Einstein feared “a generation of idiots.”
February 4, 2013
Recently I was in a yogurt shop after school and I couldn’t help noticing how so many kids were plugged into a device. Whether they were with friends or younger children with their parents, I was sad to see so little face-to-face interaction. Einstein worried about such things when he said, ” I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” I did not smile when I saw this photo with the caption “Having dinner with your best friend.”
Parents— please know that the most important thing you can do is to talk with your children. Children acquire the robust vocabularies they need to be successful readers, through face-to-face conversations. Children who are spoken to are primed to acquire strong literacy skills.
Would Ben Franklin, founder of the fist lending library, like today’s library?
January 17, 2013
If you are a lover of Libraries, you must be forever grateful to Benjamin Franklin, the founder of the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731. It was America’s first lending library and can lay claim to being the predecessor of the free public library. “Welcome to the Library, Where Shushing is Overdue” a recent article in the […]
The value of reading the same book over and over again.
January 14, 2013
Children look for safety and autonomy in the books they read. Their familiarity with a story satisfies both those desires. Multiple reads of the same book also offers them the opportunity to go deeper into the story, showing them how to get more from a story.. You might think you can’t read Sylvester and the […]
Start the year off with a Growth Mindset
January 7, 2013
The WSJ recently published the result of a German study which found that intelligence was not a factor in achievement. Although intelligence counts at the outset, it’s a matter of motivation and study skills that bring growth. The best learning environments are predicated on motivation and skills. Here are some growth mindset principles: ~ Most basic […]
A letter from a parent in New Haven CT.
January 3, 2013
Thank you to everyone who was involved in putting together the Literacy Workshop with Diane Frankenstein. My husband and I are avid readers, so going into the workshop I was anxious and excited to find out and learn what we could implement or change in our home that would help us, help our children find […]
