A few years old but a very neat piece from evolutionary #anthropologist Karen #Kramer. How do children learn best? Packed into same-age classrooms listening to an adult?
'...work among with the Pumé of Venezuela and the Maya living in the Yucatan Peninsula—resoundingly suggests that they learn from one another.'
...
'IN THE CHILD-populous world of hunter-gatherers, little separates the spheres of adults and children. The places they work, play, relax, and sleep are not segregated. Privacy, alone time, and adult-only spaces are concepts unknown to the Pumé, for example. They live in open-walled structures that children freely run in and out of without requesting entry. Pumé children also aren’t restricted from what might be considered adult spaces and activities, such as menstrual huts (special structures where women in many traditional societies go for the few days a month when they menstruate), watching births, being around the dying, or participating in all-night social dances, called tohé, where the band joins together to sing, conduct healings, and tell stories.'
This book offers an exploration of #work-life balance, focusing on #parents, #academics, the self-employed, and #migrants. It examines self-care, #childcare, and informal care dynamics.
It’s a day to celebrate mothers, but motherhood is increasingly difficult in America. The Biden admin has fought for paid leave, affordable childcare…, but Republicans have thwarted their efforts: For families without paid leave, babies “are going to day care when they are two weeks old.”
The slow motion car crash of early years provision continues, with the Govt. setting targets & provisions for free care with no real knowledge of how such expansion of capacity could actually be achieved.
yet more declaratory politics from the Tories;
perhaps following the Rwanda bill, which declared via legislation that Rwanda is safe, we can expect a legislative declaration that all children are actually in child care!
In an interview with #RadioCanada, #Poilievre was noncommittal on whether #ChildCare, #DentalCare and #pharmacare would be dismantled by a government led by him — but he raised questions about the programs' effectiveness.
"Rep. Katie Porter absolutely shreds Lindsey Burke, a right-wing Heritage Foundation official, who tries to say there's not enough money to invest in universal #childcare. Porter delivers a brilliant breakdown on the nationwide need for an investment in universal childcare, points out how there's plenty of money available to invest in children for future, #sexism in #Congress and so much more." https://youtu.be/d59kfp7CNCk
Only 7% of U.S. Congress members are women with minor-age children, despite composing 18% of the country’s population. A Pew Research Center poll last year showed almost half of American women say family obligations are the reason men outnumber women in office. Now, female legislators seeking to correct this imbalance are advocating for policies that accommodate mothers in politics. Read more from The Christian Science Monitor.
#POTUS Biden on Mon called for major new spending initiatives to lower costs for #healthcare, #ChildCare & #housing & enough new taxes on the wealthy & major corporations to pay for those proposals & also shave $3 trillion off the #NationalDebt over the next decade.
Work from home is here to stay, despite what many CEOs are demanding.
Women lead men in the WFH numbers. It's good to see that there're many of these jobs, but it also indicates that childcare is insufficient. Republicans don't support helping fund childcare & the social safety net.
"In February, 22.7% of employed adults teleworked or worked at home for pay, up from 20% last February. The comparable rate in Feb. 2020 was about 10%."
-C Rampell
Who's picking up the shortfall as the crisis in #childcare provision continues?
Grandparents: a recent survey suggest more than half of the UK's grandparents care for their grandchildren during the week.... 3 times as many women take early retirement to care for a family member (also reflecting problems in #socialcare) as men (15%/5%).
As retirement plans shift, for #women, we can add the 'granny track' to the 'mommy track' to factors changing their life trajectories.
If having #children is a belief in the future then ONS data showing the slow decline in 'total fertility' in #England & #Wales has now dropped to 1.49 children... well below the 2.1 replacement rate, is notable!.
Apart from economic issues (future #workforce etc.), this suggests two things:
the costs of having children is becoming prohibitive (from #childcare to #housing costs), and;
looking at their precarious lives prospective parents are deciding no to inflict this on the as yet unborn!
More Republicans have pledged to tackle the #childcare crisis.
O’Brien had her 2nd child, in 2022, not long before legislators were due to meet. Wanting more time to bond before returning to work -brought the newborn with her to Bismarck, where she snoozed thru Gov Burgum’s SOS address on her mother’s desk. She persuaded her colleagues to back a plan to invest $66M in childcare. R ldrs long resisted such spending. She argued -could help the state’s workforce shortage-. https://apnews.com/article/daycare-cost-child-care-assistance-0f7943d1b6f55dd4452ffd323e038a4f
With student #nurses dropping out of training (or not taking up posts) due to difficulties with #childcare (I'll leave aside the #gendered workforce Q. here), the scale of the problem with England's #NHS workforce planning is revealed by the fact that around 10% of all #nursing vacancies remain unfilled.
And of course, much of this shortfall is being filled by more expensive agency provision....
The failure to solve the staffing crisis in the NHS is just one more aspect of #Tory wrecking!
Deniz is speaking in the Daryll Forde Seminar Room, 2nd Floor of the Anthro building.
NB due to building work, you need to use the main entrance of the Archaeology Institute round the corner in Gordon Sq. Please plan to arrive between 6:15-6:30 if possible.
If I were an investigative reporter in Alberta, I'd start digging into possible connections between the Danielle Smith regime and the Alberta daycare owners who've shuttered their businesses in a muhhh freeedum (tantrum) protest of $10 childcare. #DanielleSmith#cdnpoli#childcare
"About 9 in 10 Chinese parents and two-thirds of American parents place hard work among the most important values to pass along to children. In Sweden, it’s 11 percent. This makes a lot of sense: Parents everywhere want to set their kids up for success, but 'the economic environment really shapes what that means,' Doepke said." https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/01/america-failed-parents-rich-countries-raising-kids/677023/