Children's poetry no longer connotes holidays, nonsense, moral dicta, or the what's, why's, and how's of life, connotations that have frequently stereotyped poetry as sissy, baby, or boring stuff. Children's poems of the seventies suggest that any simple subject has become the province of a poem, including such topics as mud, oil slicks, sharks,…

A child's experience with death is really made up of three components: the direct or indirect exposure to a death, the child's perceptions and reactions toward death, and the intervention of a mediating agent (relative, friend, teacher, counselor, the author of a book or poem, or the creator of a movie or television program). The helpfulness or…

Research on children and media has generally focused on the negative impact of media on developing minds. However, a theoretical framework is proposed for thinking about the role of television for American children from a developmental perspective. Instead of focusing on television's effects, television viewing can be examined as is any other…

This document presents information from a body of research called Lives of Service, a collection of case studies of 32 altruistic adults. It begins with a review of the research on altruism, service orientation, giving, helpfulness, social responsibility, and voluntarism. Research on altruism in psychology and in other disciplines is included,…

Legal and political theorists strive at expanding the scope of children's rights to cover further areas of their lives and choices. This paper suggests that this effort is misguided, and that the protection of children requires instituting adults' obligations, rather than broadening children's rights. Contrary to the common theoretical and…

Analyzes studies on children's time-use by their goals, target population, and methods. Makes a case for the importance of time-use studies providing a resource for describing children's social lives and well-being. Suggests how children's time-use could be studied regularly on a larger scale as part of society's effort to study and monitor its…

There has been a remarkable amount of production and publication of children's poetry since the 1960s. One of the early, popular anthologies of children's poetry was "Miracles" (Simon & Shuster, 1966), with poems from English-speaking countries revealing how imaginative children could be and their use of metaphors. "The Me Nobody Knows: Children's…

Presents a study of the use of serious subject matter in plays for youth by (1) tracing the trends of increasing advocacy and acceptance of such subject matter and (2) outlining patterns in the ways in which such subject matter is presented, focusing on original, contemporary plays, written by American playwrights. (JC)

The use of hand-held electronic devices and microcomputers in places of public access and in the home are discussed. First, the different activities supported by this technology are described, with emphasis on the commonality of game playing to both hand-held devices and microcomputers. The need for research to investigate the motivational…

Explores the question of whether or not Mighty Morphin Power Rangers-type aggressive play is developmentally appropriate for the early childhood classroom. Compares results from research in child development to the reality of television programming, highlighting the relationship between television violence and children's aggressive behavior. (AA)