Sometimes a term gets repeated so often that the meaning becomes obscure. While it might seem like we’re all talking...
Last November, voters in and around Grand Rapids, Michigan’s second-largest city (population 200,000), made Kent County the first county in Michigan to approve a referendum that raises property taxes specifically for early childhood.
Daniel Mendoza makes his own paintbrushes. It may have started out as a way to save money, but it also...
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has called Dea Wright the city’s “early childhood education czar.” True to someone entrusted with czarlike power,...
When three in 10 candidates who sign up for your program don’t make it to the end, you know you...
“What this study is asking is whether or not, as a matter of public policy, is it a straightforward way to achieve the important goal of early childhood development.” -- Matt Klein, executive director, New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity
In this two-part series, Elliot Haspel explores how one Oregon region mobilized to generate an innovative, next-generation plan for universal...
The New Year, with its metaphor of clear vision, calls out to all of us to think about the future; to envision a better world for children, youth, and families. While we can’t predict what the decade will bring, we can use what we have learned over the years—and our common sense—to set some goals and move forward. Here is what I see and hope for in a new year, in a new decade.
Playful Learning Landscapes
Meeting Children Where They Are with What They Need
Plaza. Piazza. Town square. The names may differ region to region, but they describe similar spaces: a place where residents...
The pressure to over-program kids often seems endless – so much so that a simple, old-fashioned idea has fallen to the side: Children should play. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff & Kathy Hirsh-Pasek – researchers and co-authors of “Becoming Brilliant, What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children” – explain their “Learning Landscapes” program, where they help local municipalities turn public spaces like bus stops into child-friendly play zones.
Summer travel is a whole other thing when you’re a parent of young children. The rest and relaxation you’ve been...
Mya-Rose Craig, 17-years old, has followed her passion for birds and the environment to create and galvanize a community of activists of all ages. In the process, as a young Muslim woman, she’s been trolled on social media. Not an insurmountable problem, though, as Mya-Rose is keeping her eye on a larger issue: saving the planet.
