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Impact of technology use on children?

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Do we love our phones as much as our partners

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Love Well

We have an intimate relationship with our phones. We sleep with them, eat with them and carry them in our pockets. We check them, on average, 47 times a day - 82 times if you're between 18 and 24 years old, according to recent data.

And we love them for good reason: They tell the weather, the time of day and the steps we've taken. They find us dates (and sex), entertain us with music and connect us to friends and family. They answer our questions and quell feelings of loneliness and anxiety.

But phone love can go too far - so far that it can interfere with human love - old fashioned face-to-face intimacy with that living and breathing being you call your partner, spouse, lover or significant other.

The conflict between phone love and human love is so common, it has its own lexicon. If you're snubbing your partner in favor of your phone it's called phubbing (phone + snubbing). If you're snubbing a person in favor of any type of technology, it's called technoference. A popular song by Lost Kings even asks: "Why don't you put that [expletive] phone down?"

"A key to a healthy relationship is being present," said James Roberts, author of "Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?". When one partner constantly checks his or her phone it sends an implicit message that they find the phone (or what's on it) more interesting than you.

In a 2016 study published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 70 percent of women revealed that smartphones were negatively affecting their primary relationship. More than one-third of the 143 women in the study said their partner responded to notifications mid-conversation; one out of four said their partner texted during conversations. The women who reported high levels of technoference in interactions with their partners were less happy with their relationships and with their lives overall.

It's not just women who are feeling dissed. Dr. Roberts, who is a professor of marketing at Baylor University, asked 175 men and women questions about their partners' smartphone use. Nearly half of respondents, 46 percent, reported being phone snubbed (phubbed) by their partner. People who reported higher levels of phubbing also reported higher levels of relationship conflict.

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Credit Kim Murton

In our quest to be connected through technology, we're tuning out our partners and interrupting a kind of biological broadband connection.

"People are beginning to realize that something is amiss," said Sherry Turkle, an M.I.T. technology professor and author of " Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age." "They don't necessarily know what to do about it, but they are open to change."

Judith Bell, a leadership coach and co-founder of Relationships That Work in Novato, Calif., has noticed that her clients are starting to respect phone boundaries. "Now they turn off their phones when they are in session. A few years back, they would let themselves be interrupted."

If you're feeling frustrated by phone interference in your relationship, talk to your partner but be positive. "Emphasize the benefits of being more connected," Ms. Bell said. Rather than dictate to your partner what they should or should not do, try an approach such as, "I love talking with you, but when you're constantly checking your phone it's hard to have a great conversation."

"The first step is awareness," Dr. Roberts said.

Here are some suggested ways to break up with your phone long enough to connect with your partner.

Designate "no cell" zones in your home. With your partner, decide which areas of your home, such as the living room and the kitchen, should be technology-free. And consider eliminating phone use in the car so that you can use that time to talk to your partner about whatever is on your mind.

Try a phone-free bedroom for one week. Yes, it's fun to check Twitter just before bed, or when you're sleepless at 2 a.m., but you might be more likely to converse with your partner if the phone were elsewhere. And just the act of favoring your relationship over your phone sends a clear message to your partner.

"Buy some old-fashioned alarm clocks for your bedside table," Dr. Turkle suggested. "Put your cellphones in a basket in the kitchen."

Keep phones off the table. When you're eating at home or in a restaurant, keep phones off the table. The mere presence of a cellphone - with the possibility of it chirping or buzzing at any moment - can inhibit the free flow of conversation, according to a study published last year in the journal Environment & Behavior. Researchers examined how conversations between two people were influenced by cellphones. When a phone was present during a conversation, the partners rated the conversation as less fulfilling and reported less feelings of empathic concern than when phones were absent.

Practice phone etiquette. If you must look at your phone, announce that you are doing so. "I am just checking the score/weather/playlist for two minutes," shows courtesy and indicates to your partner that you are aware that your attention is shifting. It may also make you more aware of how often you pick up your phone when your partner is present.

If your partner's job demands round-the-clock availability, discuss reasonable boundaries that would satisfy both the job and you.

"The big challenge is that people are not talking about these issues enough," said Daniel Ellenberg, a psychotherapist and partner with Ms. Bell in Relationships That Work. "We need to open up the social intercourse."

Should your partner seem reluctant to let go of ingrained phone habits, consider turning to an objective source. Rather than wag your finger, you might suggest that you both take a closer look at your phone habits.

"Couples need to form an alliance and decide together what are the new rules," Dr. Turkle said.

Dr. David Greenfield, a University of Connecticut psychiatry professor and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction developed a simple quiz, the Smartphone Compulsion Test, to help determine if a person's phone use is problematic. Let the score be the judge, rather than you.

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Love Well We have an intimate relationship with our phones. We sleep with them, eat with them and carry them in our pockets. We check them, on average, 47 times a day - 82 times if you're between 18 and 24 years old, according to recent data.

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Young Mob rules helping young find their voice

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Young Mob rules helping young find their voice

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Open the Internet Browser Click Tools (or "gear" icon at top right hand corner) > Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced Check Override automatic cookie handling For First-party Cookies and Third-party Cookies click Accept Click OK and OK Enabling Cookies in Internet Explorer 10, 11 Open the Internet Browser Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

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How to break the cruel cycle of indigenous imprisonment

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How to break the cruel cycle of indigenous imprisonment

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Indigenous inequity

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2. Click Tools icon Or type in Go to chrome://settings/ to the URL window, hit enter

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5. Click 'Done'

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Open the Internet Browser Click Tools (or "gear" icon at top right hand corner) > Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced Check Override automatic cookie handling For First-party Cookies and Third-party Cookies click Accept Click OK and OK Enabling Cookies in Internet Explorer 10, 11 Open the Internet Browser Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

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Beyond 'he' and 'she': The rise of non binary pronouns

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In the English language, the word "he" is used to refer to males and "she" to refer to females. But some people identify as neither gender, or both - which is why an increasing number of US universities are making it easier for people to choose to be referred to by other pronouns.

Kit Wilson's introduction when meeting other people is: "Hi, I'm Kit. I use they/them pronouns." That means that when people refer to Kit in conversation, the first-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee would prefer them to use "they" rather than "she" or "he".

As a child, Wilson never felt entirely female or entirely male. They figured they were a "tomboy" until the age of 16, but later began to identify as "genderqueer".

"Neither end of the [male/female] spectrum is a suitable way of expressing the gender I am," Wilson says. "Sometimes I feel 'feminine' and 'masculine' at the same time, and other times I reject the two terms entirely."

Earlier this year, Wilson asked friends to call them "Kit," instead of the name they (Wilson) had grown up with, and to use the pronoun "they" when talking about them.

Glossary

Transgender: Applies to a person whose gender is different from their "assigned" sex at birth

Cisgender: Applies to someone whose gender matches their "assigned" sex at birth (ie someone who is not transgender)

Non-binary: Applies to a person who does not identify as "male" or "female"

Genderqueer: Similar to "non-binary" - some people regard "queer" as offensive, others embrace it

Genderfluid: Applies to a person whose gender identity changes over time

See also: A guide to transgender terms

Sharing one's pronouns and asking for others' pronouns when making introductions is a growing trend in US colleges.

For example, when new students attended orientation sessions at American University in Washington DC a few months ago, they were asked to introduce themselves with their name, hometown, and preferred gender pronoun (sometimes abbreviated to PGP).

"We ask everyone at orientation to state their pronouns," says Sara Bendoraitis, of the university's Center for Diversity and Inclusion, "so that we are learning more about each other rather than assuming."

A handful of universities go further and allow students to register their preferred pronouns in the university computer systems - and also a preferred name.

At the University of Vermont, which has led this movement, students can choose from "he," "she," "they," and "ze," as well as "name only" - meaning they don't want to be referred to by any third-person pronoun, only their name.

"It maximises the student's ability to control their identity," says Keith Williams, the university's registrar, who helped to launch the updated student information system in 2009. Most people stick to the default option, "none", which means they are not registering a pronoun - presumably because they are content to let people decide whether they are a "he" or a "she".

Out of about 13,000 students currently enrolled, some 3,200 have entered preferred names in the system, and about half of them have specified preferred pronouns, Williams says. He adds that this doesn't necessarily mean they are transgender - they could be non-transgender students specifying "he" and "she".

At Harvard University, which followed Vermont's example at the beginning of this academic year, about half of the approximately 10,000 students registered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences have specified preferred pronouns, and slightly more than 1% of those - about 50 out of 5,000 - chose pronouns other than "she" or "he", according to registrar Mike Burke.

At most other US universities the growing use of "non-binary" pronouns remains less formalised but is often encouraged in various ways. Signs and badges found throughout campuses display slogans such as Pronouns Matter or Ask Me About My Pronouns. Professors may be invited to training sessions at the start of each year and are sometimes urged to include their pronouns in their email signature, for example, "John Smith (he/him/his)".

A card developed by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee LGBT Resource Center in 2011 has been widely reproduced and distributed across the US.

One side of the card lists eight pronouns, from "ey" to "zie," and illustrates how they change depending on their role in a sentence. Instead of "he/she," "him/her," "his/her," "his/hers," and "himself/herself" it would be:

"ey," "em," "eir," "eirs," and "eirself", or

"zie," "zim," "zir," "zirs," and "zirself"

The other side of the card has fill-in-the-blank sentences to give people an opportunity to practise using the unfamiliar pronouns.

"The intention behind it was to ensure that the campus was fostering an inclusive environment," says Jennifer Murray, the director of the resource centre.

All the pronouns on the card were already in use, Murray says, either among students or members of Milwaukee's LGBT community. Although it might have been simpler to suggest just one non-binary pronoun, she says the staff of the resource centre didn't want to "limit folks' choices".

The alternatives to "he" and "she" are myriad. Wikipedia's gender-neutral pronouns page lists 14 "non-traditional pronouns" in English, though three are variants of "ze". Other online resources for the non-binary community, however, offer hundreds of options.

Some terms come from foreign languages - such as the German-inspired "sie" - others from fiction. For example, "ze" and "per" are the pronouns of a future utopia Marge Piercy describes in her feminist sci-fi novel Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). Some are drawn from the plant or animal worlds, or refer to mythical beings with which the individual may identify.

It's is not the first time people have tried to coin new pronouns. Writers have long been frustrated by the lack of a neat way to refer to someone of unknown gender - "he or she" is clunky, and if you use it several times in quick succession, "your writing ends up looking like an explosion in a pedants' factory", as Guardian columnist Lucy Mangan once put it.

A linguist at the University of Illinois, Dennis Baron, has catalogued dozens of proposed gender-neutral pronouns, many - including "ip," "nis," and "hiser" - dating back to the 19th Century.

Most of these made little impact, though one - "thon", a contraction of "that one" - got into two American dictionaries.

Overall, though, Baron calls the gender-neutral pronoun an "epic fail" and reckons that new pronouns such as "ze" may not survive. But both he and Sally McConnell-Ginet, a Cornell University linguistics professor who researches the link between gender, sexuality, and language, think the singular "they" - as used for example by Kit Wilson - has a chance of success.

This use of "they" annoys some grammarians. While it does feel natural for most English speakers to say something like "Someone lost their wallet," critics argue that "they" should really only be used to refer to plural nouns. And even those comfortable with "Someone lost their wallet" may have doubts when "Someone" is replaced by a person's name.

It's for this reason that when the pronoun registration system was developed at the University of Vermont in 2009, professors at first argued "ze" would be acceptable, but "they" would not. "They" was only added as an option in 2014.

But English has a precedent for a plural pronoun coming to be used in the singular - the pronoun "you". Until the 17th Century a single person was addressed with "thou" and "thee". Later "you" became perfectly acceptable in both plural and singular. Neither McConnell-Ginet nor Baron sees any reason why the same could not happen with "they".

Last week Washington Post copy editor Bill Walsh sent an email to the newsroom - probably the most popular email he will ever send, as he put it - saying the singular "they" was sometimes permissible, and "also useful in references to people who identify as neither male nor female".

Non-binary in the UK

Most students have "some level of understanding about pronouns", which was not the case a few years ago, says the National Union of Students' LGBT officer, Fran Cowling. NUS name badges now include space for preferred pronouns.

Cambridge University students started a campaign called Make No Assumptions about a year ago. One of its badges (above) prompts readers to ask about the wearer's pronouns. Another has empty spaces for pronouns to be filled in.

Emrys Travis, Cambridge University Student Union's LGBT+ campaigns officer, uses "they," "them," and "their," but also "ey," "em," and "eir" with trans friends. "A lot of them mess up - repeatedly, often," Travis says. "As long as I think they're trying, it doesn't bother me."

Travis asked their director of studies to email each of their (Travis's) lecturers with a request to use "they" and "them" when referring to Travis and none objected. "Cambridge, in general, is a great place to be trans," they say.

However, learning to use new pronouns or the singular "they" is not easy.

Like Harvard, Ohio University gave students the option to register their preferred name and pronoun this year, but not all professors were ready for it. Some thought "they" was a typo on their student rosters, says LGBT centre director delfin bautista (bautista writes their name without any capital letters).

Slip-ups with preferred names are rarer than with preferred pronouns, bautista says, but can happen too. Calling someone by their rejected birth name is termed "deadnaming". More broadly, referring to a person in a way that does not reflect their gender identity is called "misgendering".

When students suspect that professors may not get the point of gender-neutral pronouns, they may play it safe and stick with "he" or "she".

Sarah Grote, an Ohio University student, uses "they/them" with close friends but hasn't entered this in the student information system to avoid inconveniencing or alienating professors. "I still need their recommendations... and this is still south-eastern Ohio," Sarah says.

In another socially conservative region, one university had to swiftly backtrack after tentatively starting a discussion about pronouns this summer. Donna Braquet, director of the Pride Center at the University of Tennessee posted an explanation of gender-neutral pronouns on the university website in August and encouraged people on campus to ask one another about their pronouns.

The goal was to make the climate more trans-friendly, but it was widely mistaken for a change in university policy. Some of the press coverage imagined that "he" and "she" were being outlawed. One opinion column even used the headline "New pronouns for the traveling freak show". State and federal lawmakers complained to the university, and the post was removed the following week.

It's not just in US universities that gender-neutral language is advancing. Last year, Facebook gave users the option to customise gender beyond male and female, and pick a pronoun from "he", "she", and "they". This summer the Oxford Dictionaries website added the honorific "Mx", defining it as "a title used before a person's surname or full name by those who wish to avoid specifying their gender or by those who prefer not to identify themselves as male or female". Meanwhile, Caitlyn Jenner and the controversy over Benedict Cumberbatch playing a non-binary character in the film Zoolander 2 have kept the subject of gender identity topical.

Universities, however, remain the most fertile ground for new pronouns.

kat baus, a non-binary student who graduated from Harvard this year - and who also writes their name without capital letters - regrets that the university's computer system was not introduced earlier. "It would have been a lot easier and less awkward," baus says.

baus sent emails or visited professors during office hours to explain their gender identity and pronouns. In smaller classes they (baus) brought it up when introducing themself.

"I don't know a single trans person who likes having that conversation," baus says.

Being able to do it with the click of a mouse would have allowed them to get straight down to their work in class, baus says - and would have allowed their classmates to get straight down to theirs.

Pronoun panic

It is sometimes difficult to determine somebody's gender by sight but what if you're blind? Mike Lambert recently experienced this problem when he attended a course on equality and diversity.

"I listen hard to Nina's voice. There's something soft and tentative about it - but the pitch is unmistakeably male... I tell myself that any concerns I have about Nina's gender are a thing of little consequence. The whole point of the day is equality and diversity, and I shouldn't get so hung-up trying to slot people into neat pigeon-holes. And then, I'm struck by a horrifying thought. How am I going to get through more than a couple of sentences without committing myself to 'he' or 'she', 'his' or 'hers'?"
Identifying gender when you're blind Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

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In the English language, the word "he" is used to refer to males and "she" to refer to females. But some people identify as neither gender, or both - which is why an increasing number of US universities are making it easier for people to choose to be referred to by other pronouns.

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Ever gone to check a Facebook friend request only to find out it's from your nan? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, your little cousin who now won't stop bombarding you with Candy Crush requests?

Whether you're a social media lover or hater, there's no use denying the widespread impact it has had on the way people connect and communicate. It's no longer restricted to the tech-savvy, either.

As the influence of social media continues to grow, different generations are signing up (or growing up, and taking their social media accounts with them), meaning now your 'friends' and followers could be a melting pot of generations, each bringing with them vastly different ideals, opinions, and, tellingly, levels of social media proficiency.

So how has the landscape of social media changed now it's no longer for those who 'get it'?

"The current era of online interaction is one of the first times in a long time where new users interact with older users, and by 'older' I mean users with quite a lot of experience," Dr Glen Fuller of the News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra told The Huffington Post Australia.

"Quite often you'll see newer users making errors that older users think are obvious. On the other hand, older, more experienced users interact with each other in a way that newer users find bewildering.

"While it's not a new problem, the scale of the problem is relatively new."

Fuller says the differing levels of experience brought to each platform can prove frustrating for all involved. While you really don't want to see yet another picture of Aunty Glenda's cats, she might be equally confused as to why you, her beloved niece/nephew, haven't 'liked' them. Fuller says a lot of this comes down to newer users understanding the concept of audience.

"One of the good things about the internet is you can find a group of people who will like anything you like," Fuller told HuffPost Austraila.

"Which means if you want to talk about certain things, you can find the audience to do that with. Where the difficulty lies is you actually need to find that audience -- you can't just assume because you have a Twitter account you have an audience who is going to listen to everything you say.

"You also can't expect too much of the platform by assuming you are going to get interaction start away. Unless you're a massive celebrity, of course, in which case it's a completely different scenario."

Speaking of the Kardashians celebrity, Dr Tama Leaver of the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts at Curtin University says one of the biggest cross-generational confusions on social media is none other than, you guessed it, the selfie.

Kim Kardashian, selfie queen.

"Opinions on selfies usually comes down to a generation thing," Leaver told HuffPost Australia. "The younger generations tend to view selfies as self-empowering, or that they are sharing positive body images with each other.

"On the other end you have accusations of narcissism and ridiculous self indulgence. In actual fact, both are probably true from from each perspective.

"But both need to be aware of the platform they are using and what that means. Facebook is a good example. With something like 1.59 billion users, we're talking about a full spectrum of generations on there.

"It's a sharing ground everyone will see. Myself, knowing my grandparents are looking at my Facebook account makes me much less likely to share certain things. I think this is why services such as Snapchat are popular, for that exact reason."

More experienced users are also advised to ease up on the judgment, already, and show a little patience as newer inductees learn the ropes. After all, ever checked out your very first profile picture? If it's something you'd be thrilled to still be using now, then props to you. But more often than not, it will make you cringe. (What were you thinking?)

"There are so many weird conversations on Facebook that really highlight generational differences," Leaver said. "Though you'll also see cultural differences as well as the level of technical ability coming into play.

"One of the most obvious examples of this is those posts you can share, such as 'I'm posting this Facebook so I'm protecting my privacy settings,' or the equivalent.

"For more experienced users, it's frustrating. They're thinking: 'this achieves nothing, why are you doing this again?' But that's just a classic example of the levels of technical literacy differing."

According to Leaver, the best thing to do is to get savvy with filters -- whether that means employing them yourself or showing Aunty Glenda how to join the page Cat Lovers Anonymous.

"Some people are really good at filtering. They are choosing what they want to see, and communicating their own posts to an interested audience," Leaver said.

"I think people who react most strongly [to seeing things they don't like on social media] are the ones who don't understand they can tweak the system, both in terms of what you receive, and who sees what you share."

Visit HuffPost Australia's profile on Pinterest.

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Multiple Generations On Social Media Are Major Source Of User Frustration

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Ever gone to check a Facebook friend request only to find out it's from your nan? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, your little cousin who now won't stop bombarding you with Candy Crush requests? Whether you're a social media lover or hater, there's no use denying the widespread impact it has had on the way people connect and communicate.

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Dr. Phil Catch Me Outside (Cash Me Outside) Full Video

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How entitled teens are making their parents lives hell

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"When I said 'the phone is your responsibility', she started abusing me, screaming at me and smashing her bedroom. She said, 'I'm going to destroy the house, I'm going to kill myself'."

Illustration: Michael Mucci.

Her father called the police.

Richardson is one of a growing number of parents under siege from their children.

The pointy end of entitlement

Sons are smashing windows, furious they're asked to stop playing computer games. Doors are hanging off hinges having been slammed so hard in a fit of pique. Teenagers are holding knives to their mother's throat, or threatening to kill themselves.

This is the pointy end of entitlement, the defining characteristic of this generation of children.

"It's the end result of giving kids everything they want," psychologist Judith Locke explains. "Tough love is really being called for, but we've got a generation of parents who are much less inclined to do this."

Eager to deliver the perfect childhood, parents are emotionally and materially indulging their children. Boundaries are rarely enforced and consequences aren't imposed by parents who want to be their child's friend. Kids who grow up expecting attention and success are so accustomed to getting what they want that they don't know how to cope when they don't.

Richardson blames himself for spoiling his daughter. "She has always been given everything she wanted."

Unable to tell anyone what's going on at home, he and his wife have travelled to the eastern suburbs to attend a meeting of Toughlove​, a confidential parent support group.

His story resonates with other parents there. "I would always buy my daughter whatever she wanted because I thought that would make her happy," says Janet Burchfield*, a blonde woman in her 40s. "Now she hits me if she doesn't get what she wants. Today she told me she was never going to speak to me again because I never get her what she wants. I can't win."

Path of less resistance

Parenting experts say the trend towards smaller families has upped the ante on parenting with the goal of maximising the outcomes for each child. But often working parents are so time poor that they will take the path of less resistance.

"Sometimes parents haven't got the time to have that fight with the kids so we just give in," parent educator Michael Grose says. "Often we don't delegate to the child, or allow them to do it themselves, because it's easier and quicker to do it ourselves."

No parent likes seeing their child upset but psychologists believe we're going overboard in our quest to please our kids. "It's well-intentioned but extreme responsiveness to the child, which can actually stop their resilience," Locke says.

Schools report that kids are now so conditioned to receiving a ribbon just for showing up at the sports carnival that they overreact when things don't go their way.

"We are very quick to gratify our students," admits Australian Primary Principals Association president Dennis Yarrington. "This notion of putting in effort, working hard, having delayed gratification, is something I see young people today struggle with."

Growing up with the Internet and social media hasn't helped. Anything kids want, from pizza to porn, can be satisfied 24/7 via the Internet. Social media breeds narcissism by making kids the stars of their own lives on Facebook, Instagram​ and YouTube. Having a newsfeed​ full of what their peers are getting and doing dials up the desire to have the same.

Saying no a matter of choice

Yet kids rarely have to go without. With most families now dual income, saying no to a child's latest whim is a matter of choice, not because parents actually don't have the money to buy the new iPhone 6 or PS4.

"Because we can give them so much, kids now see it as their right rather than a privilege," Grose says. "We forget that with rights come responsibilities."

The never-ending requirement for more peaks at this time of year. "Kids tend to focus more on the number of presents and their expectations on the present being exactly what they have asked for, they don't experience the joy and gratefulness of receiving one item," psychologist Michelle Pritchard observes.

Pritchard stresses that entitlement is a normal part of kids' development, which strikes with the egocentrism of the toddler, and then the boundary-pushing of the 15 - 18-year-old teenager. "But when that entitled expectation is reinforced with no boundaries, it can become really unhealthy and negative," she says.

Some parents are compensating for their own childhood, indulging their children the way they feel they weren't.

Others are making enormous sacrifices for their kids. They might be working long hours or piling up the debt. They're turning themselves inside out to organise their schedules around dance, swimming, piano and Mandarin lessons, or funding overseas trips for their kids which they themselves won't be able to afford in retirement.

"Often children remain on the parents' payroll a lot longer when they're brought up like that," Locke says. She wonders what this will mean for parents in their old age. Will children who are so used to being lovingly tended to - and funded - well into their 30s be able to adjust to the role-reversal and take care of their parents when the time comes?

Mental health issues predicted

Kids who grow up insulated from difficulty and disappointment are also likely to struggle in adulthood if they don't get into their first preference for uni, miss out on a job, or are dumped by the love of their life.

"Because they haven't really developed resilience, they emerge a lot weaker from tough experiences," Locke warns. She predicts mental health issues will emerge in this generation as they mature.

In a bid to clamp down on entitlement, principals are encouraging parents and teachers to emphasise the concept of personal best.

"It's learning that if you have done your best, if you have done whatever you can to achieve the best result, that's what's important. Not whether you came first or last," Yarrington explains.

Schools are adopting the KidsGive program, where children use crowdfunding to raise money for the cause of their choice. "You counteract the age of entitlement with the age of giving," Yarrington says. "Kids learn that sometimes it is more about others than myself."
*Names have been changed

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'She terrorises us': How entitled children are making their parents' lives hell

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The Richardsons are among a growing number of parents under siege from their children.

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Baby Boomers versus Millenials - the smashed avo debate.

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Baby Boomers versus Millenials - the smashed avo debate.

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1. Open the Internet Browser

2. Click Tools (or "gear" icon at top right hand corner) > Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced

3. Check Override automatic cookie handling

4. For First-party Cookies and Third-party Cookies click Accept

5. Click OK and OK

Enabling Cookies in Internet Explorer 10, 11

1. Open the Internet Browser

2. Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

3. Click the Privacy tab, and then, under Settings, move the slider to the bottom to allow all cookies, and then click OK.

Enabling Cookies in Google Chrome

1. Open the Google Chrome browser

2. Click Tools icon Or type in Go to chrome://settings/ to the URL window, hit enter

3. Click 'Advanced settings' > Select Privacy > Content settings

4. Check 'Allow local data to be set (recommended)'

5. Click 'Done'

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Open the Internet Browser Click Tools (or "gear" icon at top right hand corner) > Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced Check Override automatic cookie handling For First-party Cookies and Third-party Cookies click Accept Click OK and OK Enabling Cookies in Internet Explorer 10, 11 Open the Internet Browser Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

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'Bar', 'Fleek' the buzz words for 2015

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"Bae", "Fleek" and the buzzwords of 2015

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Here they are, the new (and not-so-new) words that worked their way into the public consciousness over the last year.

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5SOS feel the heat after group sex comments

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Sydney boy band 5 Seconds of Summer feel the heat after group sex comments

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A pop-punk boy band who have boasted of wild orgies while touring have had one of their dads' come to the rescue after backlash from fans about the "disgusting" and "sexist" comments.

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What is the optimum time to post on social media for maximum impact?

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Young people are so acutely aware of their social media "brand", they strategise the content and timing of their posts for the best result and use tracking tools to measure their performance.

"It's all about getting 10,000 (followers) on Instagram, getting hundreds of likes on Facebook," Ms Trohidis said. "Why does the number of likes determine my happiness? It shouldn't matter. Sometimes I wish social media wasn't there."

The tracking doesn't end with social media. When offline, they are measured over 12 years of schooling from the Australian Early Development Census in kindergarten to the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank at the completion of Year 12.

Advertising and marketing agency GPY&R delved into the lives of 14-17-year-olds, with researchers finding that they felt they were living a life based on data and benchmarks.

Lucielle Vardy​, GPY&R's executive planning director, said the findings of the project called RECON​ raised questions about the psychological impact of constant tracking.

"They are living with daily, almost hourly measurements," she said. "What is healthy benchmarking before it becomes extreme?"

Researchers found teens routinely compared academic results as well as tracking followers, likes, shares and hearts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

"Many of them are measuring their self-worth based on their number of followers," Ms Vardy said. "That's really not healthy because you have to ask: 'Who are your judges?'."

Sometimes I wish social media wasn't there
Sabrina Trohidis

The teenagers involved in the study also spoke of constant academic tracking leading up to the ATAR, with results to be released on Thursday.

"The ATAR looms very large in their minds because school is so competitive and there is so much pressure on this one number - they get tunnel vision," Ms Vardy said.

Principal psychologist with the Quirky Kid Clinic, Kimberley O'Brien​, said constant benchmarking on social media and at school could lead to anxiety in teens.

"The risk is the insecurity of wondering whether you measure up to your peers or your own expectations," she said.

"There is a tendency to want to compare yourself to others and that can be a source of pressure."

But Jeremy Muller, 18, has just finished his HSC at a selective high school and said he found academic rankings useful.

"There is a lot of pressure on results and that did affect me but not in a negative way," he said.

"I liked to be ranked at school because then I would know if I had improved or if I had slipped back. That really helped me get my bearings and set my goals."

Emily Meades has also just finished her HSC however she felt too much focus on academic rankings could be damaging.

"Healthy competition is good but I don't think rankings are always helpful," she said.

"The pressure to maintain a certain position in the rankings can drive girls to unhealthy levels of competition with each other. It gets to people's heads. It's good to look at rankings if you're only tracking your own progress but I think it gets unhealthy if you're constantly comparing yourself to everyone else."

The 18-year-old said her social media presence became less important, the older she got but recalled posting at peak times to attract the biggest number of likes and shares.

"I definitely used to put a lot of thought into what I was posting and when I posted it," she said. "A lot of girls will leave their profiles on public so they can maximise the number of likes they get. I've heard of people buying likes and buying followers. It's scary."

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Generation ranked: GPY&R research finds constant tracking of today's teens

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Young people are so acutely aware of their social media "brand", they strategise the content and timing of their posts for the best result and use tracking tools to measure their performance. "It's all about getting 10,000 (followers) on Instagram, getting hundreds of likes on Facebook," Ms Trohidis said.

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Dangers for teens of living a virtual life

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Too many teenagers are eating, sleeping and socialising online

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Bullying in the social media age

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Posted October 09, 2012 18:33:54

Times have changed inside schools, there's no doubt about that.

When I went to school my parents didn't have mobile phones, let alone my fellow students.

I remember sitting in the library hearing about this new thing, the World Wide Web; I didn't even have an email address until I was 16, let alone constant access to Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Growing up in the country many of our teachers were fresh from teacher's college, inexperienced but enthusiastic.

We certainly didn't have much choice over whether to attend a private or public school and there was no segregation for the special needs students.

And as for funding, I remember our school collected shopping dockets to fund the purchase of a 'real' computer that did more than allow students to play 'Lemonade Stall'.

Today the issues facing schools are different.

Schoolyard bullying has gone a leap further to include cyber-bullying.

School funding arrangements are constantly being debated.

The quality of our teachers and whether we have enough male teachers are topics that crop up more often, along with the problem of attracting bright young things to study teaching at university.

With education shaping up as one of the big election issues in Western Australia, ABC 720 hosted a forum in one of its studios where education professionals could give their thoughts and ideas on some of the challenges ahead.

Bullying

The Education Minister Peter Collier told the forum bullying is one of the most significant issues facing students, as they become much more sophisticated in the way they intimidate their peers and teachers.

"There are thousands of students who turn up to our schools every day and suffer in silence as a result of intimidatory tactics of their peers," he said.

"Bullying now comes through texting, through social media, through emails, through the silent treatment from their peers and as a result of that a lot of students will go home very distressed from school which is a shame because school should be a positive component of a child's life."

Mr Collier says the Government has tried to address the issue by funding an additional 60 school psychologists, putting more chaplains in 600 public schools and starting CARE schools which deal with problem students.

Opposition Education spokesman Paul Papalia told the audience he would like to see the introduction of new legislation to outlaw bully behaviour.

He says teachers have had to fund their own legal action against cyber bullying because the Education Department won't fund it.

"We've seen recently there are some students that did some really nasty stuff, and all that happened was they were suspended, " Mr Papalia said.

"I am just not sure that is going to be effective enough."

The West Australian State School Teachers Union says research is needed to determine how much bullying via social media is a school-based problem and how it should be dealt with in the home.

Rick Firns, the principal of Ashdale Primary School, agrees.

He says the amount of time spent educating families about cyber-bullying has increased.

"We work with families to allow them to understand that there is a difference between what we can do in a school situation and what they need to do in the home situation," Mr Firns said.

He says his school holds forums on cyber bullying for parents because he says many are either not aware or just not sure what they can do to stop the problem.

You've got Male

One male Perth school teacher told the forum that he is the only man in his entire school.

"From kindergarten, pre-primary all the way through years one to six and I'm the year seven teacher, every education assistant is female," the teacher said.

"The people who run the canteen are all female, the uniform shop staff are all female; I love women by-the-way, but is this world's best practice?"

He says it's not a natural representation of society.

"Everybody agrees and they wring their hands and they nod their heads [but] nothing gets done," he said.

He asked Mr Collier and Mr Papalia for a commitment to get more blokes into education.

"Normal boy behaviour, normal male behaviour, is seen as abhorrent and women teachers say 'why are they doing that?' and I know it's just normal."

That leaves another challenge for the Government... How does it attract more males to study teaching when universities are struggling to attract students to the course in general, male or female.

Quality Control

Education experts say the constant commentary on the quality of teachers, along with outcomes-based pay proposals, is scaring people away from the profession.

"I think we need to be cautious of some of the conversations that are going on around the quality of teachers where we're leaving teachers feeling fairly flat," union president Anne Gisborne said.

"I think, given that everyday they come to work, they try their darnedest; they do an awful lot above and beyond."

But Ms Gisborne also told the forum that WA could potentially follow the lead of Finland, where teachers must gain a university Masters before entering a teaching career.

Kylie Catto from the WA Council of State School Organisations told the forum that parents must be careful what they expect from teachers.

"We do not support a pay base for teachers that's solely based on student outcomes and education outcomes," she said.

The director of the Catholic Education Commission, Tim McDonald, agrees.

"They're educating people for the 21st century, we need those skills that industry are looking for," he said.

"People who can negotiate, independent workers, creative thinkers and problem solvers and we should focus on that and we should thank our teachers for the great work that they do."

Minister Collier, who himself was a teacher for 23 years before entering politics, believes the decline in university applications for teaching is because the career has become far more challenging.

"It's much more demanding now than it ever has been in terms of the roles and expectations, not just in the classroom, but in the community," he said.

"They have to be social workers, they have to be psychologists, they have to be support avenues for the students and their parents as well."

With an election in WA early next year, you can be sure both Mr Collier and Mr Papalia will have their heads in the books right now working on policies to fix these issues and more.

Topics: education, community-and-society, access-to-education, educational-resources, university-and-further-education, primary-schools, schools, secondary-schools, perth-6000, wa

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Schools face more challenges than ever before

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Posted October 09, 2012 18:33:54 Times have changed inside schools, there's no doubt about that. When I went to school my parents didn't have mobile phones, let alone my fellow students. I remember sitting in the library hearing about this new thing, the World Wide Web; I didn't even have an email address until I was 16, let alone constant access to Facebook and Twitter accounts.

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Stuff the VCE, I just want to have babies

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Year 12 students have just received their Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks (ATARs). Some have done better than expected; some have done worse. The highest achievers will no doubt be featured in multiple newspaper articles and we will get to read about their dreams of being surgeons and academics and human rights lawyers.

When I finished year 12, in 1997, I didn't really care about my TER (the old version of ATAR). I mean, I did care, in a slightly nauseous, super-excited way - but I knew my score didn't actually matter.

Nine families have been sent birth certificates for other peoples' babies.

Because all I wanted to do was have babies.

I was good at school, in both the well-behaved and straight-A's sense. I loved writing essays, was quite partial to maths tests, and could never wait for the summer holidays to finish. Oh, the smell of new (but second-hand) textbooks! Oh, the joy of covering said books with contact paper (which, in the '90s, was all black and hot pink)!

The power suit was no match for bringin up a family.
Photo: Mark Chew (with permission from Epworth Freemasons Maternity).

In my last year of school I chose a somewhat eclectic mix of subjects: English, maths, physics, graphic communication, literature and history. It certainly wasn't a vocational-pathway sort of selection; I just picked things I liked. And because I liked them I looked forward to every exercise, every assignment and every exam. No amount of homework could satiate my nerdy studying appetite.

But when I went to see Mrs Hardwick, the careers counsellor - a compulsory activity for year 12s - I told her my true ambition.

"What do you mean, have babies?" she said.

"Oh, I'll go to work too," I reassured her. "But mainly I'm interested in starting a family."

At 16, I had never held a baby. I didn't even know anyone with a baby. And I didn't have any younger siblings. Maybe this is why I wanted my own children; I don't know. Nevertheless, my career goal was to not have a career.

Mrs Hardwick probably wasn't sure what to make of my unusual aspiration. "I don't want them straightaway," I added, to calm her nerves. This was true. After all, I didn't have a boyfriend, or even a slight chance of getting a boyfriend. None of the boys at school had ever looked at me. I was not headed for teenage pregnancy.

"So I'll go to uni first. But only to find a husband."

I can't remember what my TER was, exactly, but it must have been pretty high because I ended up being awarded dux of year 12.

Mrs Hardwick later told my mother that she was hoping I'd aim for aerospace engineering or law, or perhaps apply for a bachelor of science. I guess I quickly went from "most promising" to "most disappointing". A school dux is not supposed to go to uni just to "find a husband".

In the end, I applied to study graphic design (surely that's not even a real course - isn't it all just colouring-in and drinking coffee?). And despite my best efforts, I didn't meet a potential partner there (well, not one that fancied me back). After three years, all I had was a degree and a $10,000 HELP debt.

So I became a graphic designer, which was great, and I did love it - but still something was missing: my very own tiny humans.

Finally, at 22, I met a nice bloke who not only fancied me back (short-sighted, low expectations) but also agreed that we should start trying to have babies almost immediately. Jackpot!

Now, at 35, I have a top husband, two excellent children, and no career. But no career doesn't mean no work. When I'm not looking after the kids, I'm a freelance graphic designer, editor and writer. And when I am looking after the kids I never worry about my lack of work-based achievements, or the fact that I don't own a power suit.

I don't know what Mrs Hardwick would say if we bumped into each other today, but I hope she'd think that I turned out OK. Although I'm not a lawyer or an engineer and still have that HELP debt, my work-life balance is leaning nicely towards life.
Jean Flynn is a freelance writer.

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Stuff the VCE, I just want to have babies

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Year 12 students have just received their Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks (ATARs). Some have done better than expected; some have done worse. The highest achievers will no doubt be featured in multiple newspaper articles and we will get to read about their dreams of being surgeons and academics and human rights lawyers.

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"Something in me snapped": the silent fury sparked by street sexual harassment

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A few metres on and the next one was upon me, standing in my path. "I hear blondes have more fun."

Something in me snapped. I told him it was incredibly sexist. I swore. I was furious.

But my reaction to yesterday's incident was not just about irritating chuggers. It was a fury with a deep history.

And most women have felt it.

It's a fury that comes from decades of unwanted advances from men we don't know. It comes from having guys demand we smile as we walk down the street. It comes from being told to "lighten up" when we're on the receiving end of casual sexual innuendo. Or from being told we should view wolf whistles or car horns as compliments affirming our attractiveness

It's not flattering. At best it's infuriating. At worst it's frightening.

If clipboard man stood in isolation, perhaps I would have laughed off his comments as a clumsy approach from a young backpacker trying to earn a living. But what he wouldn't have known is that in that moment I was brought back to all the times strange men have made me feel uncomfortable or unsafe while going about my business, often during broad daylight.

It reminded me of the man in a suit driving a sports car who gave me the tongue gesture as I crossed the road near my home. Or the pack of tradies on their lunchbreak swapping comments on the shape of my body as I hurried past.

Then there was the genius who leaned out of his ute with a megaphone - implying a degree of preparedness that is quite terrifying - and bellowed "suck my c**k", as I went for a run at 9:30 on a Saturday morning.

Street harassment is an all too frequent reality for women. A survey of more than 1400 women commissioned by the Australia Institute this year showed 87 per cent of had experienced at least one form of verbal or physical street harassment.

Exercising is often when we are at our most vulnerable. When I detailed the megaphone incident on Facebook last year, countless female friends shared their own experiences of being harassed when working out.

As one friend said: "I was on my bike yesterday and a guy leaned out of a car window and made a bizarre noise at me. What bothers me most is that in a few years I'll have to start answering my daughter's questions about why, when women/girls walk down the street, they endure weird noises, threats, insults, inducements and commands to smile, while boys/men can walk largely in ignorant, silent bliss."

Of women who have experienced street harassment, 56 per cent were alone at the time and 87 per cent had changed their behaviour in at least one way to ensure their personal safety in the past 12 months.

Last year, Hollaback, an American anti-street-harassment advocacy group, released a public service announcement showing a woman wearing a hidden camera being approached by men more than 100 times as she walked the streets of New York.

We make judgment calls to protect ourselves on a regular basis. Like the time I stood on my own, waiting for a cab in the dark, and chose not to engage the drunk footy fan with a pack of his mates yelling about my "nice boots". When I turned my head and three times ignored him, he hollered back, "F***ing slut."

This delicate, nerve-jangling dance - trying not to enrage the strange man who has forced himself into our space while at the same time not offering encouragement - is familiar to most women. We recognised it when we watched the bone-chilling CCTV footage of Jill Meagher being approached by her killer, Adrian Bayley, on Sydney Road shortly before her rape and murder.

These are the thoughts never far from the surface when men on the street offer us "compliments" and expect us to be grateful for the attention.

Many believe they are doing so innocently. They're "just being friendly". But if you are one of the "good guys" who condemns violence against women and prides himself on being nice to his mum, ask yourself how are we meant to know the difference between you and the man who would do us harm?

That's not to say men should never approach women they don't know with a compliment or an introduction. But if she ignores or rejects the advance, respect her choice. She may not be interested. She may be worn down by unwanted approaches. She may simply be scared.

Try to imagine what it's like to not be able to exercise on a hot day without being leered at or have some idiot holler at you from a moving vehicle. Before you beep that horn or ask us to "cheer up", or declare that "blondes have more fun", think about what's gone before.

Don't be that guy. Don't let your mate be that guy. That's how you can make a difference.
Jill Stark is an Age writer. Follow Jill on Twitter jstark@fairfaxmedia.com.au

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'Something in me snapped': the silent fury sparked by street sexual harassment

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A few metres on and the next one was upon me, standing in my path. "I hear blondes have more fun." Something in me snapped. I told him it was incredibly sexist. I swore. I was furious. But my reaction to yesterday's incident was not just about irritating chuggers.

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VCE score kept secret: 7 years on, Amy Goldenberg still doesn't know her result

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VCE score kept secret: 7 years on, Amy Goldenberg still doesn't know her result

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Thousands of VCE students will awake early on Monday morning to a text message revealing their long-awaited mark.

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School refusal: Anxious kids miss months, even years of class

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School refusal: Anxious kids miss months, even years of class

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It is often mistaken for wagging, but 'school refusal' is a serious behavioural problem.

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Conflict (Marxism) Theory (3): How much should a tooth fairy give?

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Conflict (Marxism) Theory (3): How much should a tooth fairy give?

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According to an Australian survey, it's up from $2 in 1995 to $6 now

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The Tooth Fairy must live in Brokesville because kids want more than loose change for a wriggly tooth these days, with one study showing under 12s now get a whopping $6 per tooth.

The survey, by insurance company Real Insurance, found the average cost of a tooth was $2 in 1995, $3 in 2005 and now $6 in 2015.

Now pearly whites aren't exactly as rare as hen's teeth. The average child loses 20 baby teeth, which adds up to $120. Spokesperson Tatiana Day said nationally, it was a significant amount.

"Australians are expected to spend $240 million to cover the Tooth Fairy costs for the current cohort of under 12 year olds across the country -- which means over the last 20 years the value of the average tooth has more than doubled," Day said.

It's not that kids today are money grabbing little terrors, but if these figures are correct, the tooth fairy is paying well above inflation.

Two dollars in 1995 money works out to be $3.26 in today's money, a ccording to the RBA's nifty inflation calculator, based on the target rate of 2.6 percent.

And if mum or dad is today paying out $6 per tooth, in real time their single earnings would have had to grow from the average wage to $10,000 above average just to keep up with the tooth fairy.

The Tooth Fairy isn't the only one giving more to children, the Heritage Bank 2015 Australian Pocket Money Survey released in September showed pocket money had doubled since 2013 and the average child got $11.30 per week.

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How Much Should The Tooth Fairy Give? According To An Australian Survey, It's Up From $2 In 1995 To $6

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The Tooth Fairy must live in Brokesville because kids want more than loose change for a wriggly tooth these days, with one study showing under 12s now get a whopping $6 per tooth. The survey, by insur...

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Year 12 results day: does the ATAR actually matter that much?

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This morning, thousands of young people will be glued to their mobile phones for good reason.

It's the first day that Australian Tertiary Admissions Rankings (ATARs) are released to students.

It's these results that put a full stop on 13 years of schooling and open a new chapter.

And it's also the day that media outlets across the country crunch the numbers to parade out the big winners - the handful of young people who obtain perfect scores of 99.95.

Over the coming days, we will hear how important the ATAR is for determining " the rest of your life ".

We will see the school league tables of winners and losers: the usual cast of schools in the usual handful of locations across the country that take top honours.

What we will not hear about is how a quarter of young people are not completing year 12 or its equivalent. Or about the schools that help disadvantaged children improve their ATARs, but do not make the top grades.

In part, this is because high-performing students from disadvantaged areas often drift toward higher-performing schools. The schools serving the most marginalised populations are tasked with providing the most support for those for whom university pathways are not the priority.

There are some success stories, but these are the exceptions to the norm in mainstream media. If only other disadvantaged schools would just pay attention to what these success stories do with their students!

What we won't hear about is the crippling anxiety and other mental health issues that many students face in completing year 12.

A recent report shows that over one-third of young people aged between 15 and 19 are "highly stressed" about school. Over half of the 19,000 surveyed felt that academic barriers would impact on their further study and work goals.

Year 12 is often positioned as the defining moment, and many students falsely believe that exam failure means absolute disaster for their future.

So does the ATAR actually matter that much?

Well that depends on who you are asking, and what you think matters.

For university placements, the ATAR is being used less and less as the sole measure that universities employ in selecting students.

There is an overwhelming focus on those courses that are "easy" or "hard" to get into, with little regard for what students will do post-study. Within this, the ATAR is becoming less effective as a predictor of future success.

There is strong evidence to suggest that even those who do well in education are having a harder time of navigating their post-school lives.

Those who complete year 12 still tend to enjoy better job and life conditions than those who don't.

However, other measures of disadvantage around socio-economic status, language background, Indigenous status and gender tend to act as stronger predictors of poor outcomes.

Far from meritocratic, poor ATARs tend to accumulate around particular postcodes where educational disadvantage is concentrated.

In a market where schools in wealthy suburbs - whether public or private - post billboards around their suburb reporting on student ATARs and university offers for their year 12 cohorts, is it surprising that students are overwhelmingly oriented toward university pathways over TAFE?

Is it surprising that students feel that their schools are being run as businesses with a focus on improving numbers, publicity and being competitive in the education marketplace?

The focus on ATARs in the mainstream media unfairly conflates school leaving with university offers.

In a country where only half of young people finishing school take up university places, and almost a quarter of those students do not finish their bachelor degrees, this focus provides a false representation of where young people go after school.

It also masks a much deeper story about who is missing out on educational and work opportunities.

Today is the day that we celebrate those at the top of the curve. However, today should be the day that we interrogate the value of the ATAR and of targets for improving the proportion of young people attaining year 12 or equivalent.

We must question the premium on year 12 as the measure for a successful transition. As a country, it is time we had a serious discussion about the emphasis we place on year 12.

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Year 12 results day: does the ATAR actually matter that much?

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The ATAR is being used less and less as the sole measure that universities use to select students. It's time to question its value and the pressure it puts on students in year 12.

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Rich student, poor student: what your VCE subjects say about you

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Rich student, poor student: what your VCE subjects say about you

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Rich VCE students study Latin and receive bonus marks while their poor counterparts study food technology and their results are scaled down.

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Sociological Perspective of Education from 'Sociology for Teachers'

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Teachers are abandoning their state school because the state school sector has abandoned them. I know, because I am one of them.

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Thrill seekers: Risk life changing injuries

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Jumping into peril: Thrillseekers risk life-changing injuries

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Summer is the season for increased water-related mishaps but could social media be fuelling a new type of risky thrill-seeking behaviour?

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How statistics can be misleading

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Statistics can be used in a powerful and useful ways. In what ways could this world data be analyzed in order to help society? Take a look at this site! Any ideas about this information could be used to improve the lives of people?

Are there ways that we can analyze statistics visually? This site provides some helpful tools for analysis. Take a few moments and look through the site for some ideas about visual representations of data. What does Hans Rosling do to visually represent data that allows connections to be seen so readily? Take a look at this link. Then, watch some TED Talks by Hans Roslin g to get more ideas about how data and statistics can be represented.

There are many different ways that statistics can be analyzed. Consider some of the helpful examples at this site.

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How statistics can be misleading - Mark Liddell

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Statistics are persuasive. So much so that people, organizations, and whole countries base some of their most important decisions on organized data. But any set of statistics might have something lurking inside it that can turn the results completely upside down. Mark Liddell investigates Simpson's paradox.

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Youth across time / Sociological Research Methodology

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Youth across time / Sociological Research Methodology

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What makes a good life?  Lessons from the longest study on happiness.

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Transcript of "What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it's fame and money, you're not alone - but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you're mistaken. As the director of a 75-year-old study on adult development, Waldinger has unprecedented access to data on true happiness and satisfaction.

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Is a 'bad' VCE result a bad thing?

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I am a secondary teacher in a northern suburbs government school. Based on the study score results that students achieved in the two VCE classes I taught, I am having trouble deciding whether I am a great teacher, an average teacher or a poor teacher. You see, the scores ranged from 49 down to seven, with scores in the forties, thirties and twenties and lower in between.

This got me wondering. Could there actually be factors in addition to teacher quality that influence students' results? Perhaps, for example, socio-economic factors, the home environment, parental expectations, genetics and personal traits. Thankfully for my talented, dedicated and hard-working colleagues and I, the system of payment by results ended in Victorian schools in 1905.
Sharon Rishel, Toorak
Teachers' discipline knowledge is critical

It is great to hear of maths activities that children enjoy (Education, 14/12). However, Australia has to face reality about the state of maths education in schools. The tragedy is that students at Bentleigh's Tucker Road Primary School will be very lucky if they always have a maths teacher who is enthusiastic and knowledgable about the discipline theh are teaching.

There is no magic bullet for teaching maths, but we do know the importance of teachers' discipline knowledge. It is possible to track Australia's performance on international maths assessments trending downwards as the teacher problem has worsened. There is an issue of supply but this is compounded if retiring teachers have more discipline studies than those who are replacing them.

Action is being taken to improve teacher education, especially for primary teachers. This is a long-term solution, but action is also needed to address the discipline knowledge of many current primary teachers. At the secondary level, there are not enough maths graduates to meet the demands of education and industry. The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute has shown the depth of the "out-of-field" teacher problem and that this is worse for rural and remote areas.

The only solution is to improve the discipline knowledge of existing teachers, many of whom would jump at the opportunity if they were given appropriate support and courses. When governments at both state and federal level stop funding imaginary "magic bullets" and start funding programs to improve teachers' discipline knowledge, then students at Tucker Road Primary might always enjoy, and excel in, maths.
Jan Thomas, North Melbourne
Our unsung inventors

The individual inventor has been a powerful force in the creation of many inventions and technologies which have contributed hugely to our economic prosperity. The government's innovation statement is deficient in that it offers no support to them.

Over the past 20years, individual inventors have been abandoned by: IP Australia (it administers the intellectual property rights system) which closed its state offices; the courts, in that costs relating to infringement cases are extreme and settlements insignificant; and the government, in that you must be a registered company with substantial turnover to be eligible for assistance.

I have been on the committee of the Inventors Association for 35years, assisting hundreds of people to commercialise their ideas. Without government support, many have run out of money and their ideas and patents have been lost. If we are to become an innovative nation, initiatives supporting inventors must be created in areas of patents, prototyping, production and commercialisation.
Frank Bishop, Croydon North
Cruelty-free coffees

A small-scale dairy (The Age, 15/2) is welcome news after endless stories about huge mega-dairies and the attendant cow welfare problems that factory farming imposes. However, even to produce "craft" milk for cafes' lattes, hundreds of calves, the rightful recipients of their mothers' milk, are sacrificed in abattoirs when they are only five days old. Choosing a soy latte instead is a cruelty-free option.
Jan Kendall, Hawthorn
Nothing but the best

So Foreign Minister Julie Bishop spent more than $1700 of taxpayers' money on three beanbags as part of the federal government's innovationXchange initiative. They were Armani beanbags, of course.
Meredith Andrews, Seacliff, SA
Our hearts and minds

Judy Courtin's excoriating critique of the performance of Catholic bishops before the royal commission is spot on in every respect but one: these men are not "the Catholic Church". They temporarily hold senior administrative positions but our church exists primarily in the hearts and minds of its members.

It is true that they have failed us badly and they obstinately continue not to see that. Thankfully they will eventually pass on and we will begin to recover from the shame.

The best historical footnote they can now hope for is in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones".
Peter Sheehan, Camberwell
Benefit of the doubt

I am far from being a fan of George Pell, but I hate unfairness. Have those who are critical of his "no show" at the royal commission got proof that he is not ill? Cardinal Pell was never one to back away from a fight.
Frank O'Dea, Box Hill
True to our church

I cannot commend too highly Mary Dalmau's letter (14/12). It is vitally important for us Catholics to make clear that, no matter how disgusted we may be at our betrayal by the (Rome-appointed) bishops, we will not abandon Christ's church, nor will we be muzzled.
Fred Bendeich, Camberwell
Rise and fall of gods

I was comfortable with Mary Dalmau's characterisation of the Catholic Church as a man-made organisation about power, money and control. I was with her right up until her last comment, "yet I refuse to allow them to take my faith from me". Why not man-made church, man-made god? The history of our species encompasses the worship of thousands of gods who rose and fell with the rise and fall of the cultures that created them. To summarise H.L.Mencken: They were gods of the highest dignity - gods of civilised peoples - worshipped and believed in by millions. All were omnipotent, omniscient and immortal. And all are dead.
Alan Cooper, Ashburton
Where's our box gone?

Concerns about high postage costs (Letters, 15/12) no longer bother those of us in South Eltham.

Our only post box was summarily removed in April with none of the public consultation process so clearly outlined on Australia Post's website. A meeting with representatives called to reassure the public has had no effect. Is this the way the corporatised public service is supposed to be? How will they make a profit with no customers?
Rex Niven, Eltham
Cheat-proof stamps

Don't ask me how I know this, but Australia Post chief Ahmed Fahour may be interested to learn that British stamps that come through the system unfranked cannot be soaked off for re-use. He would do well to adopt this technology here and thus avoid losing valuable revenue.
Elaine O'Shannessy, Wandin North
Eliminate concessions

If the budget has a serious deficit problem (The Age, 15/112), surely the first action on tax reform has to be the removal of tax concessions that are generous or counterproductive. In particular the concessions on negative gearing, capital gains, superannuation and fossil fuel subsidies. Clearly, we cannot afford them any more.
Richard Fone, Camberwell
Not another selfie

Goodness knows we have more than enough rules to keep the police busy, but I do wish there was a selfie ban in Federation Square when there is entertainment on. The last thing I want to see is badly dressed tourists taking photos of themselves, blocking out a joyful choir giving its all for Australia at Christmas.
Mish Stephenson, Melbourne
Matter of sustainability

When the chest beating and high words subside, unless the impact of the increasing world population is part of the discussion, the agreed aims of the Paris climate summit will not be possible. Profit-driven economic growth requiring rampant consumerism, land clearing and burning, addiction to the use of motorised vehicles and continued reliance on coal mining for energy will inevitably produce increasing emissions from a growing world population. More sustainable solutions are required.
Gloria O'Connor, Pakenham Upper
Banishing the drys

John Howard was able to rid his parliamentary party of those whom he described as "wets". It appears the current condition of tenure for the job of prime minister will prevent Malcolm Turnbull from doing the same to the "drys". So the gaggle of right-wing dinosaurs and climate change deniers hold sway. The frustration for Mr Turnbull must be palpable.
Neil McDonald, Berwick
Tolls not the only way

There will be predictable outrage from motorists if road tolls are extended (The Age, 14/12). Perhaps this is not the only way to free up congested roads. More than 90per cent of traffic are driver-only vehicles. They are part of the problem, so another solution may be useful. Discouraging single-person vehicles, encouraging car sharing or, best of all, improving public transport would be preferable. However, I cannot see this happening.
Ian Foote, Hawthorn
Against the odds

Australian cricket commentators and fans are critical of the West Indies for their poor performance in the Test match. What is not mentioned is that the team is drawn from mainly small island nations with a total population of a few million. Playing against Australia's well-organised squad from the six Shield teams, drawn from a population base of nearly 24million, it is a wonder the Windies have done so well in the past.
Leo Gamble, Mentone
Please, not the horn

I have lived near a train station for many years. I get a maximum of five hours uninterrupted sleep (the period between the last and first trains) due to the relatively recent practice of trains tooting their horns. Metro Trains told me that under transport regulations, drivers must sound their horns for safety reasons when approaching or leaving a station and when approaching or passing through a level crossing.

When all-night, weekend public transport starts, the timetable indicates that I (and many others who live near stations and level crossings) will have a maximum of 40minutes uninterrupted sleep on those nights.

Studies have shown that less than seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep compromises the immune system, increases the chances of some diseases and leads to road and workplace accidents. It appears the safety of a small minority who are where they should not be (on a train line) is more important than the health and safety of thousands of other people.
Chrissie Schubert, Windsor
AND ANOTHER THING

George Pell

Is the Pope aware that a senior cardinal has pleaded ill health to avoid attending the royal commission? Is he going to do anything about it?
Mirna Cicioni, Brunswick East
George Pell is probably too busy reporting back to Santa on who's been naughty or nice.
Bryan Fraser, St Kilda
Plan A: Do we have an extradition treaty with the Vatican? Plan B: Can we swap an Abbott for a Cardinal?
John Boucher, Inverloch
It sounds like Vati-cant.
Harvey Mitchell, Castlemaine
Pell the other one.
Dale Crisp, Brighton
Like fellow Catholic Mary Dalmau (14/12), I too have cut out the middle man and go direct to God.
Win Johnston, Mornington
National Party

Ian Macfarlane didn't jump ship. He walked the plank.
Malcolm McDonald, Burwood
It's a joke, Joyce.
Russell Castley, Creswick
Hands up those in favour of Warren Truss remaining deputy prime minister. Hello. Anyone?
John Bye, Elwood
Furthermore

Jason Dowling (14/12), we already have a congestion tax in Melbourne. It's called "parking fees".
George Stockman, Berwick
Low oil prices must be good. Perhaps I don't have any passive income to stress about.
John Bowman, Ocean Grove
Farewell to Potts of Money - and with a departure to rival Melba's.
Bernie Joyce, Parkville
Thought I'd say: "It's un-Australian". I haven't heard it for a while.

Antonio Baldo, Carlton North

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Education: A 'bad' VCE result is not always a bad thing

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I am a secondary teacher in a northern suburbs government school. Based on the study score results that students achieved in the two VCE classes I taught, I am having trouble deciding whether I am a great teacher, an average teacher or a poor teacher.

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Sociological imagination - the evolving heart of modern marriage

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Sociological imagination - the evolving heart of modern marriage

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Read the article, highlighting how marriage has changed over time.

Use the sociological imagination to help identify and explain the social forces which have influence the changes in marriage over the past decades.

Create at least four level 2 and/or level 3 questions according to Costa's Level of Questioning.

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Wolfers has taken time off from his job as a professor at the University of Michigan while his partner, Stevenson, is working in Washington as an adviser to President Obama.

Their theory is that economic and social changes have caused the basic rationale for marriage to change from "productive" to "hedonic".

Historically, marriage has been the product of the economic environment of the time. People have used marriage and family to overcome the limitations of the formal economy at the time. Social institutions such as marriage have evolved as economic opportunities have changed and the economy's degree of development has risen.

There was a time - I can remember it - when a number of goods and services, such as freshly cooked meals and childcare, weren't sold in the marketplace. And when keeping house involved long hours of labour.

In such circumstances, it made sense for the family to become the firm producing these household services. It also made sense for the partners to a marriage to increase the efficiency of the "firm" by specialisation.

It was usually the case that husbands, being better educated, were better suited to going out and earning income in the marketplace, while wives had prepared themselves for a life of child-rearing and housekeeping.

Largely unconsciously, young women and men sought out partners they believed would be capable opposite numbers in such a production team.

Then followed, in the lifespan of the Baby Boomers, much technological and social change, all of it with economic implications.

With the invention of a host of "mod cons", housekeeping became a lot less time-consuming and onerous. Cheap imported clothing became available, so people stopped making and repairing their own. More processed foods and takeaways became available.

"While the political emancipation of women is surely a key factor in their movement from the home to the market, deeper economic forces are also at play," Stevenson and Wolfers say.

What came first? The rise of feminism, advances in technology or changes in the economy? Easiest to say they all happened at about the same time and interacted with each other.

Once girls started staying on to the end of school, then going on to uni, things really started to change, in the way partners were selected for marriage and in the things going on in the economy.

With more women wanting to take paid work, the market began supplying things to make that possible: more pre-prepared food, childcare, after-school care, people who mow your lawn, cleaners who can whip through your house in an hour before moving on to the next one.

"While the benefits of one member of a family specialising in the home have fallen, the costs of being such a specialist have risen. Improvements in the technology of birth control have made investing in a wife's human capital a better bet ...

"These greater opportunities also connote a greater opportunity cost for a couple contemplating a stay-at-home spouse," the authors say.

Advances in medicine have yielded rising life expectancy, and the average woman will now spend less than a quarter of her adult life with young children in the household.

By increasing the number of potential years in the labour force, the opportunity cost of women staying out of the labour market to be home with children is higher.

"Rising life expectancy also reduces the centrality of children to married life, as couples now expect to live together for decades after children have left the nest," they say.

With women now better educated than men, we've seen the rise of a human version of "assortative mating": the tendency for people to marry those of the same level of education, even the same occupation.

So what drives modern marriage? "We believe the answer lies in a shift from the family as a forum for shared production, to shared consumption . . . Modern marriage is about love and companionship. Most things in life are simply better [when] shared with another person.

"We call this new model of sharing our lives 'hedonic marriage'."
Ross Gittins is the Herald's economics editor

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Wolfers has taken time off from his job as a professor at the University of Michigan while his partner, Stevenson, is working in Washington as an adviser to President Obama. Their theory is that economic and social changes have caused the basic rationale for marriage to change from "productive" to "hedonic".