KidsTerrain Topics In The News

First there was “thinspiration”. . . and now we have “pro-ana” (pro-anorexia) and “pro-mia” (pro-bulimia)– websites dedicated to promoting the idea that eating disorders “are a good thing.”

This month, the National Eating Disorders Association’s NEDAwareness Week, the largest eating disorders outreach effort in the country, is scheduled for February 26-March 3. The goal is to reach millions of people with messages of prevention, hope and recovery.

In support of NEDA’s efforts, KidsTerrain is offering web site visitors a free viewing of its webinar, Teaching Body Confidence, presented by Rebecca Manley, founder of the Multiservice Eating Disorders Association, Inc. (MEDA). The free viewing is available through March 15.

One goal of companies and organizations such as KidsTerrain and NEDA, respectively, is to counter-balance the insidious message of pro-ana groups and organizations who state they “do not promote anorexia and acknowledge that anorexia is a real medical disorder.” The point of their existence is to give anorexics “a place to turn to discuss their illness in a non-judgmental environment.” In fairness, some sites do thinly (no pun intended) promote recovery. However, others dispute the prevailing medical consensus that anorexia nervosa and bulimia are complex illnesses rather than “lifestyle choices.” Read more »

Just when you think you’ve heard and seen it all, along comes a news story that boggles the mind. The latest insanity among kids is making dry ice bombs. Even more insane, are the parents who engage in this dangerous activity with their children.

In California, four teens were arrested for launching dry ice bombs. While the kids called it a prank, the police have another word for it: terror. These improvised explosive devices, particularly when thrown into passing car windows or left on subways, have frightening and deadly consequences. This so-called “prank” was viewed as so serious that the California teens were originally held on $1 million dollars bail.

Now we are not about to tell you how these explosives are made, but we do encourage parents to go online and block all videos and web site that promote this activity. And, mostly importantly, talk with your children about the deadly and harmful consequences of this no-so-harmless “prank.”

See video news clip from ABC News.

Wednesday, June 1 was like most end-of-the-school-year days. The classroom was hot and stuffy, as was the air outside, thick and heavy with moisture…telltale signs of a storm brewing. Nothing about the day seemed out of the ordinary. Strong thunderstorms are not uncommon when hot, moist air co-mingles with a cold front. It was just a typical New England spring weather day.

Nearing the end of the school day, the 3rd grade teachers in 9-year-old Megan Frisella’s class had completed the day’s lesson plan. Being conscientious teachers, they opted to introduce a new lesson and selected a study plan about wind. In the remaining minutes of class that day, Megan and her classmates learned about the power of wind to foster energy, and they learned about the dangers of wind in hurricanes and tornadoes. Little did anyone know — or even conceive of the probability — that this last minute lesson would save a family’s life.

A few hours after Megan returned home from school Amy Frisella, Megan’s mother, heard that a tornado may be headed for their hometown of Sturbridge, MA. Megan spoke up and told her mother, “My teacher said you got to get away from the windows and go to a safe room.”

Now, the last tornado to hit in Central Massachusetts occurred in 1953, and so Megan’s mom was bracing for nothing more than a severe thunderstorm. However, having listened to her daughter talk about what she learned in school, Amy decided to treat the situation like a fire drill.

She took Megan and Megan’s 6-year-old sister Hailey, their 2 cats and the hamster, to the “safe room” in the basement where there were no windows, just as Megan had been taught. Less than a minute later, the house shook.

“It was just like a movie,” said Megan’s mom. “It sounded like a train.” Twenty seconds later, covered in soot, the Frisella’s emerged from the basement to discover their home had been severely damaged by a tornado.

The Frisella family is alive and unharmed today because of several factors…teachers who embraced their role as educators, who taught an extra lesson rather than blowing off the remaining minutes of the class period; a young girl who paid attention in class and who listened to her teachers; a parent who listened to her child and who recognized the value of a teachable moment.

At KidsTerrain, we believe that children, families, and teachers are life’s greatest treasures. And we believe in the value of listening and talking to kids. On Wednesday, June 6, teachers talked, a child listened, a child talked, a parent listened, and a family’s life was saved.

This week a controversy soared across the airwaves and social media sites surrounding a J. Crew ad featuring a photo of J. Crew’s president and creative director Jenna Lyons painting her son Beckett’s toenails. The ad, part of a feature, “Saturday with Jenna,” was sent to customers. In the photo, Jenna is pictured with her curly-haired son; the two are giggling with Jenna holding Beckett’s feet, showing hot pink painted toenails. “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink,” read Jenna’s quote. “Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”

Social conservatives, such as Erin Brown of the Media Research Center, called the ad “blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children.” Brown’s position has little to do with children, and a lot to do with politics, as evidenced in her opening paragraph: “J.Crew, a popular preppy woman’s clothing brand and favorite affordable line of first lady Michelle Obama, is targeting a new demographic–mothers of gender-confused young boys. At least, that’s the impression given by a new marketing piece that features blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children.”

She goes on to write, “J.CREW, known for its tasteful and modest clothing, apparently does not mind exploiting Beckett behind the façade of liberal, transgendered identity politics. One has to wonder what young boys in pink nail polish has to do with selling women’s clothing… Propaganda pushing the celebration of gender-confused boys wanting to dress and act like girls is a growing trend, seeping into mainstream culture.”

Advocacy groups are also fighting back, calling the reaction to the ad “ridiculous.”

“This is not how the world works and not how children work, and not even how trans advocacy works,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality. “Complaints about the ad are totally blown out of proportion,” she said. “It’s just a cute ad with a cute mom-and-son scene and the kid wants to wear pink nail polish…It could be the kids just wants to spend time with his mom.”

There is no simple explanation for transgenderism. Many psychological theories have been proposed and more recent research has focussed on looking at biological causes. Most research on gender identity and sexual orientation concludes that neither is a choice. Nor can they be shaped by a parent’s wishes, said Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York City psychiatrist. Drescher, who serves on the American Psychiatric Association’s committee that is addressing sexual and gender identity disorder for the DSM-V. DSM-V is psychiatry’s encyclopedia of behavioral diagnoses, told Susan Donaldson James of ABC News, “I can say with 100 percent certainty that a mother painting her children’s toe nails pink does not cause transgenderism or homosexuality or anything else that people who are social conservatives would worry about,” he said.

No one knows what causes transgenderism. “Certainly, research shows that there are gender preferences in the way kids like to play, and boys may be rougher than girls,” Drescher said. “But then there is a broad range of children who don’t fit into larger categories and for some families it causes panic and for some, it’s not a problem at all…. The idea that a parent is indulging a child’s interest in unconventional gender behavior does something to the child has no scientific basis.”

We’d like to hear your thoughts on this.

One of our major concerns at KidsTerrain is that children develop healthy self-esteem. So, when in less than a week’s time these new products marketed to young children came across our radar, we felt compelled to raise the battle cry, “Let them be children, please….”

First up, Bebe Gloton, a controversial new doll that comes with a special halter-top that young “mothers” wear as they pretend to breast-feed their “babies.” The halter-top has daisies that cover the little girls’ nipples and comes undone just as easily as the flaps of a nursing bra would.

The Spanish toymaker Berjuan developed Bebe Gloton, which translates as “gluttonous baby.” Bebe Gloton cries, signaling she wants more milk, and makes sucking noises as it “feeds.”

Despite some outrage, many moms said they support the product. In a story reported on Fox News, one mother was quoted as saying, “I think that it’s great that people want to have a doll that promotes breast-feeding…. Most dolls that are purchased come with a bottle. That is the norm in society, an artificial way to feed your baby.”

This Straw Man response shifts the focus away from the concern at hand: Is introducing breast-feeding to girls young enough to play with dolls inappropriate? What’s next? A special, padded swimsuit-like garment that enables five-year-old “mothers” to “experience” childbirth?

Next up on our “Let Them Be Children, Please….” radar: Meet Clawdeen Wolf, the doll who comes complete with a “thigh-skimming skirt, sky-high boots and heavy makeup, and spends her days waxing, plucking and shaving.” You read that right…waxing, plucking, and shaving. Mattel’s target demographic for this doll? Girls aged 6 and up.

Human behavior expert Dr. Patrick Wanis, in an article by Diane Montgomery said, “These dolls are training girls to feel ashamed of their bodies, to focus on being sexually appealing and sexually attractive from a pre-pubescent age. By sexualizing these young girls, corporations also create another avenue to market and sell more products to a younger demographic.”

And speaking of marketing to a younger demographic, enter Abercrombie & Fitch into the debate. Last week A &B launched a padded bikini for girls as young as 7. The “Ashley” bikini gained attention after a professor at Occidental College posted a blog item calling it “another example of the sexualization of young girls,” The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Abercrombie Kids addressed this on Monday, March 28 in a statement on their Facebook page: “We agree with those who say it is best ‘suited’ for girls age 12 and older.”

As reported by the Dispatch, this wasn’t the first time Abercrombie targeted this market. In 2002, Abercrombie & Fitch offered a children’s-size thong underwear with the words “eye candy” and “wink wink” printed on the front.

It’s time we step up and step back…. Let our children be children, please….

Today, President Obama will visit TechBoston Academy. The public school opened in 2002 with money from a foundation headed by Melinda Gates and her husband, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp.

Investing in education and improving our schools has been a major theme of the Obama presidency. The school visit will shift attention, and perhaps even public support, to the President’s desire to create a federal agency that will focus on breakthroughs in education technology by linking educational excellence to jobs and private-sector competitiveness.

TechBoston Academy opened in September 2002 with an initial class of 75 students, adding a grade each year to become a high school serving students in grades 9-12.

According to their web site, 92% of the first graduating class (2006) went to college as compared to 63% of Boston Public School students. The 54 members of the class of 2006 received “just over $1,000,000 in scholarships and financial aid. In 2010, 93% of the graduating class went to college as compared to 61% of Boston Public School students. The 66 members of the class of 2010 received over $2,000,000 in scholarships and financial aid.”

TechBoston Academy has also distinguished itself through its students’ achievements on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment (MCAS) test. In 2010, “98% of TechBoston Academy students passed the English Language Arts MCAS, compared to the BPS district average of 92% and the MA state average of 96%. On the Math MCAS, 95% of TechBoston Academy students in 2010 passed, compared to the district average of 86% and the state average of 93%. Finally, 86% of students at TechBoston Academy are graduating compared to 61% of BPS students.”

TechBoston Academy is a student-centered learning environment where technology is the “bridge that connects a student to their learning experience. The daily schedule includes history, math, English, science and introductory and advanced technology courses, as well as, health and theater arts classes to “create a diverse learning experience for the students.”

The National Eating Disorders Association’s NEDAwareness Week, the largest eating disorders outreach effort in the country, is scheduled for February 20-26. The goal is to reach millions of people with messages of prevention, hope and recovery.

In support of NEDA’s efforts, KidsTerrain is offering web site visitors a free viewing of its webinar, Teaching Body Confidence, presented by Rebecca Manley, founder of the Multiservice Eating Disorders Association, Inc. (MEDA). The free viewing is available through March 15 via our web site, www.kidsterrain.com.

One goal of companies and organizations such as KidsTerrain and NEDA, respectively, is to counter-balance the insidious message of pro-ana groups and organizations who state they “do not promote anorexia and acknowledge that anorexia is a real medical disorder.” The point of their existence is to give anorexics “a place to turn to discuss their illness in a non-judgmental environment.” In fairness, some sites do thinly (no pun intended) promote recovery. However, others dispute the prevailing medical consensus that anorexia nervosa and bulimia are complex illnesses rather than “lifestyle choices.” Read more »

The Obama administration and the Education Department have set their focus on promoting initiatives aimed at combating bullying in schools. The administration’s efforts were ignited by a 10-page “Dear Colleague” letter from the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights advising school officials they are required under federal law to stop discriminatory behavior.

In the letter, Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote, “Some student misconduct that falls under a school’s anti-bullying policy also may trigger responsibilities under one or more of the federal anti-discrimination laws enforced by the Department’s Office for Civil Rights.

“Student misconduct could trigger action under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which targets discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bans discrimination based on sex,” Ali said.

The Education Department is collecting “best practices” for anti-bullying efforts and the White House is planning to host a conference this year to raise awareness of the issue.

First there was “thinspiration”. . . and now we have “pro-ana” (pro-anorexia) and “pro-mia” (pro-bulimia)– websites dedicated to promoting the idea that eating disorders “are a good thing.”

I recently visited one of the pro-ana web sites and I was horrified to find postings and journals, mainly from young females asking for “help.”

Here’s a sampling of their postings: “. . . first day fasts are the worst i am filling up on diet coke and tea which are my water. . . any ideas so i can not think about my hunger pangs. . .” Another young woman wrote: “I have only been having between 200-500 cals a day and I have lost 6lb in the past week but then for some strange reason when I got on the scales this morning I had put on 1lb. . . . I have been doing 8mile bike rides and uphill running with very few cals and I put on a pound I am so angry and frustrated!!!!”

Then, with a click of the mouse, I was able to read their journals. This is where I read their anguish . . .stories of childhood abuse, of neglect. Entries filled with self-hatred and self-loathing. Read more »