Here are some things I read this week that made me think. (These are just snippets – click on the title to read the whole thing.)
“States that legalized same-sex marriage saw a 0.6 percentage point reduction in suicide attempts, whereas those whose policies remained unchanged saw no difference in teen suicide attempts. The study authors estimate that the same-sex marriage policies led to 134,000 fewer high-school school students attempting suicide each year. But as with most studies, the research has limitations; namely, it isn’t clear why, exactly, same-sex marriage policies are linked to a reduction in teen suicide attempts.”
Why This High School Band Is Only Buying Music From Composers Of Color This Year by Solvejg with NPREd
“It’s really hard to find music because there’s just not a lot of composers of color that are being published,” Lukkasson explains….
Composers of color and women are shut out of the canon, and often stereotyped, so Lukkasson usually has to network with his colleagues to find their music.”
10 of the best, thoughtful gifts for newly adoptive parents and their kids from Kate with Cool Mom Picks
“We’ve recommended the wooden blocks from Uncle Goose for years, and this gorgeous set of Korean blocks is stunning. Any set in the child’s native language is a thoughtful, sentimental adoption gift that any child can actually play with and appreciate for years to come.”
“The date of the “Day Without A Woman” strike coincides with another important event: International Women’s Day. This is no coincidence. International Women’s Day began in 1908, when thousands of women gathered in New York City to demand better working conditions, better pay, and the right to vote. The first official International Women’s Day was observed three years later, in 1911. Given that, according to the Women’s March website, the purpose of “A Day Without A Woman” is to recognize “the enormous value that women of all backgrounds add to our socio-economic system — while receiving lower wages and experiencing greater inequities, vulnerability to discrimination, sexual harassment, and job insecurity,” it makes perfect sense that the strike coincides with International Women’s Day.”
“Lomas’s Positive Lexicography Project aims to capture the many flavours of good feelings (some of which are distinctly bittersweet) found across the world, in the hope that we might start to incorporate them all into our daily lives. We have already borrowed many emotion words from other languages, after all – think “frisson”, from French, or “schadenfreude”, from German – but there are many more that have not yet wormed their way into our vocabulary. Lomas has found hundreds of these “untranslatable” experiences so far – and he’s only just begun.“
– Tarab (Arabic) – a musically induced state of ecstasy or enchantment
– Iktsuarpok (Inuit) – the anticipation one feels when waiting for someone, whereby one keeps going outside to check if they have arrived
Teaching Children To Play With Fire by Saraat Well: New York Times
“Mr. Karawahn’s workshops aim to prevent tragedies caused by children playing with fire in secret. Young children who make a fire alone often won’t tell adults for fear of punishment. Even worse, they sometimes hide after setting a fire and end up dying from smoke inhalation.
So Mr. Karawahn teaches children how to burn things properly — how to hold a match, use a lighter, light candles and build small bonfires. He lets them play with fire openly, under adult supervision, so they can indulge their curiosity and learn about fire without feeling the need to do so in secret.”
