FCC Chair Receives Our Coalition Letter on Product Placement

Sept. 24, 2009 Shaping Youth is part of this coalition (15pp pdf here) joining over 50 signatories on "FCC Docket 08-90." As a nonpartisan, non-censorship, nonprofit recall I support two key coalitions impacting children, the other being eco-literacy, NCLI. You can get a glimpse of my reasoning here, but I'll focus fully on "'why this is important" deconstructing the … [Read more...]

Do Those ‘Take Action’ Causes and AutoFill Forms Really Work?

August 25, 2009 Ever wonder if those urgent ‘act now' e-mails from your favorite causes work? Last week I received an NCLI eco-literacy action alert, as Shaping Youth is a member of the consortium supporting the Pre-K through 12 No Child Left INSIDE Act which gets kids outdoors and hands-on in nature as the ultimate math and science ‘STEM’ program as part of school … [Read more...]

Nature Rocks: Reconnecting Families With Nature

June 5, 2009 It's World Environment Day...where you can Twitter for Trees, and 'green your routine' and engage in all kinds of green media pursuits and still miss the meaning of getting kids OUTSIDE... As one of my heroes, Last Child in the Woods author Richard Louv said, “We have an entire generation of ecokids that can “click for a cause” but still not know what poison ivy … [Read more...]

Get Out of Your Own Life! Environmental Influence on Kids

Mar. 30, 2009 Mea culpa for the unannounced vanishing act, but I’ve been out of town interviewing teens in a different ‘pocket’ of the greater Bay Area, exploring how environmental influences (peers, nature, geography) shift the volume and decibel level of media intake among kids and where we might learn some 'best practices' to leapfrog into a healthier place for the … [Read more...]

First Day of Spring! See It Through A Child’s Eyes

Mar. 20, 2009 It’s overcast here on the water today, which shifts my annual spring ritual into a different lens of wonder. Whenever things get too wacky in my world (and lately, that’s been hourly) I instinctively start removing clutter of the mind, media, and heart to time travel back into childhood, and just stop ALL stimulation. These days I worry that kids never fully … [Read more...]