June 2016

In the past several decades, advances in brain science have suggested that the learning that occurs in the first few years of a child’s life lays the groundwork for a productive adulthood. The expansion of preschool is one of the few topics where both Republicans and Democrats in Congress find common ground; while lawmakers don’t always agree on how programs should be funded or structured, the belief that good early-childhood education can help prevent later gaps in test scores and...

Efforts in California and other states to raise the quality of child care and preschool programs are being undermined by the low wages that workers earn in jobs that now require more skills and education, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education released Tuesday. In California, preschool teachers were paid an average salary of $31,720 in 2015, about half of what California kindergarten teachers earned that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report said.

Anthony Humphrey slept on the pavement outside a downtown Houston drop-in center. Except when a Gulf Coast rainstorm slammed the city — then he took cover under a storefront awning or below Interstate 45. He had no driver’s license, no Social Security card, almost no hope. That was in 2014. This month, Humphrey will celebrate a year in his apartment. “Someone came up to me,” the 50-year-old recalled. “He said, ‘We know you’ve been sleeping here. We want to get you into coordinated access’ ”...

The safety needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students turned paramount Sunday when a man walked into a gay nightclub and embarked on the worst shooting in U.S. history. The symbolism of this atrocity taking place is not lost on the gay community, because bars and nightclubs have long served as some of the only spaces where LGBTQ people have felt safe. To be sure, this tragedy brings up issues that need to be addressed by our political system — like gun violence and...

Teen pregnancies and births in Minnesota dropped sharply in 2014, according to a state report released Wednesday, extending a long trend and defying a common misconception that today’s youths are hypersexual. Minnesota’s teen birthrate dropped by 8 percent in 2014 — and has fallen 58 percent since 1990 — reaching 15.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19, the report showed. “It flies in the face of what many people tend to think is going on with teenagers — that things are as bad as ever,”...

When I hear the word "resilience" in the context of helping children or students to manage their toxic stress, I object, respectfully, to the individual making the statement. In this article in the Atlantic Monthly -- "How Kids Learn Resilience" -- I came across an interesting admission. “For all our talk about noncognitive skills, nobody has yet found a reliable way to teach kids to be grittier or more resilient. And it has become clear, at the same time, that the educators who are best...

This spring, communities across the nation have been celebrating Safe Kids Day. As the season began, a tweet arrived. “Every minute of every day, there’s a call to poison control because a kid gets into medicine,” it said. “Learn more.” I was overwhelmed. I had just wrapped my brain around the water situation in Flint, Michigan. While the politicians were casting blame and flexing their sanctimonious muscles, #WhatAboutThe Babies?” had become a hashtag. “Help bring water and wipes to the...

Teens should sleep eight to 10 hours per night while younger children need even more sleep, according to new recommendations from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). The group lays out optimal amounts of sleep for children of different ages in the June 13 statement Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations , which has been endorsed by the AAP. “Regularly sleeping fewer than the number of recommended hours is associated with attention, behavior, and learning problems,”...

Older adults are commonly subjected to a variety of negative stereotypes – bumbling, helpless, cranky, unapproachable, child-like, to name a few. Ageism has real mental and physical health consequences, including a decreased will to live, less desire to live a healthy lifestyle, an impaired recovery from illness, increased stress and a shortened life span. “Ageism remains one of the most institutionalized forms of prejudice today,” according to Todd Nelson, Ph.D., professor of psychology at...

This article originally appeared in the Mexican edition of VICE Magazine, June/July. "Hi my name is David," said a small boy sarcastically, causing his friends to laugh at his use of English. "Motherfucker." David is nine years old, has a buzzcut, a cut off t-shirt, and is growing up in Ciudad Juárez — the Mexican border city which claimed the dubious title of the world's most violent metropolis in the world three years running from 2008 to 2010. When the topic turned to his barrio, the...

In light of the tragic mass shooting at an Orlando gay club, the political debate is back on over whether U.S. gun laws are too lenient. Addressing the situation June 12, President Obama said that “we need to keep guns like the ones used last night out of the hands of terrorists or other violent criminals.” It’s fair to say that guns like the AR-15-style rifle that helped kill 49 people and injure at least 53 more in Orlando should be kept out of the hands of anyone—not just those who commit...

At a time when Democrats and Republicans in Congress can’t agree on just about anything, there is one issue that unites them: the urgent need for criminal justice reform. A Senate bill on the issue has attracted an impressive 37 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act has gained support from figures as politically diverse as the Koch brothers and President Barack Obama for its goals of reforming mandatory minimum sentences, reducing prison...