This essay brings together three intergenerational colleagues, two RECE founders, and a mid-career colleague, engaged in reciprocal mentorship, collaborative projects, and research focused on child care, critical policy studies, and global childhoods. We explore our encounters with RECE and how we have engaged with, been influenced by, and found…

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…

"Highlights" magazine receives approximately 75,000 letters and contributions each year from young readers. Common concerns children write about include getting along with family members and friends, problems at school, and social and personal problems. Only a tiny percentage write of grave problems such as abuse, suicide, or drugs.…

Discusses Foucault's notion of "heterotopia"--real places but which exist unto themselves, such as a floating ship. Considers data on children's use of computer and video games to apply "heterotopia" to children's everyday social lives. Argues that childhood is subject to increasing boundaries, and that children create…

Suggests that young people's out-of-school cultural experiences were profoundly significant in developing their learning and expressive potential. Suggests that media education should be framed in terms of understanding what young people can learn and make as they are addressed and given opportunities by mass culture and digital technology. (SC)

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…

Discusses the decline of children's library services, the library needs of children, the special character of children's librarianship, and book selection. (SRT)

Well meaning parents and teachers often use children's play for the purposes of literacy and socialization. Yet, these attempts may deny play to children by subordinating play to some other concept. Evidence shows that even when parents play with their very young children they generally play games like shopping, cooking, and eating; whereas when…

Traditionally, the Indian child has been cherished and reared with an approach to parenting characterized by an easy pace, the absence of set rules, and permission to play freely within the matrix of a large, joint family. Rough toys, fashioned by local craftsmen, have been handed down from generation to generation. But today, India is beset with…

The chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports discusses reasons for engaging in lifetime sports and gives guidelines parents can follow to steer their children toward sports they can enjoy. (PP)

The role played by music in Egyptian education in developing the character of the child is discussed. The first part of the paper discusses the characteristics of the elementary school child and examines how each can be developed through musical education. For example, young children have a fertile imagination that can be stimulated by music.…

In 1900, the Swedish writer and social commentator Ellen Key published a book called "The Century of the Child," presenting changes she believed were necessary in the care of children in the twentieth century. This article examines the reality of childhood and child care in Sweden, comparing Key's wishes to both actual changes and…

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)

Argues that eclecticism is not a viable teaching philosophy and examines reasons teachers follow the practice in the belief that students' learning needs are adequately met. Encourages teachers to examine their classroom practices, and to focus on, and listen to, individual students to determine the direction and pace of their learning experience.…

The central theme of this book is that parents should be directly involved in structuring their children's out-of-school time. Out-of-school or "free time" offers great opportunities for children to learn from new experiences and to develop, through carefully selected activities, a sense of competence, self-esteem, and achievement. Focus…