Important Links

 

Saving Childhood Forum

http://www.savingchildhood.org 

This website is for anyone who believes children need and deserve time and space simply to be children, free from pressures and influences that await them in our success-driven, image-conscious, materialistic, technological age.

 

Forum topics include: Are kids being drugged into submission; Are adult expectations ruining childhood; Who needs recess; Have you smashed the TV yet?; Who wants good children.

 

The American Association for the Child’s Right to Play

http://www.ipausa.org/

"The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavor to promote the enjoyment of this right;"

The purpose of IPA/USA is to protect, preserve, and promote play as a fundamental right for all humans.

Plays makes possible maximum development of self and society by facilitating creativity, individuality and, social, physical and intellectual growth.

Play encompasses experiences that provide enjoyment and emotional fulfillment that will ultimately lead to productive and contributing members of society.

Healthy People 2010

http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/Volume2/22Physical.htm#_Toc490380793

Physical Activity and Fitness

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports

Very important policy statement on physical activity. A must read.

 

 

The National Governors Association and

NGA Center for Best Practices On Line

 

An important paper providing recommendations for states, school districts, and schools to address childhood obesity through multi-pronged strategies that include:

 

You can read this important and informative paper on line at:

http://www.nga.org/cda/files/022603PREVENTING.pdf

 

 

AAHPERD American Alliance for Health Physical Education Recreation and Dance

http://www.aahperd.org

 

Promoting healthy lifestyles through high quality programs in health, physical education, recreation, dance, and sport.

 

Guidelines for Children’s Physical Activity in 2004

http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/template.cfm?template=pr_123103.html

 

Pediatrics

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/

PEDIATRICS is the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. PEDIATRICS publishes papers on original research or observations and special feature articles in the field of pediatrics as broadly defined. Papers on matters pertinent to pediatrics will also be included from related fields such as nutrition, surgery, dentistry, public health, child health services, human genetics, animal studies, psychology, psychiatry, education, sociology, and nursing.

 

Policy Statement: Soft drinks in schools

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/113/1/152.pdf

 

 

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools

http://www.healthinschools.org/home.asp

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS) is a nonpartisan policy and program resource center located at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

CHHCS builds on a 20-year history of testing strategies to strengthen health care delivery systems for children and adolescents. For the past decade, with support from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Center staff and consultants have worked with institutional leaders, state officials and clinical providers to maximize outcomes for children through more effective health programming in schools.

 

 

The Writings of John Taylor Gatto

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/          

 

A former New York teacher of the year, Gatto is one of the most significant voices on American education today. Gatto argues that our schools actually get in the way of learning. Agree or disagree with Gatto, he argues that what is needed in America is a decade-long, no-holds-bard, out-and out debate on schooling.

 

Articles available on the web

 

Why Schools Don’t Educate

A speech by Gatto when he accepted the New York City Teacher of the Year Award in 1990.

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html         

 

A Short Angry History of American Forced Schooling

http://4brevard.com/choice/Public_Education.htm

An speech to the Vermont Home Schooling Conference looks at the history of compulsory education to uncover its purposes.

 

Education and the Western Spiritual Tradition

http://csf.colorado.edu/sine/transcripts/gatto.html

An address by John Taylor Gatto at the "Spirituality In Education" conference, sponsored by the Naropa Institute, focusing on The Congregational Principle and Original Sin

 

The 9 Assumptions of Modern Schooling

http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v1n3/gatto.html

A brief description of the ways that modern schools stop children from learning

 

The Public School Nightmare

http://www.dvschool.org/psngatto.htm

Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought? An argument against public schooling and in favor of a voucher system.

 

Personal Solutions, Family Solutions

http://www.life.ca/nl/45/gatto.html

Gatto explains why he decided not to improve his country land -- following the Buddha's maxim: "Do nothing. Time is too precious to waste."

 

What Really Matters, part 1 and part 2

http://www.life.ca/nl/40/gatto.html

A two-part essay on why our technological society is unsatisfying.