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It’s Holiday Season—Turning the Gimmes into Giving and Having “Good Fun”

November 19, 2010

By Ellen Galinsky

Holiday season is upon us, and what is meant to be a time of family connections can turn into a time of family divisiveness, especially when children get a case of the gimmes.

I know what a case of the gimmes feels like because my children were known to have this malady--their lists of what they wanted for the holidays seemed insatiable--as if they were empty wells that needed continual filling. And it wasn't as if they said, "Here is the gift I want" -- it was, "Here are the gifts (a long list) I NEED." I always wondered why these NEEDS just happened to be the toys that their friends had or the toys that were being widely advertised. And even though my kids didn't watch a lot of television, they seemed to know the toys of the moment anyway.

As a survival tactic and in keeping with our family values, my husband and I decided to try to turn the gimmes into giving as our children entered their school-age years. When holiday season approached, we would set aside some money for each of our children and ask them to select a charity they wanted to give to. We gave them a list of possible options, but they could look further. They had to research these charities and decide where they wanted to donate their money. We suggested they select charities whose causes aligned with their interests and where they might want to get involved. In addition, as a family we selected a charity where we could get involved by volunteering, such as cooking for people who were home-bound. So yes, my children got some (okay, sometimes more than "some") of the presents on their lists, but they also learned that the holidays can be a time of giving gifts, not just receiving them.

The other day in the mail I received a wonderful gift. It was from Darell Hammond, the visionary CEO of KaBOOM!, the group that has helped bring playgrounds to children around the country. In keeping with Hammond's passionate commitment to "saving play" because it's declining in America, he want to share this book with friends and colleagues.

This book is called The Good Fun Book by Karen Duncan, the wife of the Secretary of Education, and Kate Hannigan Issa. It is a gift in the real sense of the word because it can help us turn the gimmes into giving; it serves as an antidote for extravagant children's parties; and at the same time it really provides lots of "good fun" for kids and adults.

A Call for Family Meals

November 05, 2010

By Ellen Galinsky

When I was writing my book, Ask the Children, I asked the fifth through twelfth graders in my study what they thought they would remember most from this time period in their lives. I also asked their parents what they thought their children would remember most.

The parents tended to think that their children would remember the all-star extravaganza events—the birthday party with a clown, the trip to Disneyland, the splashy holiday celebration.

But that’s not what children said. As was typical in that study, I found that what parents think that their children think and what the children actually think can be at odds.

What It Will Really Mean to “Put Children First”—Reflections on NBC’s Education Nation

September 29, 2010

Many of this nation’s movers and shakers in education gathered this last week of September in New York City for two days of discussion at a unique event convened and broadcast by NBC News. The purpose of calling upon these thought leaders—including the President, the Secretary of Education, select members of Congress, mayors, superintendents of schools, union leaders, academics, reformers, teachers, parents, and students—was to profile the problems in education and spotlight what works.

In many ways, this gathering was more coherent than I expected. I came to think of it as a song with many verses, but one recurring refrain. That refrain was that the U.S. has dropped to number 25 in educational achievement in the world.  Yes, the U.S. is now Number 25! And despite increasing per pupil expenditure, and despite the No Child Left Behind Act, achievement scores in the United States have remained flat.

Fixing Education: Lessons from Waiting for Superman & a visit to the Harlem Children’s Zone

September 25, 2010

It’s been just one day since Davis Guggenheim’s much heralded documentary Waiting for Superman opened in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. There is an enormous amount to praise in this film—its cleverly animated factoids on the grim realities in our educational system and its heartbreaking stories of five families who relentlessly seek good public, religious or charter schools for their children. Because the schools these five families decide upon for their children are coveted, there are far fewer spaces than applicants. Admission—thus fate of these five children—is decided by against-the-odds-luck in lotteries. The documentary is intended to inspire us to act on the belief that “together we can fix education” and with a call-to-action web site. If ever there was a film that could move the debates about education front and center, this one can.

There are also flaws in Waiting for Superman and John Merrow of Learning Matters has done a solid job of pointing these out.

The Birth of a Playful Movement

September 24, 2010

What happens if you have conducted academic research on children’s learning for years and consistently have findings that go against the grain of contemporary teaching practice? And what happens if you then convene an all-star cast of researchers to create principles on teaching and learning based on the research but that doesn’t seem to reverse the trend either? While some might give up and stick to their knitting, so to speak, these roadblocks only seem to energize Kathy Hirsh-Pasek of Temple University. And on Saturday October 3rd, the public in New York City’s Central Park will have a chance to enjoy her latest endeavor: The Ultimate Block Party. As she and others see it, it will be much more than a day of free family fun—it will be the launch of a movement in support of playful learning.