findingDulcinea

Georgia O'Keeffe and Using the Web to Discover the Early Work of an Artist

Recently, while writing a profile of the great painter Georgia O'Keeffe, I came across a number of interesting details of her life and career. In doing research I learned that in order to have a visual timeline of her career and to keep the prices and demand for her work high, O'Keeffe kept or bought back more than half of all the 2000 or more paintings she created in her lifetime. She also appeared in art exhibitions for which she was not the artist, but the subject; her husband Alfred Stieglitz was an art gallery owner and photographer, and did a series of photographs featuring O'Keeffe (even a few nudes) during their marriage.

Although perhaps most surprising to me was that O'Keeffe did not always paint the forms for which we know her today. The stark white bones contrasting with the desert sky and the colorful over-sized insides of flowers were done in a style that O'Keeffe didn't adopt until she was nearly 40, but those paintings were so overwhelmingly popular that they have somewhat overshadowed her early work.

O'Keeffe's early work was of a more abstract nature. From about 1915 until the mid 1920s, O'Keeffe drew and painted images that expressed a view of the world in stark contrast to the almost photographic paintings of her later years. It was an early series of her charcoal on paper drawings (that were an abstract exploration of line and shape) that first caught the eye of then gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. The Georgia O'Keeffe museum notes that O'Keeffe was ahead of her art colleagues of the time with her interest in abstract work, just as her ultra realistic more famous paintings would show the world another innovative view later on.

One of the great advances in technology over the last decade is the increased availability of online multimedia, such as images and videos. This allows users to not just read about artists, but to experience their work. At the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Web site you can look at examples of her work from different eras in her career, including her abstract period. You would be hard-pressed to encounter many of these pieces in real life.

And if you'd like to visit the work of other well-known artists online, see our article about virtually visiting museums.

Haley Lovett

Audience Development

Inspired by Zinn, Researching Contrary Viewpoints in History

Michael Dwyer/AP Photo

When Howard Zinn was 17, he got his first taste of rebellion in Times Square. Invited to a political rally by a few budding communists from his Brooklyn neighborhood, Zinn watched as policemen rode in on horseback and began beating protestors. He was hit and fell unconscious.

“I woke up sometime later in a doorway, with Times Square quiet again, eerie, dreamlike, as if nothing had transpired. I was ferociously indignant,” Zinn said, according to The New York Times.

The incident sparked Zinn, who went on to serve in World War II, to earn a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, and write his famous leftist book, “A People’s History of the United States.” Zinn passed away yesterday after suffering a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., where he’d been traveling, The Boston Globe reports.

His seminal work is perhaps Zinn’s most profound contribution to American students and teachers; regardless of your opinion of Zinn’s work, his voracious questioning of the status quo is admirable. And perhaps there is a way for budding young revolutionaries to emulate Zinn’s tenacity, and to muster enough fire to champion causes they believe in, regardless of how vehement the opposition. 

Student inspiration could begin with research, and with uncovering a spark of inspiration, whether a memorable Zinn quote or another contrary viewpoint of history. If you know where to look online, such viewpoints can make for excellent classroom discussion points or research paper topics.

To get an idea of where to begin looking, and how to determine which online sources to take seriously, see findingDulcinea’s On This Day article about Germany’s bombing of the city of Coventry on Nov. 15, 1940. More than 500 people were killed and the city’s cathedral was destroyed in the attack. Notably, some people contend that Prime Minister Winston Churchill knew about the attack, but chose to keep it a secret to preserve an intelligence tool.

FindingDulcinea’s article includes an “Opinion & Analysis” section discussing whether Churchill knew about the bombing of Coventry. The section links to a Time magazine review of  “The Ultra Secret” but F.W. Winterbotham, the first to present a theory of Churchill’s actions. An article by Peter J. McIver, alleging that “Churchill Let Coventry Burn to Protect His Secret Intelligence,” posted on The Churchill Centre and Museum at the Cabinet War Rooms, London, is also included. The piece compares Winterbotham’s book with similar works by Anthony Cave Brown and William Stevenson.

Magazines that maintain comprehensive archives, such as Time, Harper’s and Life, are also good places to begin historical research. The Sweet Search results for "Winston Churchill" also impressive: Fordham University, Encyclopedia Britannica, the National Archives and PBS all appear on the first page of results.

Get more tips in our article on the best “Web Sites for Researching History,” and keep Zinn’s spirit of curiosity alive.

Sarah Amandolare

Senior Writer

Musings on Math

For a long time, I loved math. In sixth grade I joined Mathletes, played the “whadyouget” game after every test, and my favorite part of my day—aside from recess—involved sitting in a group rolling a die and playing some obscure game where you added, subtracted and multiplied.As a freshman in high school, I helped with the measurements when we built what we hoped would be the world’s largest Icosahedron. We made a T-shirt of the blueprint. I wore it.

Today, however, I place myself squarely in the camp of women who’d say they aren’t good at math. Naturally, I was fascinated by a study saying that elementary girls scored lower on math tests after spending a school year with female teachers that were anxious about math.

Now, I know that a single case can’t negate a study and that’s not what I’m arguing. I don’t remember which teachers taught me math in elementary school or even if they were good teachers. It’s possible that they were nervous or uninspired. But the math teachers that I do remember were all women and they were, for the most part, bright, fun, confident women who LOVED math, and wanted to share that passion.

Still, at some point in high school, I started to believe that I wasn’t good at math. And while I don’t blame my teachers—though my freshman year teacher was by far the best—I do hold our society somewhat responsible. I know, blame society. That’s like blaming oxygen. But it’s true. Girls are taught that they excel at language and writing, while boys excel at math and science.  And even though statistics have begun to disprove this idea, the truth never came fast enough for some of us. At some point, like a lot of women I know, the thought that I would never be good at math wormed its way into some cranny in my brain, embedded itself, and then decomposed, bits of itself living on beneath the surface.

So, what happens when you don’t believe you’re good at something? You stop trying. And you’re never going to be good at something if you don’t practice at it. Ask Michael Jordan. Ask Norah Jones.

I chose another path. I became fascinated with language, enamored with books, and authors—all of it. That became my thing and I don’t regret it. But who says you can’t have more than one thing.  Teachers, encourage your students, all of them. If you're weak in a subject, practice. Get help. And don't ever let them think, it's because you're a woman.

Shannon Firth
Senior Writer and Audience Development Coordinator

Back to Nature: Explore the Outdoors, Online

Gloomy, dreary, bleak, overcast: New Yorkers could take their pick of adjectives to describe the scene of rain, wind and cold taking place outside their apartment windows this morning.

On days like these, concrete sidewalks and metal-glass buildings blur into the leaden sky, and the city becomes a collage of dreariness.

Should you ever find yourself feeling trapped in such a place, fear not. There is a cure: the Web.

Ironically, the Web has some phenomenal resources for helping people explore the outdoors. On a gray day, planning your next foray into the outdoors could be the pick-me-up you need. Find local hiking trails, climbing areas and rivers, or plan a trip to some of the premier outdoor destinations in the country using the sites below.

Trails.com offers comprehensive trail guides, topographical maps and trail reviews. Its “Trail Finder” tool help users find hiking, biking and backpacking trails based on location. Access to Trails.com’s best content requires paid membership.

Mountain Project is a user-edited database of rock and ice climbing routes across the world. Intuitive, informative and exhaustive, this site is a perfect place for budding climbers to find inspiration, and for advanced climbers to find their next adventure.

Canoe & Kayak magazine has a “Destinations” section where it provides paddlers with links to its articles on featured rivers, organized by region. Articles are a combination of trip report, photo journal and itinerary, and offer a great idea of what to expect on the river.

FindingDulcinea’s National Parks Web Guide provides links to the Web’s best resources for learning about the history of the parks and planning trips.

Happy exploring!

James Sullivan
Editor

"The Buried Life" Task #57 : Spend A Week in Silence

So, “The Buried Life,” a show where four 20-something Canadians try to complete their list of 100 things to do before they die, premiered on MTV this week. The list includes lots of wild stunts such as kissing Rachel McAdams, standing under a plane while it lands and playing basketball with President Obama, which means it’s easy to miss the more wholesome side of this project: For every item they complete, they also must help someone else complete a task of his or her own. So far they’ve furnished the home of a man dying of lung cancer, taught a girl to break dance, bought a computer for an elementary school, and given another group of kids a shopping spree (actually that’s #71).

The most difficult item on the list is arguably to go to space"(#100) or perhaps to fall in love (#78) but a close third might be to spend a week in silence (#57).

These almost-famous idealists may need more than a week to think about what they will do with their stardom. Afterall, getting your 15-minutes or 15 years on camera can be as taxing as it is rewarding. Ask Susan Boyle. They might decide to follow the example of Neil Armstrong, who intentionally eschewed the cameras when his job was finished; however, the chances of that happening are slim.

Still, having time to reflect on their experience, how it’s shaped them, who they've met, and what they plan to do with the rest of their lives could make #57 one of the most gratifying challenges they'll face.

Shannon Firth
Senior Writer and Audience Development Coordinator

Martin Luther King and the Perils of a Google Search

Today is Martin Luther King Day, a day when many people are looking up information on the Civil Rights leader. Unfortunately, relying on Google or other popular search engines can lead unsuspecting researchers astray.

A Google search for “Martin Luther King” brings up martinlutherking.org as its third result. The site, which claims to give a “True Historical Examination” of King’s life, makes many false or misleading accusations intended to discredit King. It encourages students to print flyers and post them in their schools.

The site is designed to resemble a trustworthy educational site. Only a link at the bottom of the front page reveals the source of the site: Stormfront.org, one of the longest-running and most popular white supremacist sites on the Web.

“Because many people use simple Internet keyword searches for instant results, it's easy to see how MartinLutherKing.org, could mislead a user about the nature of its content,” writes Imaeyen Ibanga for ABC News.

Martinlutherking.org is an extreme example of the importance of evaluating a Web site’s credibility. One cannot assume that the first few results of a Google search are credible Web sites. A site’s Google ranking is due more to its traffic and keyword optimization than the quality of its content.

When evaluating a Web site you are not familiar with, it is necessary to look at the “About Us” section or similar section. For help in evaluating credibility, see our Guide to Web Search.

Google’s results also demonstrate the advantages of Sweet Search, which includes only Web sites that have been evaluated as reliable and appropriate for educational purposes.

Read the findingDulcinea profile of Martin Luther King Jr. to find the best Web sites for studying his life and work.

When Tragedy Strikes: Social Media Grows Up

When an earthquake struck Haiti earlier this week, people around the world read about the tragedy almost instantly. For many, news of the quake came not from traditional media outlets but from their profile pages on Facebook, or through a tweet from a friend on Twitter.

With phone lines down in most of the country, only those with access to satellite forms of communication, such as Internet-enabled mobile phones, could communicate with the outside world.

Within hours of the earthquake, images, videos and status updates flooded the Web with news about the disaster. People experiencing the quake in Haiti were able to share what was happening with the rest of the world using social media tools, long before volunteers and reporters could make their way to the country.  CNN published many of these updates to its iReport section, and that part of its site saw nearly 1.5 million visitors the day of the quake.

For some victims, social media has proved to be a lifesaver. The Miami Herald reported that many users from outside the country were able to post where they thought loved ones might be trapped, asking for help from anyone who might be in the area. For those trying to locate loved ones, Facebook and Twitter have helped the news spread more quickly than watching TV or reading the newspaper.

Even the rescue teams in Haiti are now heavily reliant on social media tools to communicate with each other. Groups from Canada and the U.S. are using tools such as Skype and Twitter to give each other vital information because phone lines are not working.

Long have social media users been accused of "slacktivism," a term Pete Cashmore of Mashable says refers to the endless posting of messages and online groups that don't achieve much, but allow social media users to feel like they are doing their part. But with the Haiti earthquake, organizations employed a relatively new method of gaining support: asking users to send text message donations that would automatically add a few dollars onto their next phone bill. It has been hugely successful, with the red cross having raised more than $8 million so far.

But even with all the good that social media tools have enabled people to do, not all efforts are safe. Rumors circled on Twitter and other social media sites that JetBlue and American were going to fly volunteers to Haiti for free. This turned out to be untrue. At this time, no airlines are able to fly passengers into Haiti due to congestion and lack of fuel at the airport. Though some airlines are offering frequent flier rewards for members who give monetary donations to the relief effort.

Learn more about Haiti in our blog post from yesterday.

Read how you can help quake relief efforts in this findingDulcinea article.

Haley Lovett

Audience Development

How to Help Haiti? Understand it.

Bebeto Matthews/AP Photos Luna Charles wipes away tears as she attends a vigil in Brooklyn, New York, Wednesday Jan. 13, 2010. Charles, who has not been able to reach her family in Haiti following a 7.0-magnitude quake, said, "I hope people will extend a hand. Haiti needs us more than ever."

The news of Haiti’s earthquake and the devastation it continues to wreak is shocking, but the tragedy has also reminded me of how little I know about the small, impoverished country.

Why has Haiti been left so vulnerable, and how did it get to this point? Anyone who’s picked up a newspaper or trolled for news online lately has seen images of the injured, of bodies covered in sheets and left in the streets, of buildings crumbled to bits. We’ve read of shantytowns sliding away—killing, maiming or leaving homeless thousands of people who’d never had a fair shot to begin with. Why weren’t they given a fair shot?

Despite being so physically close to the U.S., Haiti might never have crossed Americans’ minds had it not been so harshly thrust into the international spotlight. But if ever there was a time for us to learn more, and to actually put effort into understanding Haiti, it is now.

FindingDulcinea’s Focus on Haiti article, which we first published back in 2008, is an excellent starting point for further research. Beginning with colonization in the late 1600s, the sources we’ve cited provide information about Haiti’s early successes (it was the world’s first African American-led republic), and sad failings, such as brutal dictatorships and questionable treatment of Haitian immigrants and their children by the Dominican Republic. Child slavery is also a horrific reality for many Haitian families.

Many of us, myself included, may now feel the urge to actually go to Haiti and lend a hand. But unless properly trained, whether as a medical professional or relief worker, we’d only be getting in the way. In a post for community site Gather, Kimberly Ripley writes, “Unfortunately if everyone who wanted to volunteer in Haiti simply packed up and flew to that country, more chaos would ensue.” She provides information on what it means to be a trained and qualified volunteer, and which relief organizations are reputable.

Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, discussed with NPR the importance of sending monetary aid. “What we need now is cash to buy water, food, shelter and first-aid supplies. That's what we need,” Clinton said. 

Most of us can spare $5 or $10 for Haiti, and it’s easier than ever thanks to text message donation campaigns. More information about donating to legitimate organizations is featured in this findingDulcinea article, as well as on the Clinton Foundation Web site.

Sarah Amandolare

Senior Writer

After Folsom Prison: Glen Sherley’s Story

Johnny Cash’s concert at Folsom Prison on January 13, 1968, wasn’t his first break, but without the album recorded there, he might never have managed a comeback. After falling out of favor with the country music community because of his brash attitude and drug addictions, Cash decided to connect with fans who understood his troubles: prisoners.

The night before what would be his second concert at Folsom Prison (the first one wasn't recorded), Cash was given a tape recorded by an inmate and songwriter named Glen Sherley. He listened to the tape, and at the concert the following day, Cash addressed Sherley in the crowd, saying, “I hope I do your song justice.”

When Cash began playing “Greystone Chapel,” an excited Sherley " jumped out of his front-row chair with a smile I will never forget,” Glen Beley, a writer for the Virginia Quarterly Review, recalled.

Cash helped Sherley record his own album, “Live at Vacaville,” while still an inmate, and was also able to persuade the governor of California to release him early. (Hear Sherley's recording on Lastfm.com). Cash even brought him on tour, but Sherley slipped back into drug addiction, left the stage and took his own life in 1978. 

"In prison I guess he was one of the top dogs in the pecking order, but he found it hard to adjust to the outside world," said Lou Robin, Cash's manager. Cash paid for Sherley’s funeral, but he soon discontinued his prison outreach, turning his focus to helping American Indians.

According to Roseanne, his daughter, Johnny Cash’s life changed dramatically after the success of his Folsom concert and album. "The affirmation helped transform his personal life. It took him away from the heavy drug use and turned him back to religion," biographer Michael Streissguth told the Rocky Mountain News.

Johnny Cash died on Sept. 12, 2003, a few months after his wife June Carter Cash.

Shannon Firth
Senior Writer and Audience Development Coordinator

Walking on Mars: 2020

While researching today for an article about the past, present and future of spacesuit design—in honor of NASA’s upcoming tests of prototypes for its Constellation spacesuit system—I read a lot about NASA’s Constellation program.

The program is a comprehensive revamping of the administration’s technologies to meet its vision for future space exploration. Laid out back in 2004’s “Vision for Space Exploration,” the plan was announced by President Bush and received with no small degree of sarcasm from critics that felt putting a man on Mars was less important than addressing the problems of a troubled world.

Among the goals expressed in “The Vision” were the development of the Orion spacecraft and launch of a manned Orion mission by 2014; the Constellation suits currently being tested were designed specifically for the Orion space vehicle. The exploration of Mars by crewed missions by 2020 was also a goal. A man on Mars within the decade? Is such a thing possible?

One of the gifts offered by the turning of a new decade is the ability to look back at how things have changed in 10 years, and look forward to a decade of progress.
 
The Huffington Post celebrated the new year with a nostalgic look at 12 technologies that became obsolete last decade. CDs, landline phones, camera film and newspaper classifieds all made the ill-fated list, dealt death blows by digital media and its kin. 

And as The Huffington Post looked back, many looked ahead to a decade of innovation, including the Times Online, which shared with readers predictions for the next 10 years offered by top scientists.

“Nothing much is going to happen in the next 10 years. Of course, that’s not counting the diesel-excreting bacteria, the sequencing of your entire genome for $1,000, massive banks of frozen human eggs, space tourism, the identification of dark matter, widespread sterilisation of young adults, telepathy, supercomputer models of our brains, the discovery of life’s origins, maybe the disappearance of Bangladesh and certainly the loss of 247m acres of tropical forest.”

But what mention of manned missions to Mars? Though no scientists weighed in on NASA’s ambitious vision, ubiquitous businessman and space tourism pioneer Richard Branson did say, “Space tourism will have taken off … [and NASA will have a] clear plan to get to Mars with a manned mission.”

Though having a plan to get to Mars is quite different from actually getting to Mars, small progress is still progress. One can look at the upcoming tests of the Constellation spacesuits as the humble beginning of a very lofty mission. Spacesuits to start the decade, men wearing those spacesuits on Mars to end the decade? Here’s looking forward to an exciting 10 years!

James Sullivan

Editor

Searching for Credible Sources: Why Date Matters

A friend of mine recently found a stack of newspapers from 1940 hidden away in her basement, so just for fun we read through a few of them. And while it was entertaining to laugh at what we thought were very tame comics and outlandish advertisements, it was especially interesting to read the international news.

The year 1940 was an interesting time in international relations. World War II started a year earlier when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, so there was a lot of coverage of the war in Europe, but at that time Pearl Harbor had not yet been attacked (that wouldn't happen until Dec. 7, 1941), so the U.S. was not officially part of the war. 

Seeing these old newspapers reminded me of why date is one key factor in finding credible sources. 

We generally consider newspapers to be credible sources for research, and they usually are. But this snapshot of the war, although filled with the most accurate information at the time and meeting all other criteria for credibility, couldn't have served as the only source in a research paper about World War II, because its date meant that it was missing some vital pieces of the puzzle.

If you read only that paper and didn't pay attention to the date, you might think that World War II was still going on. Also, not knowing that the U.S. would later enter the war would certainly prevent you from knowing that it was the U.S.'s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that eventually ended the war and brought the horror of atomic weapons into light.

Now, this example might seem too obvious—most people with a little bit of familiarity with the war would probably know that there was more to the story, so they'd know to seek out other sources for the research. But date makes a large difference even in contemporary stories. As events unfold over hours, days or weeks, the stories often change a great deal. What a source might contain about a scientific discovery, about a living person, a conflict, a bit of technology or any number of other things can be drastically different if written on a different date.

On the other hand, researching historical events may require that you find primary material to supplement your more current sources, as the facts can get jumbled over time as stories are told and retold.

When doing research, make sure to check the dates of your sources. If you are reading information from a few months ago, use a news search engine to see if there are any new developments. If you are reading a news article about a historic event, look for primary sources from the date of the event to verify the information. Often combining sources from a variety of dates can give you an accurate and complete understanding of your subject.

And for other factors to consider when looking for credible sources, see our Guide to Web Search.

Haley Lovett

Audience Development

Discovering Primary Source Material

Primary source material—such as journals, speeches, letters, contemporary news reports, government documents, photographs, artifacts and maps—is an invaluable resource in understanding history.

“Primary sources provide a window into the past—unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific period under study, produced by people who lived during that period,” writes the Library of Congress.

Digitized archives make it possible for students or amateur researchers to access and search primary source collections. Much of the material is not easily accessed through search engines.

Searching for a specific Civil War battle, for example, will lead you to plenty of secondary sources and a few primary sources. However, you are not likely to find battle reports and letters sent between Union and Confederate leaders and their respective War and Naval Departments, which are available in the Official Records. Similarly, you will probably miss first-hand accounts written by those leaders after the war, which have been collected in the Battles & Leaders of the Civil War and the Southern Historical Society Papers.

Our goal at findingDulcinea is to direct you to collections like these. As we develop our history section, each guide will have sections devoted to primary source archives. Currently, the guides on Native Americans, the American Revolution, the Civil War and World War II all have these sections. Most of our On This Day features link to primary sources either in tables at the end of a section or in a separate Reference section at the end of the article.

For help in learning how to use primary sources, visit the Library of Congress’ Primary Source Sets section and the National Archives’ Teaching With Documents section. Both provide lesson plans on a wide variety of topics.

Denis Cummings

Steal Our Homework! Plus 7 More Ways Teachers Can Enjoy Dulcinea Media

A lot of people ask us, “So what is Dulcinea Media?” Translation: “How do you actually make my life easier?” We’ve come up with some responses.

1. Steal Our Homework
Each Thursday, the Digital Teachers’ Lounge, our blog for teachers, educators and librarians, publishes a quiz about the week’s Happy Birthday and On This Day features. The answer key is released the following Monday. This makes a great homework or extra credit assignment.

2. Save Time Hunting Down Sites
When assigning a research project, you may spend your weekends searching for credible resources your students can use. Our Web guides do that for you. For example, our Web Guide to U.S. History features only useful sites that cover the time of the early settlers to the 1970s, including primary sources.

3. Use Our Web Links
Don’t teach history? No problem. Find some of the best sites for your grade and subject in our Web Guides or on our Web Links page. It includes links by school level for Math, Science, Literature, Geography and four different languages. It also includes links for other topics such as Applying to College and Differentiated Instruction.

4. Try Our Search Engine
Did I mention we have our own search engine? It’s called SweetSearch [http://www.sweetsearch.com/] and it surfaces only the best sites—those used in our guides, features and news—plus others we’ve hand-picked.  Use it – and tell your students to use it – to find great resources on any subject, quickly and efficiently.

5. Give Your ESL Students a Hand
Because native Spanish-speaking students may have trouble finding resources on the Web, we created EncontrandoDulcinea. Now Spanish speaking students and their parents can locate the best sites in English and Spanish, for most academic subjects. Students that are learning English or Spanish can also read a number of our news and features on both sites.

6. Share Our Expert Tips for Writing Biographies
We’ve gathered advice from experts, authors, journalists and others to help students research and write a profile. We’ve also pointed them to some of the best sources. (Note: Every one of our Happy Birthday profiles includes a “Sources in this Story” bar highlighting sites we’ve used in our own research.)

7. Discuss Our News Stories
Each day we publish news stories for students. All of the content is based on, and links to, the best resources on the Web about the topic. Whether the focus is on the environment, technology, health or education, you’ll always find something worth chatting about.

8. Sign Up For Our Newsletter
We know teachers get tons of e-mails but this is one you’ll love. You’ll get our weekly quizzes (see No. 1) sent straight to your e-mail box. And you’ll also get a teaser for our weekly interview, where you can learn great tips about working with kids in schools and libraries.

Help us help you. E-mail us at [email protected] or direct message us on Twitter @findingEdu and let us know what we can do better. We’d love to hear from you.

Speaking, Writing and the Roles of Parents and Educators

On Monday morning, while perusing newspaper Web sites for ideas, something in The Guardian caught my eye. The piece, "Parents too busy to help children learn to talk, expert suggests," reminded me of something in the news last summer—that writing skills are falling prey to technology, and that some schools aren’t actually teaching writing. Furthermore, with all of the distractions we face today, motivating students to read and write seems a more challenging task for teachers and parents than ever before.

Back to Monday’s article in The Guardian, which cites a recent survey showing that one in six kids in the UK has a speech problem. The survey led to speculation over kids' TV and video game habits, byproducts of a lack of parental attention, speech expert Jean Gross suggests. Having less time to talk with their parents and more time to stare at screens seems to have hampered kids’ speaking abilities. As for parents, they’re trapped at work, and slaves to their high mortgages.

Regardless of why, the fact that both speaking and writing skills are suffering has many people concerned. Is communication as we know it rapidly deteriorating? Perhaps. But parents, teachers and librarians may know best. They're in the trenches (hopefully) with children, and could begin to turn these troubling trends around. As Gross told The Guardian, "Think about what children need. It's not expensive toys and big houses. It's you."

For tips and ideas about connecting with your kids, including educational online activities and outdoor (cold weather) fun, take a look at our recent feature on Keeping Kids Active and Engaged During Winter Break. We've also found advice on how to fit in more time with your kids, a popular New Year's resolution for 2010.

Sarah Amandolare

Senior Writer