I'd buy this in a heart beat if I actually had somewhere to hang it (and my kids didn't want Star Wars and the England football team on their walls instead).... Still, it is quite beautiful and I will pop it on my wishlist, along with his "boxes". Check them out as well.
"In 2025, our first children of Vittra Telefonplan
will graduate. Equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to
study further or find a workplace where they can implement their ideas -
anywhere in the world! They’ve had a schooling that motivated them to
ask questions and deepen their knowledge. They solve problems with
creativity and innovation and they have a strong belief in their
abilities."
We should watch out for Sweden..... if these schools live up to the blurb (and I have a feeling they are on the right track....), great things will happen......
Interesting idea, create simple animations to explain how humans learn and consequently how children should be brought up.......
"The 21st Century Learning Initiative is pledged to get even more people
to question their old assumptions in an essentially “play-like” manner,
and so accept the truth of Einstein’s oft-quoted statement that
“imagination is more important than knowledge.”"
The latest well-being report by The Children's Society in the UK has found that half a million children across the country are unhappy with their lives.
Key findings include:
Choice and family have the biggest impact on children’s happiness.
The quality of children’s relationships with their families is far
more important than the structure of the family that they live in.
Low well-being increases dramatically with age – doubling from the age of 10 (7%) to the age of 15 (14%).
Children as young as eight are aware of the financial issues their
families face. Children in families who have experienced a reduction in
income are more likely to have low well-being.
Children who do not have clothes to ‘fit in’ with peers are more
than three times as likely to be unhappy with their appearance. Children
who are unhappy with their appearance are also much more likely than
average to experience frequent bullying.
Not sure if a lack of independence and the great outdoors factor into this but it's not good......
Check out Tim Gill's post on the report.
(The sour looking woman is Mrs Twit by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake.)
English Teeth, English Teeth!
Shining in the sun
A part of British heritage
Aye, each and every one.
English Teeth, Happy Teeth!
Always having fun
Clamping down on bits of fish
And sausages half done.
English Teeth! HEROES' Teeth!
Hear them click! and clack!
Let's sing a song of praise to them -
Three Cheers for the Brown Grey and Black.
I had a feeling of deja vous when I checked out Cas Holman's website, so I apologise if I have posted about these before.
The High Line Park had these Workyard kits available for kids to play with. The programs available for this city park is incredible. If we were all so lucky.....
"Let us accept the idea that damage to the value of property without
the owner’s consent is an unwarranted intrusion upon the owner’s
freedoms. What this means is that as soon as libertarians encounter
environmental issues, they’re stuffed.
Climate change, industrial pollution, ozone depletion, damage to the
physical beauty of the area surrounding people’s homes (and therefore
their value), all these, if the libertarians did not possess a shocking
set of double standards, would be denounced by them as infringements on
other people’s property.
The owners of coal-burning power stations in the UK have not obtained
the consent of everyone who owns a lake or a forest in Sweden to
deposit acid rain there. So their emissions, in the libertarian
worldview, should be regarded as a form of trespass on the property of
Swedish landowners. Nor have they received the consent of the people of
this country to allow mercury and other heavy metals to enter our
bloodstreams, which means that they are intruding upon our property in
the form of our bodies."
PBS will be airing a 4 part series by a Dr. Richard Jackson who looks at the impact the built
environment has on obesity, diabetes, heart, asthma, cancer, and
depression. He connects bad community design with America's burgeoning health costs, then analyzes and illustrates what citizens
are doing about this urgent crisis. The miniseries will air in early
2012.
Check out the preview here and look out for the series itself.
"A qualitative study of childcare center providers found that safety
concerns, budgetary limitations, and emphasis on early academic
readiness led to children in preschool not engaging in enough physical
activity."
It was noted that "Strict safety rules for equipment and low budgets at childcare centers
were largely blamed for playgrounds that don't make kids feel like
playing......"
And let's face it, who would want to play, day in and day out, on the play structure above, particularly if there are identical ones in all the neighbourhood parks?
"Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do (2) Things we’ve got to do (3) Things we like doing.
I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time
doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books
they don’t like because other people read them. Things you ought to do
are things like doing one’s school work or being nice to people. Things
one has to do are things like dressing and undressing, or household
shopping. Things one likes doing—but of course I don’t know what you like. Perhaps you’ll write and tell me one day."
C. S. Lewis, in a letter to Sarah, his godchild, on 3 April 1949
Maybe it's time for me to do more of no. 3......
Found over at Bobulate.
I know it sounds quite fantastic but apparently since they re-introduced wolves into Yellowstone Park they have affected balance of nature and trees aren't suffering with an over run of elk. With trees comes birds also.
