Michael Ann Dobbs's discussions

How’s your handwriting? You can be smart (even a genius!) and have dysgraphia. Bad handwriting and inability to spell are the giveaways that you may have a learning disorder. It generally goes undiagnosed, since poor spelling is still considered some sort of moral failing and it’s not as common (or make school as… Read more

Did Google Maps ever put in the actual height of the Brooklyn Bridge on their bike directions? ‘Cuz they kept insisting it was 0.0 feet high for a long time and it is not. Read more

I would imagine that the 4-year-old did it in steps: hung from the door handle until it opened, then climbed in. The truck could have been on a slight left-to-right incline making climbing and closing the door easier (though opening it harder).  Also, I’d believe a four year old could have climbed through an open… Read more

Nope! Since the 1600s people have kept their babies on “leading strings.” Combo leashes/walking trainers. Puritans were SUPER into them because they believed crawling made children “animalistic.”   Read more

Yes it is! And I’m so sorry that you caught it, that’s terrible. Read more

His fans also appreciate that he speaks on about a fourth grade reading level. It makes them feel like they can participate in the conversation. Read more

Let us know what you need for the trademark lawyer.  I would kickstart that. Read more

My kid is going to a “no assigned homework” school (PreK-5). She’ll have optional packets so parents can review work and they sometimes will have “homework” in that it’s school work they chose not to finish in class. This was a MASSIVE reason we applied to this public school. Read more

If you do have a kid who is passionately involved in activism, you should also get the book “The Lifelong Activist.” It’s about dealing with burnout, life balance and making strategic decisions (sometimes it’s better to make money to donate to a cause than do direct action and that’s hard for some people to accept). … Read more

Yeah but that’s not necessarily a serious eye infection. I’ve been a swim instructor for 12 years, I wear my contacts when teaching and have had two eye infections in that time — both were pink eye and my eye doctor thought I was more likely to have gotten them from riding the subway and then rubbing my eyes than… Read more

I think I made a legitimate argument with a few reasonable points about what I find useful in a smart phone and I get called a “lazy fuck.” Yeah, your kids will be well prepared to wade into the waters of the toxic internet. Read more

Legitimately useful things you can do on a smartphone that you can’t do on a flip phone that a teen might need: Read more

I don’t see how a slur in Mohawk is a “myth” just because it’s not a slur in every Native American language and also was used as one in the US. So you have some linguist who NEVER HEARD the language being discussed claim something is a “myth”? Read more

Yeah, I’m gonna go with the two Native women/Algonquin speakers who post under their own names in the comments of this article. Pull quote: Read more

I would say “squaw” (which I don’t want to even type, but it’s not common enough to say “the s-word”). All of the misogyny of describing women as their genitals, + derisive racial connotations, + derisive sex-worker connotations, + genocide.  But it’s the only one I’d put up there. Read more

The elementary school my kid is starting doesn’t assign homework. I am so, so relieved about this. The first time I saw the little eight year-olds with an hour and a half of homework (at the Manhattan after school program I work at. Note: public school kids.) I was horrified. Seriously, a good hack, but it’s a band-aid… Read more

Warren has a plan for that.  Read more

The average American woman has NO leave. 33% take no time off and another 16% take less than a month. So about 50% of new moms in America. Read more

I’ve been doing “five more minutes” and at about two minutes “okay, pick one last thing!” Read more

I grew up in a town of Mormons and Catholics. Us three kids might as well have been “singletons.”  The flip side is I know most kids can thrive with a lot less parental attention and a lot more responsibility than parents think. Read more