Things to Read - Six Interesting Articles From Around the Web (Teens Online, Criminal Lemonade, Generation Limbo, Time for Beauty, Outdoor Education, and the Chesapeake Bay)

1. (Teens Online)- 10 Things You Don't Know About Teens and Social Networking - lots of interesting quotes from real teens on how social networking effects their lives.

“My friendships are really affected by social networking. You have to constantly validate your friends online. And everyone’s like ‘Where were you?’ ‘What have you been doing?’ ‘Why haven’t you commented on my picture yet?’ So you have to be online all the time, just to keep track, so you don’t upset anyone.” --Jasmine, 13 years old

“Social networking affects all the things you do in real life now. Like, if you go to a party, one of the most important aspects of going to the party is to document yourself for online posts. You have to prove you were looking good, you were having fun, and that you were actually there! It’s not about the party anymore but about the pictures of the party.” --Caroline, 14 years old

. . . . Interesting.

2. (Criminal Lemonade) - The Battle Against Lemonade Stands - Apparently governments are cracking down on this time-honored tradition.

3. (Making Time for Beauty ) This short, wonderfully stated article from Anne Lamott stresses the need for "time spent quietly in beauty."

"I ask [my students], is there a eucalyptus grove at the end of their street, or a new exhibit at the art museum? An upcoming minus tide at the beach where the agates and tidepools are, or a great poet coming to the library soon? A pond where you can see so many turtles? A journal to fill?

If so, what manic or compulsive hours will they give up in trade for the equivalent time to write, or meander? Time is not free—that’s why it’s so precious and worth fighting for. "

(link via A Day That is Dessert).


4. (Generation Limbo). Should we keep encouraging student loans when there are no jobs to be found? The New York Times has an interesting article on recent college grads. According to the article, many many twenty-somethings are "resigned to waiting for the economic tides to turn." "Plenty of people work in bookstores and work in low-end administrative jobs, even though they have a Harvard degree. . . . They are thinking more in terms of creating their own kinds of life that interests them, rather than following a conventional idea of success and job security." According to one interviewee, "You have to make opportunities happen for yourself, and I think a lot of my classmates weren’t thinking in that way. . . It’s the equivalent of setting up your own lemonade stand.” This quote makes me feel oddly inspired. How about you?

5. (Outdoor education). Want Your Kids to Get Into Harvard? - Tell 'Em to Go Outside! How important is being outdoors for learning science? For most educators, not very important. According to one school administrator, "we’ve become so sophisticated in the teaching of science, that our students don’t have to go outside anymore.” Scary. And sad.

6. (CAFOs). The poor Chesapeake Bay, Dave Bard's article through the PEW Environmental Group explains the pollution problems caused by chicken CAFOs ("Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations").