Maybe FRP is really, really good for kids

[nancylebov]

Or at least better for them than any of the other current commonly available activities.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

.....

Sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ. Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. As executive function researcher Laura Berk explains, "Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain."

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[ms-daisy-cutter.livejournal.com]

In the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff says, parents became increasingly concerned about safety paranoid about Chesters in the shrubbery, despite the fact that most child molesters are relatives or family friends, and were driven to create play environments that were secure and could not be penetrated by threats of the outside world, and also that would look good on an application to an Ivy League school.

Fixed it for them.

"Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today's 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago," Bodrova explains. "So the results were very sad."

Yep. "Five is the new three." Maybe that explains why I see so many older kids being paraded around in yuppie strollers like little pashas.

"Because of the testing, and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals. Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time,"

This article really does take great pains not to blame breeders for anything, doesn't it?