dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

WaPo: A teacher stepped on an American flag during a free speech lesson.

Interesting. In fifth grade, during a school play, I tripped over a cast iron prop and fell on my face, taking the American Flag with me. My schoolmates continued to badger me for ‘ruining’ a flag for about a month. “You’re going to JAIL!” I remember the earnest fifth grade conversations over whether floorboards were ‘ground.’ Teacher was an ex-Marine, Guadalcanal. He didn’t bat an eye, so I didn’t.

The Atlantic: The Economic Woe of Young Liberal-Arts Majors.

“In the labor market for young college grads, non-college jobs have proliferated faster than jobs that have historically required a college degree.” Yet, don’t eschew the liberal arts. As I found throughout my career, if you’re not going for a specific engineering degree, the liberal arts give you a leg up in just about any other field (philosophy majors on Wall Street ... architecture graduates creating Broadway sets ... etc. etc.).

PS Mag: Early Childhood Education Is Not a Profession

“There is no recognized early childhood education profession. The early childhood education field does not conform to the standards of organized professions nor is it held accountable as such, as reflected in the variability in teachers’ knowledge and skills.” Really? Seriously?

The Atlantic: Trump Unveils Plan to Boost Support for Child Care.

“Whether he wins or not, the Republican nominee has pushed his party closer to the Democratic position a key economic issue.” Whuzzah?

The Atlantic: Apeirophobia - The Fear of Eternity.

“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then.” Finally, an article worth my time to read.

Guardian.UK: Sex on campus isn’t what you think - what 101 student journals taught me.

I don’t know. This initial story is *very* familiar. My first college roommate was the quarterback of the freshman football team. He should have installed a conveyor belt. He was even engaged to his high school sweetheart (not in the same college), and he did this. Repugnant as this was, others on the team behaved worse. And that was the late ‘70’s. Sounds like ‘same old, same old’ to me; little has actually changed.

Dazed: Teenage girls in the UK feel ‘worthless’ and ‘unhappy’.

“If all that wasn’t enough, a major new survey from the Department for Education has revealed that more than a third of teenage girls in the UK now suffer from depression and anxiety. According to stats obtained by the organisation, 37 per cent of female 14-year-olds feel unhappy, worthless, or unable to concentrate – which is double the amount compared to boys of the same age.” Begs the question, why?

NY Daily News: EpiPen price hike sends doctors and patients scrambling.

Criminal. FDA? Mr Obama?

NPR: Should We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change?

“Back at James Madison University, Travis Rieder explains a PowerPoint graph that seems to offer hope. Bringing down global fertility by just half a child per woman ‘could be the thing that saves us’, he says.” Broadcast this one, far and wide.

BillMoyers: How Trump Succeeds by Saying Out Loud What Many Voters Think.

“What we’re learning is that a lot of people have been biting their lips, but not changing their minds.” And perpetuating those beliefs to their children.

Youtube: Hot Wheels Road Trip.

Some clever edits. You’ll see ‘em. Tunnels. Reminds me of why I got bored with Hot Wheels so fast. A couple of races, “been there, done that”. I’d head outside to go have real adventures.

Mashable: Poop-throwing monkey ruins little girls’ day at the zoo.

The girl in the pink threw first. Imagine sitting there all day in the heat, people taunting you for reactions. I dislike zoos.

Hemmings: Pinewood Derby Racer - The first father and son car project.

Memories. Mine stank. Lost the first and only race. I should have spent more time on it.

Guardian.UK: The hounding of Gabby Douglas - unworthy end for a great American champion.

Lesson: Stay away from social media while in competition.

Catapult: Their Body, Themselves.

Parents usually learn this early. It’s all in how YOU react. Not others.

Story from my past. My father loved recounting when my sister first asked about “How do you make a baby?” He was reading the paper, as he normally did on Sunday ... nose buried deep in the NY Times. My sister walked up, out of his line of sight, and asked the question. Now, a normal parent of today might put the paper down and start into a longwinded, overwrought explanation. Not ol’ Pops. Dad slowly lowered the paper, and looked over his glasses ... and saw my sister standing there with a crayon and a piece of paper held out. She wanted to know how to *draw* a baby. Dad’s comment: “Never answer too fast.”

ScienceDaily: Oral immunotherapy is safe, effective for peanut-allergic preschoolers, study suggests

I ate a lot of PB, straight out of the jar, when I was very small. With a long ‘ice tea spoon’. Good times. Nowadays, adults would fear choking risk.

Dazed (UK): Going to university is officially not worth it, says study.

“The research – published last week – claims that your university degree could be leaving you perpetually out of pocket unless you go to Oxbridge or become a doctor.”

Gizmodo: Why Amish Children Rarely Get Asthma

“Neither the Amish nor the Hutterites have dirty homes. [snip] Both are tidy. The Amish barns, however, are much closer to their homes. Their children run in and out of them, often barefoot, all day long. There’s no obvious dirt in the Amish homes, no lapse of cleanliness. It’s just in the air, and in the dust.”

Guardian.UK: UT Tower shooting survivor speaks out against new campus carry law in Texas.

“There’s a lot of debating going on within university and faculty about what they can and cannot say regarding guns in classrooms and to me it’s just a shame that we’re even having these discussions. It’s just wrong to have guns be allowed in a classroom where you can’t have your cellphone or eat a hamburger.” It is ridiculous.

Atlas Obscura: Youth Tries to Improve 5,000-Year-Old Carving, Causes ‘National Tragedy’.

Why don’t kids ASK anymore?

Guardian.UK: Children spend only half as much time playing outside as their parents did.

TRAVESTY. Take the electronics away, kick ‘em out on the weekends. You’ll end up with smarter, happier kids.

The Atlantic: Success in High School Doesn’t Mean Good Grades in College.

“Instead, the pair thinks that if high schools want to prepare students for college, they should focus less on specific content and more on critical thinking and reasoning.” I agree. My experience in AP classes revealed a great variation in curriculum compared to what was expected on the test; I felt ill-prepared when facing those questions. But my experience was umpteen decades ago.

The selection of ‘advanced’ students was even more wobbly, in my view. Such programs tend to look for students whose performance is improving beyond baseline; this is an inaccurate metric in isolation. Using myself as an example: I wanted to attend AP English. But I was bored, having already read through the assigned reading materials, so my performance was declining out of lack of mental stimulation. I didn’t make it. So I took an elective in “Journalism” instead.

Ultimately, on my first day in college, I was asked to write a paper. I’d already skimmed the table of contents of the assigned “English textbook”, so I gave them everything the book covered, and much more. Within minutes of arriving at my very second class in “college English”, the instructor marched me down to the Department head and she waived all English requirements for my degree, clearing me for anything I wanted to take, including electives.

Here’s the question: Would the AP course have made me any better? I wonder.

High school is not college. And I don’t think there’s any way to approximate the experience in a high school setting. It’s more than just the classes and curricula. You are challenged in multifarious ways, this often being the first time a child is truly ‘on their own’, eliciting different responses in different kids. So yes, critical thinking and reasoning.

New Scientist: Let’s ditch the idea that only home-cooked food is good for kids.

“... home-made meals based on 408 bestselling cookbook recipes for infants and young children are not always healthier than ready meals and convenience products. In fact, on many measures they seemed less healthy: they tended to have a lower vegetable variety per meal and were more likely to exceed maximum recommendations for energy and fat content.” I used to enjoy Campbell’s chicken noodle soup as a kid, eventually making my own Mrs. Grass’ (with the oil/egg). I mean, come on. Lighten up. You’d think we were talking about infant formula (ducking swiftly) ...

PS Mag: The Addicted Generation.

Oh. My God.

The Atlantic: When Student Activists Refuse to Talk to Campus Newspapers.

“Student activists at Smith College told student journalists they would be barred from a black-solidarity rally unless they vowed to ‘participate and articulate their solidarity with black students and students of color.’” One wonders what happens to these kids when they hit the real world, and it sticks a big fat finger in their eye.