Throughout most of human history, our hunter-gatherer ancestors had to engage in physical activity to obtain food. But nowadays we can drive to the supermarket, briefly walk through its aisles, check-out, then drive back home. This may seem like a luxury, but evolution hasn't prepared us for such a drastic shift in behaviour.A possible explanation for the "runner's high," a feeling of intense eup
11 Vote(s)
July 30, 2010
Endocannabinoids and the runner's high
Comments Off
July 31, 2009
Why Have Trustful Parenting and Children’s Freedom Declined in Recent Decades?
In recent posts I have been discussing the decline of trustful parenting and the rise of directive-protective parenting. Trustful parents are those who trust their children to play and explore on their own, to make their own decisions, and to make and learn from their own mistakes. Trustful parenting predominated through the long stretch of human history when we were all hunter-gatherers, and it
13 Vote(s)
13 Vote(s)
Comments Off
July 23, 2009
Hillary Clinton’s and My Wonderful Childhoods: Trustful Parenting Continued
In my last post I talked about an historical change in parenting over the long sweep of human history. I described the trustful parenting of hunter-gathers, the directive-domineering parenting of medieval and early industrial times, and the directive-protective parenting that predominates in our culture today. What I neglected to say there is that the directive-protective parenting style is large
9 Vote(s)
9 Vote(s)
Comments Off
June 23, 2009
The Value of Play III: Children Use Play to Confront, not Avoid, Life’s Challenges and Even Life’s Horrors
Children's extraordinarily powerful drive to play did not come about to provide them with "recess" or "recreation." It came about for a far more serious purpose than that. It came about to help them survive. Throughout human history and pre-history, play has been children's primary means of acquiring the skills, values, and knowledge they need to survive within their culture. Children do not play
6 Vote(s)
6 Vote(s)
Comments Off