Category: Culture

Rewilding the American Child​​

Dr. Dean

(Outside)

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Children are much more likely to enjoy outdoor activities—and stick with them—if they start out at the right moment in their physical and cognitive development.

This months Outside contains more than a dozen articles about”Rewilding the American Child” but that is not what this site is about. It’s about cataloging and sharing good resources. It’s definitely not about click​ bate. I have not read through all of these articles yet. As I do I will be adding links below. My addition of a link only means I have read it and it has something​ to offer to my larger project. ALL of the articles are available​ here.

French kids are heading back to school today without their most beloved possessions

Dr. Dean

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(Quartz)

On July 30, 2018, the French government passed a law banning the use of phones in primary and middle schools, to come into effect in the beginning of the 2018 school year. The law allows exceptions for disabled children, in cases of emergency, or “within the framework of explicit and specific pedagogical use, supervised by the teachers.” The law also states that high schools can ban cell phones if they choose to, but the decision will be left up to individual establishments (link in French).

The purpose of the law, according to the Ministry of Education, is threefold (link in French). It is meant to help kids’ ”attention, concentration and reflection” in class; encourage kids to actually play with each other, make friends, and exercise during recreation times; and to combat racketeering, theft, online bullying, and harassment in schools, as well as limit young children’s exposure “to shocking, violent, or pornographic images.”

They’ll be fine.

Does everything in the world boil down to basic units – or can emergence explain how distinctive new things arise?

Dr. Dean

(Aeon)

Emergence was popular in philosophy of science more than a century ago. Reputable figures such as John Stuart Mill, Henri Bergson and C D Broad suggested that chemistry and biology would struggle to account for the origins of life; perhaps life could only be said to ‘emerge’ from these domains, demanding its own special laws and explanations. Beginning in the 1930s, though, advances in quantum chemistry and the discovery of the structure of DNA and RNA showed the potential of atomistic approaches. Soon enough, a cloud of suspicion formed over emergence and its scientific potential.

Nowadays, the concept is often invoked by quantum mystics, believers in souls, and advocates of the inscrutable nature of consciousness. These are the fuzzy approaches to emergence, and we should avoid them. But emergence shouldn’t be judged on the basis of its dubious friends. Long disdained, emergence can still be a valuable addition to our ways of understanding the world. The trick is to capture what is interesting about emergence without lapsing into an attitude of awed mysticism.

I have long been attracted to this idea. It has a powerful explanatory​ narrative that addresses​ multiple​ of metaphysical and epistemological​ gaps.

‘Risky’ Playgrounds Are Making a Comeback

Dr. Dean

(CityLab)

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“The take-home message for municipalities is: Stop setting your bar at the level of the most anxious parent. If you do that, you’re guaranteed to produce boring and dull playgrounds,” said Tim Gill, a London-based researcher and advocate who recently authored a white paper on faulty assumptions about risky playgrounds. “If you set your bar at the level of the average parent or maybe even at the level of the parents … who do want some more excitement and challenge in their kids’ lives, then, things start to look different.”

Go Outside And​ Play!

How Heroin Came for Middle-Class Moms

Dr. Dean

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(Marie Claire)

By 2013, a new sort of woman was using heroin: Affluent women. Middle aged, middle-class women with carpools. Gen X moms recovering from knee surgeries. College girls with double majors. Women with incomes above $50,000 and private health insurance. Women who had been taking Oxycodone and Vicodin because they’re excellent pain-relievers. Superior to a vodka tonic. Better than smoking a joint.

The CDC declared opioid abuse an epidemic in back in 2011. In October, President Trump declared the epidemic a health emergency. According to the CDC, heroin and opioid use among women doubled between 2004 and 2013—a rate twice that of men. More women are dying from prescription pain pills than ever before. Since 1999, the number of fatal overdoses among women has increased 400 percent, among men, 265.

Kinda puts that whole pot is addictive post in perspective​.

An unlikely fable, in which Birkenstocks become cool

Dr. Dean

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(The Cut)

Wait, first of all, what do you mean “became cool?”

If you didn’t know that Birkenstock has seen a huge resurgence in the past few years, it’s probably because you never stopped wearing them, like my friend Rob, who got his first pair 37 years ago, when he lived on a commune.

OK

This summer in Provincetown, says the stylist Miguel Enamorado, “since Birkenstock has made the rubber sandal, everyone in P-town is wearing them. It’s the new flip-flop.” He means the new polymer sandals, known as EVAs, which are molded in the shape of Birkenstock’s tried-and-true styles — the two-strap Arizona, one-strap Madrid, and thong Gizeh — and cost $40, as opposed to $100 and up for the traditional styles. The EVAs now account for as much as 15 percent of the 25 million pairs of shoes the company will make this year.

Rubber? I don’t know how I feel about that. But this article is worth your attention just for the “how Birkenstocks are made” photos.

Treating Teens’ Depression May Be Great for Parents’ Mental Health, Too

Dr. Dean

“Relationships are reciprocal,” says Laura Mufson, the associate director of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University, who was not involved in the study. “If one child isn’t doing well, if they’re having mood problems, if they’re more irritable—it’s affecting their behavior that impacts the rest of people in the family.”

It’s as if everything is interconnected?
Also, try time in the woods together.

NATIVE TRIBES ARE TAKING FIRE CONTROL INTO THEIR OWN HANDS

Dr. Dean

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(Wired)
SOMETIMES VIKKI PRESTON is inching her way through the forest when she comes across a grove of tan oak trees that feels special. The plants are healthy, the trees are old, and their trunks are nicely spaced out on the forest floor. “You can feel that the grove has been taken care of,” she says. “There’s been a lot of love and thoughtfulness.”

I bow to you.