They Say: Latino Kids Get Head Start on Falling Behind

It sounds like something you’d expect to read in a newspaper from the 50’s: Latino children are not as advanced, academically, as their White counterparts.  Of course, the research done at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the University of Pittsburgh does not simply say that White kids are inherently smarter than Latino kids; ideas like that were disproved long ago.  Instead, the findings highlight the importance of parents in helping children succeed in school.
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New, More Realistic Black Barbie Still Controversial

Have you seen the new African-American Barbies? I haven’t. But according to this Broadsheet post, the dolls are generating much discussion from parents of all races.

See, the dolls, unlike Barbies of old, are designed to reflect the way black women actually look, versus the old Barbies which were exactly the same as the white ones but made out of dark brown plastic and topped with the same long, straight hair in black instead of blonde. Doll designer Stacy McBride-Irby drew inspiration from her own young daughters for the dolls, which have wider noses and fuller lips.

Some parents think the dolls don’t go far enough, especially in terms of hair. Continue reading »

Little Blue and Little Yellow Turn 50

It’s literally blobs of color scattered across pages, and yet Leo Lionni’s Little Blue and Little Yellow is still being taught in classrooms fifty years on.

It’s an introduction to color mixing - both literal and figurative. Continue reading »

Triathlons for Tiny Runners

Follow a three-year-old around for a day, and you might feel like you’ve run a marathon.  But should tots this tiny be running competitive races themselves?  The New York Times is reporting a surprising new trend among parents with small children:  triathlons for young children.

“What do you think about triathlons for three-year-olds?” I asked my husband, an experienced runner.

“What? Ridiculous.”

“Ri-donk-ulous,” my six-year-old agreed.  “What’s a triathlon?”

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What Do You Teach Your Kids about the Police?

When I was a child, “Officer Friendly” came annually to visit our (95% white) school.  He (it was always a “he”) gave us basic safety tips, when we were a bit older, offered anti-drug lessons and sometimes passed out treats.  But always, always, we were told that Continue reading »

Family Circle Names 10 Best Towns for Upper Middle-Class White Families

The latest in the “most livable places” news, Family Circle magazine has named ten towns of between 15,000 and 150,000 people as the best places of their size to raise a family. Continue reading »

Principal, Parents Tangle Over Race Questionnaire

Can a school principal ask her staff to report how often the black kids are getting in trouble? What about calling for a report of how many Hispanic troublemakers are sitting in the classrooms?

Parents say Claudia Moore-Hamilton was crossing a racial line when she asked her teachers to fill out a questionnaire regarding racial make-up of their students in relation to behavior problems. Continue reading »

They Say - New Disney Princess Not Black Enough

You know Princess Tiana, the latest member of Disney’s highly profitable “royal family“? The big news is that she is the first African-American member of the Princess club (or whatever you call them — sorry, I have boys and they’re not into this stuff). The character is the star of the upcoming Disney film “The Princess and the Frog“. Disney, I imagine, would like nothing more than to be embraced by the African-American community. According to a recent New York Times article, that hasn’t been the result so far. Continue reading »