Durable Human (2 book series)

Yearly Archives: 2016

How Nature Play Builds Balanced, Durable Kids

Girl balances in pop-up park

Could a soggy patch of dirt and some logs be better for kids to play on than sleek slides and swingsets? Absolutely, say some child development experts.

Angela Hanscom, for instance, is an occupational therapist who sees strange new symptoms among today’s kids. In her research and testing, Hanscom observes that more and more elementary-age children: Continue reading

When the Maasai Picked Up the Phone

I’ve written before about Wisdom 2.0, the conference that bills itself as “addressing the great challenge of our age: to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world.”

This year while I was there, I was lucky to get to know innovative yoga instructor and author, Elise Marie Collins. Over the days, we talked about what would have happened if we’d known ahead of time the consequences that spending so much time with personal digital technology would have on our minds and bodies. Continue reading

Luck in the Time of Peeps

It was frustrating.

I had set aside my copy of the Peeps AwardsThe Washington Post‘s reader challenge to make the best darned marshmallow Peeps diorama ever. This year, they were even celebrating the “decade of champions.” But when recycling day rolled around and after I’d spent a weekend away, the Peeps were nowhere to be seen.

I looked for them them among the week’s junk mail, shiny catalogs, and other paper refuse as I shifted it from mail basket to recycling bin, but no yellow bunny. Continue reading

Of Talking Sticks and Digital-Age Redemption

The following is the first of several posts based on the new book, How To Be a Durable Human: Revive and Thrive in the Digital Age Through the Power of Self-Design.

One of the beautiful things about kids is that they’re unencumbered. Their minds are tabulae rasae—fertile, open fields. The job of parents, teachers, and other caring adults is to direct their exposure to seeds of knowledge and experience, and to help tend what takes root.

The idea, says Dr. Michael Rich—a pediatrician and founder of Children’s Hospital Boston Center on Media and Child Health—is to:

Build a menu of diversity which makes them a richer, fuller person.

Continue reading

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