Cost of Bringing Up Baby: $204K

(NEWSER) - The long-running Broadway musical Rent has been edited for the school stage, but the truncated version retains themes of drugs, AIDS, and homosexuality that have some administrators running scared, the New York Times reports. High school productions around the country have met with administrative and parental resistance, forcing organizers to cancel some productions, at least temporarily. More»

Pupils poor at behaving, good at manipulating adults

(NEWSER) - UK teachers complain that classrooms are getting tougher to control because kids throw more tantrums—and parents are to blame, the Daily Telegraph reports. A Cambridge University study says that parents are letting children indulge in video games, junk food, and TV. "Teachers described highly permissive parents who admitted to indulging their children, often for the sake of peace or simply because they had run out of alternative incentives or sanctions," the report said. More»

Kids inherit reaction to unfamiliar foods, new study says

(NEWSER) - Don't chide your kids for their picky eating habits—they may be as much your fault as the length of their noses. In a study of identical and fraternal twins, UK researchers found children inherited nearly 80% of their “food neophobia,” hinting that that tongue-out reaction to unfamiliar eats might be in the genes. More»

Study finds preschoolers in day care

(NEWSER) - Day care centers enlarge kids' vocabularies--and teach them how to act up, too, says a study that’s followed 1,300 children from birth through 6th grade. Although parental guidance and genes were the strongest predictor of behavior, who attended day care as preschoolers were slightly more likely to be disruptive in school—and the more time spent in day care, the more disruptive. More»