planned to get into children’s music. His journey started when he was 7, and he performed as a young orator in his hometown of Gary, Indiana.

“After college, as he pursued a full-time music career, Simmons taught music production and poetry to young students.

“Then, when Aura was around 6, she asked to use the microphone and play on the keyboard with her dad. …

“Their first song as a duo, ‘I Am Love, I Am Light’ in 2024, ‘went crazy,’ he said.

“Simmons had a new goal: making music that captured the life he wanted to model for his daughter — with friendship and love. …

“Now, he wants her to have her own solo career. But Aura is adamant. ‘I want to still perform with Daddy,’ she told her dad, leaning in to hug him. …

“She feels like she has two lives: one of autographs and fans and one of math games and buddies at school. … ‘I wanna learn too. I’m an ordinary girl, just like everybody else,’ Aura said.”

More at NPR, here.

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Cuban Choreographer Perseveres

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2026| 2 Comments »

Photo: Ramon Espinosa/AP.
Choreographer Juan Miguel Mas leads an outdoor performance by his young dancers in a neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, Saturday, May 9, 2026.

“Embrace Your Place.” That’s a saying Erik has on a sweatshirt from a New Shoreham nature fundraiser, but it’s a good piece of advice for anyone to cherish and protect where they live.

In Cuba, an internationally acclaimed choreographer is committed to the children of his Place although he could escape to anywhere in the world at this dark time for Cuba — and many others in his profession already have.

Andrea Rodríguez writes at AP, “For nearly three decades, performances by Cuba’s Danza Voluminosa regularly filled prestigious venues like the 2,000-seat National Theater. Directed by Juan Miguel Mas, the troupe pioneered a new movement by working exclusively with larger-bodied dancers — a creative process that was captured in a Canadian documentary.

“Today, the 60-year-old dancer and choreographer from Havana is far from the big stages where he once thrived and rehearsed alongside professional artists. Instead, he spends his days conducting dance workshops and classes for children and coordinating performances within his community.

“Like many Cubans navigating one of the island’s worst economic crises in decades, Mas’ daily life has been upended by persistent blackouts, water outages, soaring costs and a lack of transportation.

“But for artists like him, the situation is a little worse, compounded by the cancellation of shows, a lack of production budgets and a mass exodus from the cultural sector. In fact, he was recently notified that his teaching contract with the National Theater of Cuba has been suspended.

” ‘The outlook for the arts is complex and bleak,’ said essayist and arts journalist Michel Hernández. He noted that Cuba’s cultural spaces — once affordable and state-run — have deteriorated significantly, leaving artists with few venues beyond a handful of expensive private spaces.

“Yet, Mas won’t give up.

“ ‘I am very interested in staying in Cuba,’ he told the Associated Press on a recent Saturday as he prepared for a rehearsal with children from a nearby community. ‘Were I to emigrate, I would lose contact with that “Cubanness” that exists here, with the audience, the people, the folks next door.’

“Born in Havana in 1965, Mas trained as a dancer and choreographer under the tutelage of Laura Alonso, a renowned ballerina, and Ramiro Guerra, the father of contemporary dance on the island. He also studied with the Cuban-American dancer and choreographer Lorna Burdsall, who encouraged him to persevere despite the discrimination he faced from dance schools because he weighed 160 kilograms (352 pounds).

“He made his debut in 1996 with his own company, Danza Voluminosa (or Voluminous Dance), which remained active until 2024 and provided a home for dancers whose bodies diverged significantly from the industry’s prevailing aesthetic norms. He also worked as an actor and in 2025 he starred in Cherri, a fictional film based on his own life experiences.

“These days, to supplement the modest income he makes working with children, Mas leases a small area of his home for business use and hosts weekend garage sales featuring curated recycled clothing, tableware and household goods.

“Since his sister and teenage nephew relocated to Spain last year, he has lived alone and managed his expenses by shopping at a local farmers’ market just two blocks away. Conveniently, he also accesses subsidized medications at a state-run pharmacy directly across the street.

“On a recent morning, water bottle in hand to ward off the heat, Mas walked six blocks to the lively Marianao district, where a crowd of 30 children and their mothers awaited his arrival.

“The group suddenly transformed a street corner into a stage and for a full 90 minutes, the air filled with music as the little ones performed their songs and showed off their dance moves dressed as bees and other colorful characters. …

“ ‘It’s about bringing the knowledge of art to these children and lifting them out of a reality defined by conflict,’ he said.”

More at AP, here.

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Asheville’s Foraging Schools

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 18, 2026| 5 Comments »

Composite photo: No Taste Like Home/Emily Cataneo.
Alan Muskat teaches North Carolina kids about foraging as part of his afterschool program in fall 2025. Tour guide Dimitri Magiasis shows off some mushrooms he foraged. 

My childhood friend Ursula seems to have mostly recovered from the devastation of 2024’s Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. She has gone back to teaching weaving, for example, but I’m still waiting to see the promised photo of her home’s restoration.

Life goes on if you survive disaster, and most people make adjustments to how they were living before. We need to keep learning.

An experienced forager has begun teaching young learners in Asheville about a side of nature that’s more benign than hurricanes. Emily Cataneo has report at the Guardian.

“Juniper Stewart just turned 12. She … knows how to identify a Pilobolus mushroom, which grows on ‘cow poop,’ according to Juniper. She can confidently harvest plantain leaf, a ubiquitous wild plant that’s tasty in salads and sautées, and useful as a poultice on stings and poison ivy. She has paper bags full of sourwood leaves drying at home to make tea, and she’s delighted by the fact that when you touch jewelweed seed pods, they explode.

“Juniper’s deep knowledge of the wild plants around her home in western North Carolina stems from her involvement in an after-school program that taught kids in Asheville and surrounding towns how to forage. For three days a week [last] fall, foraging guides brought groups of students ages five to 12 from City Mountain Public Montessori out to forests and fields to learn about the plentiful berries, mushrooms, leafy greens and even flavorful sticks in their own backyard.

“The program is the brainchild of Alan Muskat, a ‘philosoforager’ who runs No Taste Like Home, an educational company that for the past 30 years has taught locals and tourists alike how to plumb the bounty of the southern Appalachians, one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. …

“Muskat hatched his idea to teach kids in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the storm that devastated Asheville in September 2024 [to] serve as a ‘different kind of hurricane relief.’

“Muskat has built his life philosophy on the idea that many of society’s ills stem from our fear of the natural world, our tendency to live in opposition to it rather than in harmony with it. After the hurricane, he wanted to impart those lessons on young people who lived through the storm. …

“ ‘It felt a little to me when the hurricane happened that we were in a dress rehearsal for what could happen with [future] natural disasters,’ [Juniper’s mother] said. ‘The grocery store shelves were completely bare and people were eating government-rationed food, which is not as healthy as making a big chickweed [salad].’ …

“During the after-school program, a bus brought the kids from school to an educational site outside Asheville. Led by a No Taste Like Home guide, the kids would ‘run around and find things, and ask if they were edible,’ according to Jemma Ferrington, nine, whose house was destroyed in the hurricane and who participated in the program. She added: ‘I’d identify lots of things, like some mushrooms that had gills, and some that had a sponge at the bottom.’ …

“The program has faced some setbacks. … A staff member questioned Muskat after he let kids eat white milk cap mushrooms, which in large quantities can irritate the stomach, and pushed him to remind kids that not all white mushrooms are safe to eat (‘he was right’ about the second complaint, Muscat acknowledged in an email, adding that one of the ‘golden rules of foraging is, don’t overgeneralize’).

“In addition to the after-school program, No Taste Like Home has run two foraging field trips, with plenty of chaperones to keep an eye on kids, which they hope to repeat in 2026. …

“[Guide Dimitri] Magiasis, who discovered the world of foraging while studying to be a naturopath in Seattle, has worked for Muskat for nine years, leading a couple tours per week. …

“[Recently] Magiasis gathered the group near a rushing brook to explain that they’d be ‘meeting’ plants such as cool-weather greens, herbs and spices, and mushrooms, although this fall has brought a drought to the region that’s rendered the mushroom population sparse.

“That’s just a part of foraging, said Magiasis. The practice forces you to redefine the way you think about food availability. ‘You go into the grocery store and find onions, apples, lettuce 365 days per year,’ he said. ‘Nature doesn’t work that way. She’s going to provide what she’s going to provide.’ …

“On the tour, Magiasis is strict about safety. When we’re looking for chickweed, he points out the plant’s chief identifying features: the leaf edges are smooth, not serrated. They’re shaped like spades, or hearts, and furry on only one side. He checks each person’s leaf before they’re allowed to eat it, then counts one, two, three before we pop them into our mouths.

“For many, safety is a big question around foraging, especially for kids. Ten to 12 mushroom species in western North Carolina are deadly, for example, and a couple hundred more will make you extremely sick. But guides and parents alike stressed that knowledge is power and that for them, it’s actually more dangerous not to teach their kids how to forage.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Nomadic Kids Meet Technology

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Arsalan Bukhari/EGAB.
Nomadic young people attend a computer class in a tent in the Kashmiri mountains.

Whatever we may think nowadays about technology going too far, it’s such a big part of life that it would be unfair to leave anyone who is interested out of it. And judging from today’s story, Nomadic children in Kashmir are definitely interested.

Arsalan Bukhari at the Christian Science Monitor describes recent efforts to help these young people get up to speed on computers.

“Fifteen-year-old Shabaz Ali keeps one eye on his wristwatch and the other on the dirt path winding through a meadow in his highland town, Tangmarg.

“ ‘Three, two, one. It’s 5 o’clock!’ he calls out. ‘Where’s Shabir?’

“For members of the nomadic Bakarwal communities in Indian-administered Kashmir, timekeeping means survival. Children like Shabaz earn hourly wages for shepherding animals, gathering firewood, or loading trucks with goods for sale.

“Today, Shabaz isn’t tracking time for wages. A rumble echoes through the valley. … Shabir Khatana, Shabaz’s friend who runs a shop in town, pulls up on an old red motorcycle. Shabaz snatches up Mr. Khatana’s cellphone – their shared lifeline – and dashes into the Ali family’s large tent.

“The internet connection is strongest in the back corner, so Shabaz crouches there and opens the Zoom app. Aamir Sir, a volunteer mentor from the city of Srinagar, some 55 kilometers (35 miles) away, is waiting onscreen to teach animation and video editing to Shabaz and other students. …

“For generations, education has been a distant dream for the tribal Bakarwal families who migrate with livestock between summer pastures and winter shelters. … Most Bakarwal children, especially girls, grow up herding animals, working as dishwashers, or begging on streets.

“But since mid-2024, an initiative led by urban young people across India has begun connecting Bakarwal children to digital training in animation, coding, and web design. It’s about more than education; it’s about fulfilling the children’s ambitions, developing their confidence, and in some cases, generating income for their families.

“The transformation began when Zubair Lone, who recently graduated from college in Chandigarh, saw Bakarwal children washing dishes at his sister’s wedding.

“ ‘Little children, some no older than 7, were cleaning up the wedding venue,’ he recalls. ‘When I spoke with them, they told me something that stunned me: This was continuous. Both boys and girls saw working in people’s homes as just life. … That night, I called my friends and said, “If we don’t do this, no one will.” ‘

“He reached out to nearly 18 people, forming a group committed to change through volunteer work. ‘God has given us so much in terms of money and information,’ he told them. ‘Our one or two hours a day can mean a lot for someone.’

“The group, called Sukoon Digital, now has 14 active volunteers. … They include computer science students as well as graphic designers and other professionals who run digital training sessions across nomadic settlements in Baramulla, Budgam, and Kupwara districts.

“The first week of classes, the challenge seemed overwhelming to Mr. Lone. … ‘I have to start from the very beginning,’ Mr. Lone says. …

“The concept is straightforward: Children borrow smartphones from shops, siblings, or Sukoon’s volunteer teachers, and then join Zoom sessions in which mentors guide them through designing websites, creating digital artwork, and even setting up freelancer profiles. Classes are held on weekends and evenings, after the children’s work tasks are complete.

“Seventeen-year-old Bilquees Jan used to spend her days tending sheep and decorating mud walls with floral patterns. ‘I thought I’d never do anything beyond making tea and applying henna,’ she says.

“After more than 35 Sukoon sessions on graphic design, she has begun taking freelance orders, including to create social media ads for a Srinagar-based café. Her instructor, Afifa Qadri, teaches remotely from Mumbai’s rural outskirts, sometimes on patchy networks powered by solar panels.

“ ‘There’s something incredibly powerful about watching a girl who never saw a computer start using [design tools] Canva or Figma,’ says Ms. Qadri. …

“Another success story is 19-year-old Zahid Ahmed, who creates short cartoons on YouTube featuring village jokes, stories about nomadic life, and videos promoting safety. In 12 months, Zahid says, he has earned more than $1,000 from freelance work and ad revenue. (A typical Bakarwal family’s annual income ranges between $600 and $800.) …

“While helping children earn money motivates participation, volunteers focus on the children’s sense of their own possibilities.

“ ‘The idea of a career beyond labor doesn’t exist when you live your entire life on the move,’ says Mr. Sir, the volunteer in Srinagar, who makes a living teaching social media marketing. ‘Our goal is to change that perspective – to convey that you are important and your creativity is valuable.’ “

More at the Monitor, here.

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Hot Dog Santa

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 16, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Boston Globe.
A headline in the Boston Globe from 1924.

I didn’t get to post this story about a charitable Gothenburg-born Boston immigrant last year, but I think you’ll agree that it’s a bit of Christmas history that will always be fresh.

Jenny Ashcroft wrote about it at Fishwrap, the official blog of Newspapers.com.

“On Christmas Day in 1921, a Swedish immigrant quietly wheeled his hot dog stand to a street corner in Boston’s North End and distributed 500 free hot dogs to hungry children. Axel Bjorklund was no stranger to poverty. He barely made ends meet himself, but he wanted to give back. His cart was soon swamped with hundreds of shivering children wearing tattered clothing that did little to stave off the cold. Their hungry faces beamed when Axel handed them a steaming hot dog. Eventually, the food was gone, but Axel’s determination to repeat the event wasn’t. The Hot Dog Santa tradition was born. Over the next eight years, Axel gave away some 10,000 hot dogs before he died in 1930.

“Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, on August 6, 1869, Axel Bjorklund emigrated to America in 1889, eventually settling in Boston’s North End neighborhood. The area had become a melting pot of immigrants, most of whom were impoverished as they struggled to establish lives in a new country. The Spanish Flu Pandemic hit the North End particularly hard, leaving families even more destitute and many children orphaned.

“The first Christmas hot dog giveaway in 1921 was so successful that Axel decided to expand in 1922 and doubled the number of hot dogs to 1,000. His hot dog giveaway grew with each year until he distributed 3,000 annually. The children loved Axel and nicknamed him ‘Hot Dog Santa.’ …

“Axel’s annual Christmas Day hot dog giveaway eventually moved to New Year’s Day, but it was an event the children anticipated all year. As Axel’s generosity expanded, so did his health challenges. He was plagued with rheumatism, which led to frequent hospitalizations. His finances struggled, too, and he could no longer pay his rent. Not wanting to end the hot dog giveaway, he appealed to the public to help him continue the tradition.

“In December 1928, just before the annual hot dog giveaway, Axel’s landlady kicked him out because he hadn’t paid rent. The Salvation Army stepped in to help, but Axel was broke. The next two years saw Axel skipping between the poor house, the Cambridge Home for the Aged, or obtaining temporary lodging from generous benefactors. Despite his circumstances, in 1929, he participated in his final hot dog giveaway.

“On November 10, 1930, Axel Bjorklund passed away, penniless and alone at a Massachusetts hospital. He had no relatives and was set to be buried in a potter’s field when newspapers published word of his death. Citizens stepped forward, offering to contribute to a fund to give Axel a proper burial. The Swedish Charitable Society coordinated, and Axel was laid to rest in the Cambridge Cemetery.

“If you would like to learn more about the Hot Dog Santa or discover other heartwarming Christmas stories, search Newspapers.com.”

It hurts to think that today there are still plenty of shivering, hungry American children who could use this 1920s Good King Wenceslas.

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Tunisians Know the Value of a Book

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 16, 2025| 7 Comments »

Photo: Meriem Belhiba.
Girls explore colorful storybooks in the newly inaugurated library at Bir El Euch Primary School in Tunisia.

Meriem Belhiba wrote this story for the Christian Science Monitor.

“To children in this hilltop village, their school library is a portal to another world.

“Israa Al Trabelsi and five other 9-year-olds barely stifle their giggles as they weave – wide-eyed with curiosity – through the colorful room. They can plop down into cushioned chairs, look at bright wall art, and, of course, browse shelves bursting with books. The transformative space was built for children to dream in.

“ ‘I’ve learned so much,’ Israa says after taking a seat with a book about faraway lands in her hands. ‘It is also helping me improve my vocabulary and my writing,’ she notes, quickly adding, ‘I want to be a judge.’

“That might seem an unusual ambition for a child in Bir El Euch, a rural community of 1,600 people southwest of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis. But it makes sense when one learns that the man behind the library, Omar Weslati, is himself a judge who knows how precious books can be to children. ‘This project began as a way to reconcile with the child I once was, who had nothing,’ he says.

“Economic inequality has long been a challenge in Tunisia, a country of 12 million people. Widespread poverty in rural areas, high unemployment, and poor infrastructure were key triggers behind the 2011 mass protests that toppled a 23-year dictatorship and touched off the Arab Spring uprisings. …

” ‘I grew up in a rural school without a library, without light, without transportation, and without heating,’ Judge Weslati recalls. ‘As a bookworm, I needed to walk long distances to reach the nearest public library.’

“Launched in 2016, the initiative is led by white-collar professionals, most of whom hail from rural communities. These journalists, writers, judges, and teachers have chipped in funding to create a new library every year. Each one serves hundreds of students and takes thousands of dollars to complete.

“The project’s launch could not have been timed better. The first ‘imagination libraries,’ as they were initially called, were built in the aftermath of the violent extremism that accompanied the Arab Spring. Amid the waves of unrest that ensued across the region, Tunisia has been the biggest contributor of foreign fighters in the world – with Tunisians joining extremist groups in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and elsewhere.

“This was a factor behind the library initiative. ‘Where the book doesn’t reach, the extremist arrives first,’ Judge Weslati says. …

“Besides offering books as a source of inspiration, Judge Weslati’s team began visiting remote schools and sharing members’ personal stories. ‘We wanted to show kids that people from their own soil once dreamed, created, and contributed,’ he says.

‘We never saw this as charity; it’s about cultivation,’ he adds. ‘Planting stories where they hadn’t taken root before.’

“Beyond reading, the initiative led to something more: a writing club for rural youths. Teenagers craft short stories together and publish their work. One of the teens, Molka Hammami, credits her former teacher Jamila Sherif for lighting a spark in her.

“ ‘Reading changed my life,’ Molka says. ‘It pushed me to do more. I was published in the [club’s] collective storybook last year.’ Now she helps run a radio show for the club.

“Ms. Sherif, who has since become a school inspector, emphasizes the stakes. ‘Many kids drop out after primary school,’ she says. … ‘We’re trying to change that – one library, one book at a time.’”’

“Reports have shown that, despite declining school dropout rates across Tunisia, the problem is most acute in rural areas. Donia Smaali Bouhlila, an expert on educational inequality at the University of Tunis El Manar, says inadequate schools and infrastructure in rural areas are among the biggest reasons that students drop out.

“ ‘When learning spaces lack comfort, resources, or consistency, they stop being places of growth and become sources of alienation,’ she says. ‘Every small success – helping a child learn to read, keeping a teenager engaged – represents a meaningful step forward.’

“Safahat, a cultural organization whose name translates to ‘pages’ in Arabic, aimed to serve schools when it was founded in 2020 [but] faced logistical and financial hurdles because of the region’s remoteness. This prompted its team to pivot to a more mobile model: public bookcases. …

“Through its Maktabtena (‘our library’) initiative, the group placed red-and-white boxes of books in hospitals, youth centers, and schools, and on street corners. … Readers are invited to take a book, read freely, and donate their own books if they can. ‘We want to make reading a habit, not a luxury,’ [Khawla Mondhri, a university professor and volunteer leading the initiative] says. ‘If someone takes a book and doesn’t return it, that just means it’s being read somewhere else. ‘And that’s enough for us.” …

“So far, the team has installed 35 bookcases in accessible, safe, and visible spots. To ensure a bookcase is never empty, the team has formed partnerships with municipalities, associations, and individuals.

“ ‘We send books as often as needed. We plant small oaks,’ Ms. Mondhri says. ‘But we dream of forests.’ ”

More at the Monitor, here.

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Ancient “New” Ideas in Housing

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 23, 2025| 3 Comments »

Photo: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg.
An interior courtyard at the Sunnyside Garden Apartments in Queens, New York. Completed in 1928, it remains a beacon of quality of life.

Growing up on the Copeland Estate in a suburb of New York, I would have been quite isolated from humanity if not for a scattering of nearby homes that had children. Having playmates meant so much to me. But for years, US community designers forgot about the importance of human interaction for both children and adults. One way to build it in, especially in cities, is the classic courtyard.

Alexandra Lange notes at Bloomberg CityLab that the shrinking population of children under five across the US “is bad news for the diversity and stability of cities, which are improved by the amenities that families seek — parks, public libraries, safe streets. It’s also discouraging for families who prefer to live in the city or don’t have the option or desire to move to the car-dominated suburbs. Any effort to retain families has to start with housing, their primary expense.

“That one weird trick for making cities more family-friendly? We’ve known it for decades: It’s the courtyard. …

“While Europe can claim centuries-old courts, America dabbled in them for decades, before the suburbs became the dominant housing type of both government subsidy and political propaganda.

“Courtyards don’t have to belong to the past. While textbook examples in brick and stone are lovely — and still home to thriving communities — contemporary architects are making courts in all sorts of materials, and for all types of housing, from apartments to townhomes.

“One of the first influential figures to advance the idea of the courtyard as the ideal urban type for families was Henry Darbishire, the mid-19th century English architect. His first patron, Angela Burdett-Coutts, was inspired by Charles Dickens and his novels of the urban poor to apply her wealth to reformist housing. ‘Nurturing the family and protecting children from the street was a huge part of the logic — turning the city inward,’ says Matthew G. Lasner, housing historian and the author of High Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century.

“Architects and philanthropists quickly embraced an easily replicable courtyard model, with a single entrance on the street and interior vertical access off a planted court. The concept came to America in the 1870s via developers like Alfred Treadway White, responsible for the Cobble Hill Towers in Brooklyn. In the 1920s, more reformist developers — including everyone from the Rockefellers to communist unions — constructed many more of these courtyard projects.

“As architecture critic John Taylor Boyd wrote in 1920 of the Linden Court complex in Jackson Heights, the courtyard’s ‘benefits are apparent when it is remembered that the streets are the only playground of New York children, including the children of the rich.’ …

“When you’re talking courtyards in America, it’s hard to avoid Sunnyside Gardens. Not only does the Queens community remain one of New York City’s best neighborhoods, but it was home to one of America’s best critics, who made his affection clear.

“Lewis Mumford was one of the first residents of Sunnyside Gardens, completed in 1928, and constantly returned to its balance of private and public space, building and garden, in his analysis of other lesser New York City housing options. In “The Plight of the Prosperous,” published in the New Yorker in 1950, Mumford takes aim at the new white-brick residential buildings ‘that have sprung up since the war in the wealthy and fashionable parts of the city.’ While new low- and middle-income housing projects like his own ‘provide light and air and walks and sometimes even patches of grass and forsythia,’ these other private buildings, clustered in uptown rich neighborhoods, lack multiple exposures, outdoor space, cross-ventilation and quiet. …

“Clarence Stein and Henry Wright were the primary architects and planners behind Sunnyside Gardens, with Marjorie Sewell Cautley the landscape architect; all three would subsequently collaborate on Radburn, New Jersey, the ‘town for the motor age’ that in fact applied these communal principles for a result that we would now call transit-oriented development.

“The planners’ primary insight, in both the city and the suburbs, was to prioritize protected, communal open space over private yards or interior amenities. The courts, or courtyards, could be much larger if not subdivided by owner, and even in areas with public parks, having play space (and play companions) directly outside your door was a huge amenity. …

“On the West Coast, the courtyard evolved a little differently: surrounded by lower density, semi-detached houses with, eventually, a swimming pool in the center instead of a lawn. Irving Gill, considered the father of California modernism, designed prototype bungalow court in Santa Monica in the teens, with parking out of sight in the back and doorstep gardens. On tighter sites, U-shaped buildings with Spanish- and Italian-influenced architecture featured tiled fountains at center court. …

“ ‘When people have families with children, the home is important, but equally important are the people who are there with you,’ says Livable Cities president Meredith Wenskoski. “Your neighborhood is crucial. …

“Bay State Cohousing, a 30-unit development outside Boston, has common amenities as part of its charter, including a shared kitchen and activity rooms. But the pastel, clapboard complex, intended to blend in with single-family neighbors, also forms a U around a southwest-facing courtyard, with outdoor circulation providing plenty of opportunities for casual run-ins with the neighbors.

“ ‘The courtyard is a nested boundary that allows interaction with other children, and more importantly, with other adults who become a kind of network,’ says Jenny French, whose firm French 2D designed Bay State. ‘In an urban setting, the barrier that the contemporary parent has to letting their child out the door, thinking about the car-dominated city where they are unable to play in the street – the courtyard is a natural alternative.’

“French, who has also been coordinating the housing studio at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for seven years, can’t help but extend these design observations into the cultural and political spheres. Everyone talks about loneliness in America for people of all ages. For teens and seniors alike, French sees a solution. It’s one we’ve had all along: ‘Could a courtyard house actually be the friendship apparatus we need?’ ”

Lots more at Bloomberg, here.

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Magician Goes to North Korea

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 10, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: via Freeport Traveler/YouTube.
Jesper Grønkjær, of Denmark, performs magic for children in North Korea.

What does it take to venture into enemy territory to entertain children? A Danish magician just does it.

Tod Perry writes at Upworthy, “North Korea is the most oppressive place in the world, and its people lack freedom of speech, press, or movement. The government, headed by Kim Jong Un, controls all aspects of its citizens’ lives, and those who stand up against the regime are punished harshly. It’s also hostile to people outside the country for fear that outside ideas could destabilize the regime.

“The country is so isolated from the rest of the world that it just recently opened its border to allow a small number of tourists to visit its Special Economic Zone for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. …

“Another of North Korea’s recent visitors was [Danish] magician and adventurer Jesper Grønkjær, who set out to see if he could manage to get a smile from its citizens. ‘I’ve spent my life proving one universal truth: a smile is the shortest distance between all people on Earth,’ Grønkjær said.

” ‘We know you can suppress people, but you can’t suppress a smile. I will investigate that, and where better to do it than in one of the strictest countries in the world?’ he opens his video on the Freeport Traveler YouTube page. When Grønkjær visited North Korea, he was accompanied by two guards wherever he went, and his passport was taken from him. At night, he was locked in his hotel like a jail cell. However, he still elicited huge grins from children and adults alike as he wowed them with magic tricks with animal balloons, a stuffed ferret, red foam balls, card tricks, and much of his joyful brand of Abracadabra.

“While visiting North Korea, Grønkjær watched the country’s ‘Day of the Sun Celebrations‘ at Kim Il-Sung Square in North Korea. Held each year on April 15th, the holiday celebrates the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, the country’s founder, and features dancing, military tests, parades, and concerts. For North Koreans, the holiday is akin to Christmas.

“Grønkjær’s trip to North Korea isn’t the only exotic and potentially dangerous place where he has performed magic. He has also performed for Indigenous people in Peru, the descendants of the Incas in the Andes mountains, and the Masai warriors in Tanzania. The magician of 20 years has also performed for orphanages in Uganda, the jungles of Irian Jaya, the ice caps of Greenland, and the Las Vegas strip.

“Grønkjær uses his adventurous expeditions as subject matter for his various lectures, print articles, and appearances on Danish television. When he’s back home, he performs more than 225 nights a year for family events, circuses, weddings, and corporate parties. …

“Grønkjær’s work shows that no matter where you live on the planet or what language you speak, we all share the same sense of wonder and humor. While nefarious forces in the world work to drive us apart, he proves it takes very little for all of us to realize our shared humanity.”

More at Upworthy, here. Listen to a radio interview at The World, here.

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Counting on Fingers Approved

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 4, 2024| 5 Comments »

Photo: Earth.com.
In the bad old days, parents were misled about what was good for children. Remember forcing left-handed kids to use their right? Remember that counting on fingers was wrong? Fortunately, humans do learn from mistakes.

Everything old is new again. But you knew that. Here’s new old news from the world of elementary school arithmetic. Stephen Beech wrote the story at TalkerNews and many outlets carried it, including NBC.

“Counting on fingers really does help youngsters improve their math skills, according to a new study. The research is the first to show that children’s performance in arithmetic can show a ‘huge’ improvement through the teaching of a finger-counting method. …

“Swiss and French researchers explored whether finger counting can help primary school-aged children to solve maths problems in a new study, published in the journal Child Development. …

“Young children who use their fingers to solve such problems are recognized as intelligent, probably because they have already reached a level that allows them to understand that a quantity can be represented by different means.

“It is only from the age of eight that using finger counting to solve very simple problems can indicate math difficulties, according to the study.

“The research aimed to determine whether children who don’t count on their fingers can be trained to do so, and whether such training would result in enhanced arithmetic performance.

“The study focused on 328 five- and six-year-old children at kindergarten, mainly living in France, and tested their abilities to solve simple addition problems. Participating children were recruited through their teachers who voluntarily took part in the experiment.

“The study included a pre-test, training held over two weeks, a post-test closely after the training’s end, and a delayed post-test.

“The results showed an ‘important increase’ in performance between pre- and post-test for the trained children who did not count on their fingers originally — from 37% to 77% of correct responses – compared to non-finger users in the control group.

“The research team suggests that since children who use their fingers to help solve math problems outperform those who do not, teaching a finger-counting strategy could help reduce inequity among children in math.

“However, they say whether children who use finger counting are using it as an arithmetic procedure or understand something deeper about numbers will still need to be determined with future research.

“Study leader Dr. Catherine Thevenot said: ‘Our findings are highly valuable because, for the first time, we provide a concrete answer to the long-standing question of whether teachers should explicitly teach children to use their fingers for solving addition problems — especially those who don’t do so naturally. Our study demonstrates that finger calculation training is effective for over 75% of kindergartners.

” ‘The next step is to explore how we can support the remaining 25% of children who didn’t respond as well to the intervention.’

“Dr. Thevenot, of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, says the study came about as a result of conversations with primary school teachers.

“She said: ‘They often asked me whether they should encourage or discourage children from using their fingers to solve calculations. Surprisingly, the existing research didn’t offer a clear answer, which left teachers understandably frustrated with my frequent response of “I don’t know.” …

” ‘The best way to provide a meaningful answer was through experimental studies — so that’s exactly what I set out to do.

” ‘When I first saw the results, I was amazed by the huge improvement in performance among children who didn’t initially use their fingers to solve the problems. Before our intervention, these children were only able to solve about one-third of the addition problems at pre-test.

” ‘After training, however, they were solving over three-quarters of them. The difference was striking, especially compared to the control groups, where gains were insignificant. The extent of this improvement truly exceeded my expectations. …

” ‘An important question now is to determine whether what we taught to children goes beyond a mere procedure to solve the problems. In other words, we want to know whether our intervention led to a deeper conceptual understanding of numbers, specifically whether children better grasp how to manipulate the quantities represented by their fingers.

” ‘In fact, we have already started addressing this question and the initial results are very promising. However, we still need to carry out additional experiments to confirm that these improvements are indeed a direct result of our training program.’ “

More at NBC, here, and at Earth.com, here.

Trust those Swiss to figure things out!

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Nudging Kids toward Independence

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 13, 2024| 3 Comments »

Photo: Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor.
Fifth graders at Dennis Ortwein Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada, and their Let Grow posters.

Ultimately, you want your children to grow up able to take care of themselves. Love and convenience give parents plenty of temptation to do things for them beyond the point where the help is beneficial. That’s why a school in Nevada is lending a hand to kids and parents alike to so that fledglings may have a good chance to fledge.

Jackie Valley has the story at the Christian Science Monitor.

“Walking the dog. Wrapping a package. Cooking dinner.

“For adults, these activities often represent mundane to-do list tasks. But for fifth graders in Las Vegas, they offered something different this past school year – a taste of independence. 

“ ‘I can do things by myself more instead of having my dad or my mom do them,’ says Deven Doutis, who learned his dog goes a little nuts when he spots another canine out for a stroll.

The small steps toward greater – and lasting – independence came about in a very intentional way.

“Deven’s teacher, Amy Wolfe, sensed students were entering higher grades with more needs than in past years. Some couldn’t open a water bottle, for instance, or navigate minor conflicts with their peers. So when Ms. Wolfe heard about a program called Let Grow, she decided to pilot it within select classrooms at Dennis Ortwein Elementary School in Las Vegas.

“The program’s premise is simple: When children gain independence, they grow into more confident and capable people. …

“But what, exactly, are kids allowed to do by themselves nowadays? Terms such as ‘helicopter parent’ or ‘overparenting’ have become shorthand to describe adults who are overly involved, sometimes to the detriment of their child’s developmental growth. …

“A poll conducted last year for C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan found that three-quarters of parents say they have their children do things for themselves; however, the percentage of parents who report their children do specific activities independently is lower. Only a third of parents, for example, allow their 9-to-11-year-old child to walk or bike to a friend’s house. A similar portion say they encourage their 5-to-8-year-olds to decide how to spend their own gift or allowance money.

“Safety concerns emerged as the top reason those same parents don’t allow their children more free rein. The results did not come as a surprise to Lenore Skenazy, president of Let Grow and author of Free-Range Kids. For years, she has been on a mission to unleash children in a society where they increasingly have little independence in the physical world. …

“She says the backlash stems from a pervasive, heightened sense of danger built by media narratives and litigious tendencies. …

“In a commentary piece published by the Journal of Pediatrics last year, researchers pointed to evidence showing a correlation between children’s dwindling independence and increasing mental health problems over several decades.

” ‘We are not suggesting that a decline in opportunities for independent activity is the sole cause of the decline in young people’s mental well-being over decades, only that it is a cause, possibly a major cause,’ the authors wrote. (The lead author, Peter Gray, is a research professor in psychology at Boston College and a founding member of Let Grow.)

“In Ms. Wolfe’s classroom each month, students chose an independent activity, loosely tied to a theme, and completed it by themselves. Then they reported back to their classmates and teacher about the experience. There were no grades or critiques. If Ms. Wolfe asked any probing questions, it was to suss out how her students felt after, say, baking a cake or pulling weeds. …

“ ‘It’s more about developing the conversations with students to where they see independence … as a value,’ she says. …

“For her first project, Giwan Istefan’s 11-year-old daughter, Aria, decided to make miniature lemon-and-blueberry cheesecakes. Ms. Istefan says it turned into an exercise in parental restraint as well.

“ ‘I was like, “Oh my gosh, I see the disaster happening,” ‘ she says. ‘But I had to step back. It was growth not just for her, but it was growth for also myself.’ “

More at the Monitor, here. What are some of the ways you have encouraged independence in children, not necessarily only as a parent?

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Best-Selling Artist from Africa

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 21, 2024| 6 Comments »

Photo: Larkin Durey.
Aboudia’s work has been shown in exhibitions held in Abidjan, London, New York and Tel Aviv. Hiscox Artist Top 100 says he sold more than even Banksy in one year.

The art world is becoming more international, and that’s a good thing. For too long, people have used their own world’s cultural references to judge the quality of art. And how can only one culture be the only worthy measure?

Wedaeli Chibelushi reports at the BBC about an African that is currently making a big splash internationally.

“Back in September, global art experts were taken aback by the name topping a fresh list of the world’s best-selling artists.

“Aboudia, a graffiti-inspired artist from Ivory Coast, had beaten well-known names, like Damien Hirst and Banksy, to sell the most pieces at auction the previous year.

“According to the Hiscox Artist Top 100, Aboudia, real name Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, had flogged 75 lots. One of these canvasses had gone for £504,000 ($640,000).

“Leading online marketplace Artsy called Aboudia’s triumph ‘striking,’ while The Guardian said market experts were ‘blindsided by the ranking.

“Months later, sitting in a London gallery plastered with his paintings, Aboudia tells me the survey results were no surprise to him. ‘Because if you work hard, the success is going to come,’ he says. …

“Aboudia’s mellow disposition clashes with the art surrounding him – his vividly colored, heavily layered canvases feature a cast of cartoon-like figures plucked from the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city. Through a blend of oil sticks, acrylic paints and recycled materials like newspapers, Aboudia depicts the hardships of life in downtown Abidjan.

He particularly focuses on the children who live and work on the city’s streets.

“His eyewitness portrayals of Ivory Coast’s 2011 civil war are equally arresting. Figures gaze at the viewer with vacant eyes, while armed soldiers and skulls crank up the intensity. …

“Aboudia was born in 1983, in Abengourou, a small town around [124 miles] from Abidjan. In a 2012 essay, the artist said he was kicked out of his home aged 15 after telling his father he wanted to paint for a living.

“After being cast out, the young Aboudia pressed on and enrolled in art school. Due to a lack of financial support, he slept in his classroom after the other students went home for the day. These uncomfortable nights paid off — after graduating in 2003 the soon-to-be-star was accepted into Ivory Coast’s leading art school, École des Beaux-Arts.

“Abidjan’s École des Beaux-Arts would expose Aboudia to the Ivorian art icons whose influence can be found in his current work. For instance, Aboudia’s focus on his direct surroundings and his use of recycled materials can be traced back to Vohou Vohou, a modernist collective established in the 1970s by artists like Youssouf Bath, Yacouba Touré and Kra N’Guessan.

“Aboudia began to veer away from traditional styles of art, instead using untamed brushstrokes and earthy colors to recreate graffiti produced by Abidjan’s underprivileged children. In Aboudia’s words, these young, de facto street artists ‘draw their dreams on the world.’

“The children are his main influence, he says. …

“After establishing his core style, Aboudia would lug his paintings around the galleries of central Abidjan, hoping for a way in.

” ‘It was very hard. … They’d say: “Are you crazy? What is this work? You better go to London, to United States or Paris, because this work … here it doesn’t make sense,” ‘ Aboudia recalls.

“The adversity did not end there. In 2010, Laurent Gbagbo, the then president of Ivory Coast, refused to step down after losing an election to rival Alassane Ouattara. A civil war broke out, killing 3,000 people and forcing another 500,000 from their homes.

“Throughout the four-month conflict, Aboudia sought refuge in his basement studio, documenting the horrors he saw when venturing above ground.

“The war ended with Mr Gbagbo’s dramatic capture by UN and French-backed troops — and Aboudia emerged from his haven with 21 disconcerting paintings.

“Art-lovers and journalists from Ivory Coast and beyond lauded his work and Aboudia’s ascent to global success began. He was championed by renowned art collectors Charles Saatchi and Jean Pigozzi — and went on to exhibit his work at prestigious venues like Christie’s New York and the Venice Biennale.

“Aboudia’s first solo exhibition was at the setting for this interview, London’s Larkin Durey (then named the Jack Bell gallery). Owner Oliver Durey, who has now known Aboudia for over a decade, tells the BBC: ‘There is something we can all relate to in his paintings; hiding amidst the uncertainty and horror there are balanced moments of strength and beauty.’

“African art expert Henrika Amoafo [notes] reasons for his success … like his ‘authenticity, the really raw emotional power that he’s able to convey, the way that he speaks to urban life, the way that he speaks about conflict and its impact on children.’ …

“Aboudia’s rise also coincides with that of the African art market. In 2021, art analysis firm ArtTactic reported that the auction sales value of contemporary and modern African art surged by 44% to a record high of $72.4m. …

“Aboudia’s rise has led to him splitting his time between his country of birth and New York. When he is back in Ivory Coast, he pours his efforts into the Aboudia Foundation, an organization he launched to support the country’s children and young artists.

“This is yet another example of the star’s drive — but when I ask him if he has any plans lined up for his career, he … says he takes things one day at a time.”

More at the BBC, here. No paywall.

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