How Can We Use Media To Gift Without Buying?

Update: Dec. 12, 2018 Open Call...for any and all ideas to give the gift of TIME to teachers, elders, family and friends and reduce consumption/increase heartfelt meaning in the process! Hit me up with your favorite finds and well-received, positive picks?  Dec. 16, 2015 Update For those who appreciated the post "Toy Joy vs Consumption Junction, or one of the original posts … [Read more...]

Deconstructing Spongebob, Pt2: A Preschool Parenting Lens

Sept. 20, 2011 In part one, the prelude to this post, I tried to frame the notion of critical thinking skills as a sphere to hold up to the light and rotate slowly instead of banging out opinions in point-counterpoint opposite spectrum and debate polarity. Partly that's because the two focal points I was covering (CCFC's rub with Spongebob Spongebob preschool merchandising … [Read more...]

Deconstructing Spongebob: Reasoning, Research, & Critical Thinking

Sept. 19, 2011 “So, Amy, whose side are you on with the pundits talking and the press reporting about the new University of Virginia Spongebob research?” Whaaaa? Sides? Really? That's cartoonish, like this editorial/visual statement at Beartoons.com at left... Last I checked, the ability to use critical thinking skills was rarely a "one-sided" stance. I tend to take a … [Read more...]

Reach & Teach: Global Goods That Do Good

May 23, 2011 "Where do you GET these things? How come I never find stuff like this?" Picture a coloring book page with Rapunzel's hair cascading down the castle tower, captioned, “This time, she had some power tools, a pair of scissors, a roll of duct tape, a Tina Turner album and a bus pass.” That's from Jacinta Bunnell's Girls Are Not Chicks coloring book one of my … [Read more...]

Selling Insecurity For Profit, Telling Kids Creativity Doesn’t Count?

October 26, 2010 I’ll recap Spark Summit takeaways soon, but with Halloween around the corner, I have a few timely tidbits that go beyond the need to Spark Change over sexualized costumes and look at the blinding message of consumerism triumphing creativity overall. When corporations undermine our values and put a ‘not good enough’ angst-inducing spin on children’s creative … [Read more...]