Creativity in Children

My four-year-old daughter appears to have entered her golden age of creativity. I frequently marvel at her artistic skills and her ability to see the potential uses for various mundane objects that can be turned into a piece of art. A check that needs to be deposited into a bank needs to be kept out of sight and, more importantly, out of reach of my daughter lest she turn that little piece of paper into a pretty yellow-and-white boat.

In addition to drawing, coloring and painting, all three of which my daughter enjoys doing as often as possible, she also uses other media for her creations. A number of empty tissue boxes lie stacked in the bedroom to be turned into rabbits, cats or, in one recent case, a "zoo" for animals made out of clay. A blue drinking straw cut into short pieces required a piece of string to be made into a bracelet. However, no string could be found so she cut a very thin strip of paper to be used as a replacement. After she had strung the pieces of straw, I taped the two ends of the paper together to finish the bracelet.

Of course, not everything my daughter does turns out for the best. Last week, she stuffed a small piece of purple crayon up her right nostril. Why? We have no idea. Fortunately, the ENT, after doing a thorough examination of my daughter's nose and sinuses, could find no piece of the crayon other than for purple stains. (We return tomorrow morning to the hospital for a follow-up exam, although I don't think we'll find anything at this time.). And just this afternoon, my daughter used her toothbrush on her feet, requiring that a new toothbrush be bought.

How do we lose this creative ability we had as children as we transition into adulthood? Is it because we realize the negative consequences from being too creative? (Now that my daughter knows how painful the nasal examination can be, will she ever put another piece of crayon up her nose again?) Or do we lose the time to be creative as homework begins to take up more of the playtime that was available to children before entering primary school? Regardless of the reason, I begin to realize that I need to enjoy watching my daughter's creative behavior while it's still in full bloom.

Update: I cross-posted this essay over at Daily Kos, where it was not only rescued (my sixth essay overall and the third in the past month and a half), but I also received a number of very nice comments there. Check it out!

We Won't Bury You; Americans Have Buried Themselves

Below is a comment I wrote on the Street Prophets' diary, Christ, Nessie, and teaching children to love lies.

We need to figure a way to educate our children to function in a crowded and challenging world.

I really wanted to write a facetious answer at first, but I'll play this one straight. A friend recently wrote on Facebook:

Outsourcing is outsourcing, Mitt Rmoney, not 'Offshoring'. 'Offshoring' implies the paychecks are made out to Americans. They aren't. In fact outsourcing is taking a paycheck that once went to an American, and giving away to someone else in another country.

To which I originally responded:

To which we all in Asia say "Thank you!" ;)

Naturally, he was a little miffed at that answer, so I responded:

I'm not a fan of outsourcing in general and I do sympathize with American workers, but... Outsourcing is not simply due to lower wages in other countries. In fact if I were to list all the factors that I thought contributed to the reasons why American companies outsourced jobs overseas, I'd rank lower wages compared to American wages down near the bottom of my list, especially with respect to Asian countries.

One of the factors that has helped spur on the growth of outsourcing is the fact that educational systems outside of the US are frequently superior to that of the American system. These jobs don't just go to people in other countries simply because of lower wages, they go because these other people are qualified to perform that work. They have the education, the skills, the experience to get the job done. In fact, because of the large numbers of qualified applicants, competition for jobs can be quite intense and not very easy to succeed in getting if you don't have the requisite qualifications, no matter what they are. (Here's a LinkedIn discussion in which I had to tell a younger guy how he was going to need to upgrade his language skills because, otherwise, he was going to lose out on job opportunities in which a second language is vital for getting jobs in Singapore.)

The world is crowded and challenging, and other countries are benefiting from stupid American attitudes with respect to the educational system because /we/ don't make those same mistakes. We don't have an attitude of "let's break the public school system because it offends our sensibilities." No one homeschools here. And what we do do is send our kids to enrichment classes during the evenings and weekends so that our kids can compete better, whether it's with other Asian children or American children. (I, a white American man, have a three-year-old daughter who's learning her third language - Chinese - and my wife suggested this morning that we get her into a second weekly class in that language so that she can improve faster. On a program about India that aired the same day I wrote the above comments to my friend on Facebook, there was a segment where the host interviewed some street girl, about 13 years old, in Calcutta - who spoke perfect English. He asked her what her favorite subject was, and she said physics. Why? Because it's her easiest subject. She wants to be a physicist. How many American kids would say that?)

The fault for outsourcing and a declining economic situation in America is not the rest of the world's. It is America's fault, for its backwards attitudes and lack of competitive drive in its people. I almost feel like Nikita Khrushchev now, except it's not "We will bury you!" but that Americans have buried themselves.

Good luck with that.

His Mother's Voice

Alhamdulillah! This video is soooo wonderful, even yours truly nearly cried at the sight of eight-month-old Jonathan, deaf since birth, hearing his mother's voice for the first time.

Children's TV

OK, I know, for those very few of my regular readers, this topic is perhaps the last one might ever expect to find on my blog. But with a very young daughter (currently 18 months), I am often reduced to watching hour after hour of - gasp - children's TV.

Actually, children's television is light years beyond what was shown on TV when I was a kid in the 60s. Some of this stuff is actually - wait for it - interesting! Three things have stood out while watching TV with my daughter:

1) Children's programming isn't an American monopoly. While there are many American productions on TV, other countries around the world are well represented. In fact, the only regions of the world I haven't seen childrens' programming from is Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and that is more due to a lack of English-language translations than from the actual production of the programs themselves. Unsurprisingly, Canada and Europe produce much of childrens' programming; for example, Canada (Igloo-gloo (one of A'ishah's favorites) and The Backyardigans), Britain (to be honest, there are too many programs to list here; Singapore broadcasts the BBC channel CBeebies, which plays, among other programs, two of A'ishah's favorites, Teletubbies and In the Night Garden...), France (Gazoon), Germany (Wildlife), Italy (MioMao), and Spain (Pocoyo). What's impressive, though, are the increasing number of Asian programs being broadcast, including: Malaysia (Upin & Ipin), South Korea (Pucca), and Taiwan (MumuHug). (I've also wondered if Little Fables is an Israeli production.) Two of these programs, Upin & Ipin and Pucca, have been picked up by Disney, which, insha'allah, will lead to greater coverage worldwide.

2) Some decent actors are involved with children's programming. Producers for childrens' programs have been using a lot of big-name narrators. The English-language version of Pocoyo is narrated by British actor and comedian Stephen Fry, while In the Night Garden... uses Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi. Fred Savage ("Kevin Arnold," The Wonder Years) does voiceover work for a number of different programs; the one A'ishah and I watch is Oswald. (Actually, Oswald uses quite a few actors who should be familiar to people 40 and over, including comedienne Laraine Newman (Saturday Night Live), David Lander ("Squiggy" from Laverne & Shirley), and actress Kathy Najimy (the two Sister Act movies). Also, singer Tony Orlando of the 70s pop group Tony Orlando & Dawn has also worked on Oswald.) Another singer who worked as a narrator is the Beatles' Ringo Starr, who was the original narrator on Thomas & Friends back in the mid 80s. (This is another series that has used a number of "name" voices, including the late comedian George Carlin, and actors Alec Baldwin and Pierce Brosnan.)

3) The visual quality of some programming is excellent. While CGI is used by virtually everyone who doesn't do stop-motion claymation series, a few series have very creative visual styles that make for beautiful artwork. Series that I like the look of include Little Fables (which makes cartoons in the form of shadow theater, using various tones of black, white and grey, with one bright color (such as red, yellow, green, etc.)), Bonny, Banana & Mo (for its vibrant color scheme), and MioMao (a claymation series that's very creative in how the characters move).

"She is so boring!"

Yes, I said this about my daughter. ;) One of my sisters (EFva) and I talked a few weeks ago about how one of her daughters made a face when first tasting apple juice. Now that A'ishah is four months old, we've bought one jar each of apple juice, mixed vegetables and mixed fruits. While we haven't given her the mixed fruits yet, neither the apple juice nor the mixed vegetables caused A'ishah to make a face; rather, she's liked both quite a bit (she ate the entire jar of vegetables all in one go). In this regard, she's "boring," in that I had hoped she might make a face for the camera. ;)

Dunstan Baby Language

Milady and I just watched this video clip on Oprah about an hour ago. (It originally aired on November 13, 2006.) I wish we had known about these five words* four months ago, but I guess that's how things go. ;) So to all you future moms and dads out there, pay attention! ;)

The five words are "neh" (hungry), "owh" (sleepy), "heh" (discomfort), "eair" (intestinal gas), and "eh" (burp).

Something Good Out of Something Bad

Some Islamophobic morons recently came across a Boy Scout webpage that lists the requirements for Muslim Scouts working toward their "Duty to God" award:

With that out of the way, since when did the Boy Scouts become a training ground for Imans and Islamists? This could be the curriculum at a madrassa, not the friggen Boy Scouts. Also, if Muslims in America are trying to integrate into our society this surely is not the way to do it......

What the morons don't seem to realize is that the Boy Scouts encourage kids of all religions to do their duty to God (Allah), regardless of their religion. This is the full list of all the religions who present to "Duty to God" religious emblem under the Boy Scouts:

Armenian Church of America (Eastern Diocese)

Armenian Church of America (Western Prelacy)

Association of Unity Churches

Bahá'í

Baptist

Buddhist

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Churches of Christ

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)

Eastern Orthodox

Eastern Rite Catholic

Episcopal

First Church of Christ, Scientist

General Church of the New Jerusalem

Hindu

Islamic

Jewish

Lutheran

Meher Baba

Moravian

Polish National Catholic

Presbyterian Church (USA)

Protestant (General)

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Roman Catholic

Salvation Army

Unitarian Universalist

United Church of Christ

United Methodist

Zoroastrian

But, you know, the morons would have you believe that the Boy Scouts are solely a Christian organization, no Muslims allowed here! And far from being not the way to integrate into society, this is actually one of the best ways for Muslim boys to integrate, where non-Muslim and Muslim boys can learn together about each other. Fortunately, the Boy Scouts don't listen to the likes of the morons.

The "something good out of something bad" is that despite having come across the morons' post, they provided a link and good information about the requirements for Muslim boys earning the Duty to God award. Even if your kids aren't involved in Scouting, the information can serve as a checklist for teaching (and reinforcing) the basic essentials of Islam to children, both boys and girls.

YOUTH EMBLEMS:

TIGER CUBS None
CUB SCOUTS Bismillah
WEBELOS SCOUTS Bismillah
BOY SCOUTS In the Name of God
SCOUTS/VENTURERS (14 & OLDER) In the Name of God
ADULT AWARDS: Allaho Akber


ABOUT THE EMBLEMS:

Bismillah: The Bismillah Emblem may be earned by Cub Scouts in grades 2 through 5. The requirements include a study of:

1. The Holy Books, including naming the Holy Books and identifying which one was the final revelation.

2. The Great Prophets, including naming the three greatest and writing an essay on Muhammed (PBUH)

3. Prayers and pilgrimage, including learning about Kaaba and The Pilgrimage.

4. Religious Holidays, including describing four major Muslim holidays, the names of Islamic months and writing an account of the importance of Eidul Adha.

5. The Mosque or Islamic Center, including attendance of religious services and drawing a picture of Masjid Aqsa and explaining its importance to Muslims.

6. Muslim Heroes, telling the story of the Scout's favorite Muslim hero and writing an essay on Hazret Bilal, the first Moazzin of Islam.

7. American Heritage, writing a report on a great American Muslim.

In the Name of God: The In the Name of God Emblem may be earned by Boy Scouts and older Scouts. The requirements for this award include:

1. Questions and projects including the study of monotheism, the name of the faith, the ways God has presented religion to the world, the "Absolute Justice of God", and characteristics of "God's Prophets", and a talk or essay on the Islamic way of life.

2. Questions and projects including the study of how a prayer becomes invalid, the five daily prayers, what governs the time of fasting, the significance of giving to the poor, the requirements and mechanics of making The Pilgrimage, and when you can go for haj, leading a congregational prayer, and participating in fasting.

3. Performing two projects of Religious Service to the Scout's Community. Projects may include a recommended project or a substitute authorized by the Scout's religious scholar.

4. Successfully Pass a Summary Examination on a range of topics including: naming the five major Prophets, explaining Ka'ba (what it is, its location and its origin), what God means to the Scout as a Muslim, what a person should do, if he arrives late to a congregational prayer, angels and their function in Islam, the five pillars of Islam, how a Muslim compensates, if he doesn't fast during the month of Ramadan, the proper method of slaughtering animals, and what Jehad means to the Scout.

For more information, see this page.

Good Fathers Read to Their Sons

One of my sisters mailed me a copy of Jim Trelease's book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, originally published in 1979 and now in its sixth edition. Trelease's thesis is that by having parents -- including fathers -- read stories or books aloud to their children, that the child's reading comprehension and academic achievement will increase dramatically. The book is well researched (the following passage alone contained five footnotes, which I've omitted), but many of the facts presented are eye-opening -- and disturbing -- to say the least. The problem is that many American families have placed the burden of the parent reading aloud to their children on the mother. Not that this is completely surprising; after all, mothers are the primary care givers to children under five, regardless of whether she works or not, and he almost always is the primary bread-winner. But that doesn't mean that he can abdicate all responsibility toward his child's intellectual development. There are ways a father can encourage his child or children to read. One of my brothers-in-law, the husband of my sister who mailed me this book, takes his four children to the library once a week, every week. My own father was another bookworm who often read for pleasure, whether it was fiction or non-fiction. As a child, I remember my mom telling us kids (on numerous occasions) that dad wasn't going to wake up soon because he had been reading until two a.m. And, of course, my sisters and I were always encouraged to read. (As a teenager, I often read from our World Book encyclopedia or its various yearbooks for pleasure. Yeah, I know, I was a strange kid, but I've never lost while playing Trivial Pursuit either, so there! ;) )

The following passage comes from a section entitled, How do I convince my husband he should be doing this with our children? (pp. xxii-xxiv of the Introduction). What's surprising and scary is how much American boys have slipped behind girls academically since 1970. For years, we've read articles about how the number of female students has grown in American universities, but usually within the context of a single department or degree program (e.g., law school, medical school, etc.). But apparently the problem is much more widespread. Even looking at my own university's data (Fall 2006 statistics), female students outnumber male students for both undergraduates (53%-47%) and graduates (54%-46%). (For the Honors College, the gender ratio is the same as the graduate students' ratio, 54%-46% in favor of females.) So if you parents want your sons (and daughters) to do well at school, start reading to them now... even if they're teenagers.

The second change is a huge gender gap among American schoolchildren. Since 1970, there's been a steady gain in female achievement, accompanied by a steep drop in male performance. ... In 1970, male enrollment in college was 59 percent, female 41 percent. Three decades later, it's almost completely reversed -- 57 percent female, 43 percent male.

The top 10 percent of high school classes is 56 percent female, 44 percent male; among high school graduates who maintain an A average, 62 percent are female, 38 percent male. Three out of five high school National Honor Society members are girls, and they outnumber boys 124 to 100 in Advanced Placement (AP) classes. As recently as 1987, boys had outnumbered girls in those classes. ...

We know what caused the rise in the girls' scores -- their mothers' value systems about education changed thirty years ago. Mothers now expect more of their daughters intellectually. But how do we explain the nosedive on the part of the boys since 1970? Is it a coincidence that in that same year, 1970, we saw the birth of a national TV phenomenon called Monday Night Football? Prior to that, Madison Avenue pretty much thought it was a waste of time trying to advertise to men late at night -- they were all asleep in their La-Z-Boys. Then along comes MNF and they've got millions of guys doing high fives on their chairs at 11 p.m. It didn't take long for the networks to catch on that sports at night could bring in a boatload of advertising dollars and thus was born ESPN, then ESPN2, followed by channels for golf, rodeo, NASCAR, wrestling, extreme sports -- you name it, all sports, all the time, 24/7.

The impact on the young male of seeing his dad worshiping daily and nightly at the altar of ESPN, has to have played a damaging role in male attitudes about school. Girls read and write; guys hit, throw, catch, shoot, and fish. By 2000, moms were "taking their daughters to work," but dads were still taking their sons to the stadium.

The father who can find his way only to ball games with his kids is a "boy-man," whereas the father who can find his way to a ball game and to the library can be called a "grown man." Unfortunately, we have a growing shortage of grown men in America today. Once I asked members of an audience in Decatur, Georgia, if they thought they'd ever hear a president of the United States make a statement like that to the American people, and a woman replied, "Yes -- as soon as she's elected!"

The strange thing is that this "dumbing of Daddy" seems to affect families at all education levels. In a study comparing poverty-level families and university-educated families, fathers in both groups read to the children only 15 percent of the time, mothers 76 percent, and others 9 percent. That could change if we publicized studies like one conducted in Modesto, California, which showed that (1) boys who were read to by their fathers scored significantly higher in reading achievement, and (2) when fathers read recreationally, their sons read more and scored higher than did boys whose fathers did little or no recreational reading. When the dads were surveyed, only 10 percent reported having fathers who read to them when they were children.

Easy Come, Easy Go

This story is amusing in its own perverse way. I find it somewhat ironic that the purpose of the mandala was to promote compassion.

A child destroyed a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork at Kansas City's Union Station, and it was caught on tape.

Tibetan monks had been creating the sand art, which looks like a colorful tapestry on the floor, for two days.

A surveillance camera recorded a young boy, possibly a toddler, who walked into the sand and started dancing, while his mother mailed a package at the post office. After a few minutes, the video showed a woman pull the child away.

"Never happened before, never happened before like that," monk Jampa Tenzin said.

The monks said they were not angry at the child or his mother. Instead, they've been hard at work to finish the piece.

Tibetan monks are creating sand art on the floor of Union Station.

The monks are on a yearlong tour of the United States and Canada to raise money for their monastery. The original monastery in Tibet was destroyed. They were about halfway finished when they left for the day Tuesday, roping off the artwork before they left.

The lead monk said it was "no problem," adding, "we will have to work harder" to get it finished before Saturday. It will then be swept up and offered to onlookers for their gardens. The rest will be placed in the Missouri River.

Other videos can be viewed here and here.

Child Abuse in Texas

I'm trying to think of something to say that expresses my intense anger at these two men without being overly offensive to my readers... but I can't. So I won't try anymore (for now).



[Key words: marijuana, pot, Watauga, Texas]

Daddy's Little Angel

Be sure to read the comments; a lot of them are LOL funny!

Dennis Prager, Mobile Accidents, and Coretha Henderson

This morning's roundup of readings:

Dennis Prager's recent column in the LA Times has caused some reaction by various Muslims and non-Muslims. CAIR, of course, has responded in the Islam OpEd piece, "A Muslim Response to Prager’s ‘Five Questions.’" Umar Lee, who writes one of the edgier Muslim blogs, also has a response: "Muslim Answers to the Questions of Dennis Prager." Perhaps the best response I've read, though, came from Professor Juan Cole, in his blog, Informed Comment: "Muslims and the 5 Questions."

Then, while reading Underwater Light this morning, I found a link to this article: "Cellphones Get Broken by Tight Jeans." According to the article:

The most common reasons for "Mobile accidents" according to 300 Swedish retailers.

1. Dropped the mobile on the ground.
   
2. Squeezed the cellphone in tight jeans/pockets.
   
3. Used the handset in the rain.
   
4. Throw the device on the ground in rage.
   
5. The dog/child got hold of the mobile.
   
6. Dropped the cellphone in the toilette.
   
7. Dropped the handset into the sea.
   
8. Forgot the cellphone on the roof of the car.
   
9. Perspiration on the mobile during workout.
   
10. Dropped the handset in the snow.
    

This article resonated with me because, a few months ago, a friend's handphone was ruined when his pants were washed without the pockets being checked first. :)

Finally, there was an interesting article about the punishment of Coretha Henderson by her mother:

Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter's poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.

She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: "I don't do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food."

"This may not work. I'm not a professional," said Henderson, a 34-year-old mother of three. "But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try."

In fact, Henderson has seen a turnaround in her daughter's behavior in the past week and a half. But the punishment prompted letters and calls to talk radio from people either praising the woman or blasting her for publicly humiliating her daughter.

...

Coretha has been getting C's and D's as a freshman at Edmond Memorial High in this well-to-do Oklahoma City suburb. Edmond Memorial is considered one of the top high schools in the state in academics.

While Henderson stood next to her daughter at the intersection, a passing motorist called police with a report of psychological abuse, and an Oklahoma City police officer took a report. Mother and daughter were asked to leave after about an hour, and no citation was issued.

...

Coretha, a soft-spoken girl, acknowledged the punishment was humiliating but said it got her attention. "I won't talk back," she said quietly, hanging her head.

She already has been forced by her parents to give up basketball and track because of slipping grades, and said she hopes to improve in school so she can play next year.

Donald Wertlieb, a professor of child development at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, warned that such punishment could do extreme emotional damage. He said rewarding positive behavior is more effective.

"The trick is to catch them being good," he said. "It sounds like this mother has not had a chance to catch her child being good or is so upset over seeing her be bad, that's where the focus is."
-- (Source)

Personal Note to Coretha: I understand that you feel humiliated by this experience and, quite frankly, I'm surprised that you would stand on that street corner or even have the above photograph taken. But I want you to know one thing: Your mom loves you and has your best interests at heart. It's all too easy to sit back, ignore your education, then wonder why you didn't get into the college you wanted or why your career is going nowhere.

The article says you're on your school's basketball and track teams. That's great. I hope you're very competitive and do well in those sports. But guess what: competing in sports is nothing compared to the competition you'll face in the real world. People compete all the time. Job applicants compete to get jobs. Salespeople compete for customers. Nations compete for businesses, and so on. Right now, the United States is slowly losing out because countries around the world (especially here in Asia) are much more willing to compete than Americans are. Like you, many Americans have sat back, ignored their educations, lost their business competitiveness, and now wonder why they've lost their jobs to outsourcing or have stagnant wages.

The good news is that you don't have to be like these other Americans. Take your education seriously! You should strive for A's in every class, regardless of the subject (and whether you like that class or not). Try to get into the best university. And then, when you finally graduate and join us in "the real world," I hope you'll be wildly successful. And, insha'allah, if that all comes to pass, I hope you'll thank your Mom for making you stand on a street corner.

Good luck!