Two Interesting Articles from the New York Times

The New York has two really great articles on kid issues. I'm including links and just a couple of quotes that I found particularly salient - to read the rest, click on the links (and sign up for your NY Times access if you don't already have it). I don't want to be accused of any copyright infringement! :-)

Doll Web Sites Drive Girls to Stay Home and Play

Presleigh Montemayor often gets home after a long day and spends some time with her family. Then she logs onto the Internet, leaving the real world and joining a virtual one. But the digital utopia of Second Life is not for her. Presleigh, who is 9 years old, prefers a Web site called Cartoon Doll Emporium.

The site lets her chat with her friends and dress up virtual dolls, by placing blouses, hair styles and accessories on them. It beats playing with regular Barbies, said Presleigh, who lives near Dallas...

I can't decide which is more depressing - the fact that these sites exist and girls are playing with virtual friends or the fact that someone named their daughter Presleigh.

And she's nine - how long a day can she have?

Either way, I am terrified of the kind of marketing forces that will be at play for Eliza. Between television and Internet, it's like no one wants kids to go outside and just play ever again! As a kid, I loved, loved, LOVED playing Barbies. And I am quite confident we did things with them that would never be allowed on websites. I don't like that children's play can be proscribed this way. Where is the outlet for imagination and creativity and so forth? I see it even with the babies we are meeting now - many of them have lots and lots of activities they participate in. Granted, most of this is for the moms who are going a bit stir crazy being in the house, but it's hard not to feel the pressure and the guilt that I am not doing enough for Eliza. At which point I must remind myself to repeat the mantra, "Everyday life is stimulating for babies." Of course she loves when we go to playgroups or out for walks, but she equally loves chewing on her blocks and chasing the cats and staring at her own hand. She likes to just play.

And with that segue, here is article #2:

When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?

First she read Leo Lionni’s classic children’s book “An Extraordinary Egg,” and directed a conversation about it. Next she guided the students through: writing a letter; singing a song; solving an addition problem; two more songs; and a math game involving counting by ones, fives and tens using coins. Finally, Andersen read them another Lionni book...

Wow, that's a lot of stuff in kindergarten! I pretty much remember finger paint and maybe some juice. Oh, and nap. Good times.

The half day devoted to fair play and nice manners officially began its demise in 1983, when the National Commission on Excellence in Education published “A Nation at Risk,” warning that the country faced a “rising tide of mediocrity” unless we increased school achievement and expectations...As a result, many parents, legislatures and teachers find the current curriculum too challenging for many older 4- and young 5-year-olds, which makes sense, because it’s largely the same curriculum taught to first graders less than a generation ago. Andersen’s kindergartners are supposed to be able to not just read but also write two sentences by the time they graduate from her classroom. It’s no wonder that nationwide, teachers now report that 48 percent of incoming kindergartners have difficulty handling the demands of school.

No wonder indeed! The article goes on to describe the economic differences in kindergartners - the older ones tend to be more affluent and thus do better while the poor ones, who need the "free" daycare of public school, are younger and start falling behind, setting the stage for a lifetime of underachievement. It was sad.

There was also this frightening stat:
In 49 out of 50 states, the average annual cost of day care for a 4-year-old in an urban area is more than the average annual public college tuition.

Ugh.

Children are a commodity and parents are looking for their ROI. Not that they haven't always, I guess. Only now instead of putting them to work at age 5, we start putting immense academic pressure on them from birth, telling them they must achieve and achieve and achieve, so that we can be a nation of web-surfing, television addicts who don't know how to play.

Now I'm depressed. Cat's in the Cradle, anyone?