When it comes to understanding ourselves, we tend to be splitters: mind and body, nature and nurture, or genes and environment. We take such a split for granted when we ask how the social becomes biological, but sometimes it’s not so useful to...
The massive protests in Ferguson, Missouri are On Our Minds this week. We explore the racial conflict and police violence with sociologist Alice Goffman. Steve Paulson talks with her about her book, "On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City."...
Eager teachers quickly learn that many of today’s students contend with unprecedented hardships. They arrive at school hungry, homeless or exhausted after caring for others, conditions that interfere with or even prohibit learning but clearly...
Parents have become less able to realize when their child is overweight or obese, a new study finds. In fact, parents interviewed between 2005 and 2010 were 24 percent less likely to spot a weight problem in their child than parents interviewed...
Depression is one of the most common conditions in the world. It affects all segments of society and virtually all cultures, said Constance Hammen, Ph.D, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Psychiatry and...
Read the opinion of Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, on the importance of juvenile courts, here ...
Three years ago, the state shifted the responsibility for – and cost of – decisions about residential placement and other intensive treatments for students with mental illness from the counties to the schools. The Legislature set aside...
At first glance, this weekend’s Camp Mariposa at Men-O-Lan retreat center in Milford appears to be like any other summer camp for kids. Mornings begin with chowing down at the mess hall, afternoons are spent zip-lining through green canopies and...
The nation’s second-largest school district — Los Angeles Unified — is unveiled a sweeping new agreement to curb police involvement in minor school discipline and campus problems. The agreement, more than two years in the making, is...
The bottom line for all offenders, and especially for kids, is that detention should only be used when the criminal is an ongoing threat to the community. If he is then he should be held in a humane facility where he can receive whatever treatment and...
A combination of therapy and antidepressants appears to best help people with severe but short-term depression, a new study reports. Four out of five people suffering from severe depression for less than two years experienced full recovery when...
Counseling may do little to help young people with drinking problems, a large-scale review finds. Researchers analyzed 66 studies that included nearly 18,000 people 25 and younger, many of whom were at high risk for drinking problems. Participants in...
While the CASEY Foundation ranks MN 5th in the nation for child well-being, there are serious flaws in our racial disparity and early childhood numbers. Almost half of MN’s African American children live in poverty. In 2001, half...
I had the good fortune of meeting Tom Daly who wrote a history of Shakopee women’s prison and he told me how women seldom returned to that prison because of the educational offerings and the ability to visit with their children while in prison...
As part of KARA’s TPT TV child well-being documentary project I interviewed Minneapolis City Councilman / Mayoral candidate Don Samuels recently. He described his experiences as a volunteer CASA guardian ad-Litem, North Side...