On a Ledge--Progressive Parenting & Green Livi

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Moving Day!
2009-06-11 22:42:00
We are excited to announce the launch of our new site, the Progressive Kid Reader, a thematic online experience for progressive kids, parents, and teachers. We’re migrating everything from On a Ledge to the Reader where you can expect the same quality writing and deep thinking with the added benefits of more top-notch contributors including professionals ...
More About: Parenting , Moving , Launch , Variety

Humans v. Sea Lions v. Salmon: A Lose, Lose, Lose Situation
2009-03-03 02:28:00
As is so often the case, the human solution to this human-caused problem is to create a problem for someone else, either a human of less power or a nonhuman species. Humans get all mixed up about causes and solutions and justify their stinky behavior (overfishing, sea lion killing) with seemingly altruistic reasoning (feed people, save the salmon).
More About: Wildlife , Sustainability , Lions , Humane Society , Rats

Plastic Thinking (on Grass)
2009-02-24 17:49:00
These two arguments represent extremely faulty thinking that is endemic to a cultural disease affecting our American society. People seem to think them validation for all kinds of hideous behavior, but they are easily shot down.
More About: Science , Video Games , Soccer , Scientist

Don?t Feed Your Dog Dog
2009-01-30 01:03:00
The Animal Protection Institute reports that, along with poisoned animals, myriad other indigestible materials deemed ?unfit for human consumption? (a pretty low standard to begin with), including rancid oils, moldy grains, chemical-laden milling byproducts, urine, feces, and filthy slaughterhouse waste, end up in the so-called food we feed our animal companions.
More About: Feed , San Francisco Chronicle , Cats and Dogs

Bush Vs. Wolves
2009-01-15 00:24:00
Bush is killing wolves again.
More About: Bush , Wolves , Asides

Why I?m Glad Obama Is Not Gay
2008-11-13 00:26:00
But although bigotry took a hard kick to the gut on November 4, 2008, it caught its breath quickly and assuredly in America that day when voters banned gay marriage in California, Florida, and Arizona and banned adoptions and foster parenting by unmarried couples in Arkansas. So, while I'm glad Obama happens to be black, I'm grateful he is not gay because he would not be our President (-elect) if he were.

Mystery Unclogged Part II
2008-06-10 02:02:00
Peer down into the depths of one of your drains. You are looking at your future. Whatever goes down that drain is going to come back at you sooner or later in some way.
More About: Mystery , Part

Mystery Unclogged Part I
2008-06-10 02:01:00
Spoiler alert: If you have maintained any illusions that your drains are magical tubes that "disappear" inconveniences, I'm about to ruin them for you. Look away! Flush and run!
More About: Children , Mystery , Part

Jump: Deep-Water Parenting
2008-06-04 19:20:00
It was a happy moment of triumph, but part of me knew I was crazy to think so. What was wrong with those kids who leaped into twenty-five-foot-deep water without a moment?s thought? And why would I want my daughter to jump, and in jumping move that much farther away from me?
More About: Parenting , Water , Deep , Jump

Climate of Fear: Why Worrying About Climate Change Is a Waste of (Precious)
2008-05-30 05:14:00
By worrying, you can tell yourself you care without actually having to do anything. Worrying is a replacement for taking responsibility and action, a passive substitute for doing the brave, hard things in life.
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Fear , Waste

1. Walk
2008-05-26 18:17:00
If you didn't ace this test, gently put down your Wii console and head outside. If you're lucky enough to have a place to walk once you get out there, then start walking. If you don't have a sidewalk or a quiet road or a path, then carefully dodge the Hummers, Minivans, and Hemis whizzing down the six lane roads that surround you all the way to City Hall and demand something better.
More About: Australia , Walk , Aborigines , Outback

Moving into Green
2008-05-20 02:07:00
what I mean is that I'm not interested in talking about taking your cloth tote to the supermarket or using the other side of the piece of paper. That stuff is good, but it's like blowing into a fan. What I'm talking about is complete rehabilitation. From flat on our face to remotion. I'm talking about saving ourselves--not our lifestyles but our lives.
More About: Green , Moving

SarChasm
2008-05-08 01:00:00
I had not realized that being a fiction writer disqualified one from being able to write with authority on any real topic, as in the sense that a fiction writer = a liar; someone who just makes crazy stuff up. This was news to me, and my mind argumentatively ran through a random list of folks who had, despite their membership among the suspect fiction writer gang, managed to have a profound impact on the politics and society of their time and also to write worthwhile nonfiction (LeGuin, Swift, Defoe, Camus, Sartre, Zola, Cervantes, Dreiser, Hawthorne, Huxley, Koestler, Walker, and on and on; some of these people were likewise slammed for their work).
More About: Grand Canyon

Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks
2008-04-28 20:16:00
If rigidity isn?t the reason for climate change apathy among the old, what is? Apparently there is something about climate change that is making it harder for older people to respond to?or, more to the point, easier to ignore.
More About: Dogs , Tricks , Learn

Hot and Bothered: Change for the Climate!
2008-04-16 20:48:00
For those of you who don?t believe in climate change, you will. But for the ones who know it is real but vaguely think it will get taken care of somehow by others or that you will deal with it later when you are more ?ready? or that you are too old to change or that there is nothing you can do anyway, listen up! There is NO TIME to waste.
More About: Climate , Change

The Climate Change Elephant
2008-03-24 17:08:00
So your children are (a) scared, and they're the ones (b) likely to suffer the most from the effects of climate change. Climate change is like an enormous elephant in the living room. And if moms and dads aren't mentioning that there is an elephant in the room, you can imagine how a sort of neurosis could evolve:
More About: Climate Change , Change , Elephant

Golden Statue
2008-02-26 23:12:00
I found myself studying Oscar, muscular and somehow masculine but still sexless, his features mere creases and suggestions. He seemed like how you would become if you were locked in a television for generations.
More About: Statue , Academy Awards , Golden

Eight Potential Pitfalls of Parentthink (Home Turf Disadvantage II)
2007-11-04 20:37:00
by Sarah at ProgressiveKid In the course of fighting to keep artificial turf out of a local park, I have been witness to a number of thinking errors that parents seem to make, whether those parents are blue, red, green, or in between. It’s as if, by virtue of being parents, either through lack of sleep ...
More About: China , Home , Parent , Pare , Advanta

Fatal Attraction: Our Endless Affair with Plastic
2007-09-24 01:16:00
If anything, plastic?s space-age indestructibility was a selling point. But now, half a century, billions of users, and trillions of products later, plastic is starting to collect. Imagine, if you dare, every piece of plastic ever made still out there, somewhere, in our ever-contracting world.
More About: Attraction , Plastic , Affair , Endless , Fatal

The High Price of Privilege
2007-09-20 19:37:00
Over time, choosing not to see can lead to weakness in our underused muscles of perception. This kind of visual impairment is brought about in part by the competitive experience factor. When you're privileged, more opportunities exist for you and so you feel compelled to take them.
More About: Price , High

Forward to School, Not Back: Confronting Climate Change
2007-08-24 18:55:00
With increasing climate change awareness rippling through our society, chances are your child is already thinking about and discussing it with friends. A UK survey of 1,150 seven to eleven year olds found that half felt anxious about global warming and in many cases to the point of losing sleep.
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , School , Back

Dirge for a Lonely Planet: The Sixth Mass Extinction
2007-08-12 17:12:00
The normal rate of extinction is about one species every four years. Today it is about one species every ten minutes. And many of the ones that are still hanging on are not doing well. From honey bees to Atlantic salmon to black rhinos, Earth?s menagerie is faced on all sides by an increasingly uninhabitable world.
More About: Planet , Extinction , Mass , Lonely , Lonely Planet

The Trouble with Bottled Water
2007-07-11 22:09:00
More than half of all Americans drink bottled water and about one-third of the population drinks it regularly (according to the NRDC). So Americans are thirsty. Why is this a problem?
More About: Water , Bottle , Bottled Water

In a Box
2007-06-26 04:29:00
I was struck by the easy and shameless commodification of death, at how smoothly we could sell and buy the means to erase life, as if those means were no more innocuous than frozen peas or metal screws.

Squelch the Urge to Squash
2007-06-20 21:07:00
If you want an empathetic kid, model empathy. Empathy is not selective. It is being able to see the life connection in all living things, not just the ones you think are cute.
More About: Squash , The U , Urge

Climate Change Change Begins at Home (and School)
2007-06-08 22:26:00
We're not protecting our children from anything by keeping them out of the business of responding to global warming. They already know and they're worried.
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Home , School

All Lost in the Supermarket
2007-05-27 20:18:00
Our most rewarding friendships display an equilibrium of taking and giving, talking and listening. But when it comes to our friendship with the earth we have been doing most of the taking and talking and very little giving and listening.
More About: Lost , Erma , Mark , Perm , Supermarket

Guns ?n? Bread ?n? Roses
2007-04-23 21:34:00
Because our culture delights and trades in images of violence, even as real people with malicious intent delight and trade in real tools of violence, it should come as no surprise that right in front of our eyes, guns are being pointed between our eyes. But meanwhile, a different kind of attack is happening behind our backs, out of view, where a gun can have no defensive effect.
More About: Guns , Roses , Read , Rose , Bread

Turn and Face the Strange Changes: Parents Facing Climate Change
2007-03-27 23:53:00
The laws of physics dictate that where energy is consumed, equal energy must be generated to replace it. We have been living in defiance of basic natural law, taking more than our share and not giving enough back in return.
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Face , Parents

Home Turf Disadvantage
2007-03-15 21:38:00
If the threats of cancer and more toxic runoff into waterways are not enough reason to get people to reject artificial turf, perhaps a flesh-eating bacteria known as MRSA will do the trick.
More About: Home , Advanta , Gathering , Turf