Children’s author Frank Cottrell Boyce, who, this week, won an award from the British national newspaper The Guardian for best fiction book for children, says that the way reading is being taught in the schools today risks putting children off of reading for the rest of their lives.  In particular, he criticizes the use of standardized...Read More

In an Education Week article entitled “Studies Link Students’ Boredom to Stress,”  Ulrike E. Nett, a student motivation researcher at the University of Konstanz, Germany, is quoted as saying:  “Although teachers try to create interesting lessons, they must be aware that despite their best intentions, some students may still perceive interesting lessons as boring….What is imperative...Read More

For almost two decades now, I’ve been criticizing the diagnosis of ADHD and the use of Ritalin and other psychostimulants with children (see, for example, my book The Myth of the ADD Child).  Now, a new report in The New York Times today, says that physicians are starting to prescribe these drugs to poor children...Read More

The Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded today to two researchers who made landmark discoveries in cell biology.  According to The New York Times, one of the researchers, John B. Gurdon of Cambridge University, was originally discouraged from becoming a scientist by his high school biology teacher.  The teacher wrote: “I believe Gurdon has ideas about becoming...Read More

Here are some quotations that I’ve collected over the years about the amazing genius of children. “The real magic wand is the child’s own mind.” – Jose Ortega Y Gasset (Spanish philosopher) “The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.” – Mencius (Chinese sage) “No Columbus, no Marco Polo has ever seen stranger and...Read More