What Inspires You to Work on Behalf of Young Children?
Celebrating the Week of the Young Child, April 6-12
Every week is the Week of the Young Child at Early Learning Nation magazine. The National Association for the Education...
Early Learning Nation magazine recently interviewed Michelle Kang, CEO of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC),...
The Power of First 10 Partnerships: 3 Examples
Part II of a two-part interview with David Jacobson
The First 10 initiative of the Education Development Center (EDC) supports a network that will soon include more than 60...
Why Don’t We Just Do That?
Over Cocktails, Restaurateurs Hatch a Plan for Literacy
Three years ago, Amanda and John Horne, owners of Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Bradenton, Florida, heard that 51 percent of children in their local Manatee County school system couldn’t read at grade level by third grade. They were appalled.
“This was horrific,” Amanda says. “We had no idea that this was an issue.”
Over cocktails one night, Amanda and John wondered what they could do. Their clientele is largely composed of older “grandparent-type” people. They have four restaurants and a mailing list of more than 24,000 customers. What if they could pair children up with a grandparent figure or somebody who cares about them, read with them and maybe instill them with a love of reading?
On February 28, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce held a summit for early education advocates and professionals, highlighting the work...
An Electoral “Children’s Wave”
Q&A with Children's Funding Project Founder Elizabeth Gaines
On November 3rd, seven early childhood ballot initiatives went before voters in cities and counties around the nation. All seven...
Shantel Meek, Ph.D., founding executive director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, learned an important lesson during...
Frederica Perera, founder of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, didn’t write Children’s Health and the Perils of Climate...
“Our health system is failing women” are the unequivocal opening words of a report issued this past spring by Early...
Make. Learning. Relevant.
Dean Kamen’s Vision for Building Community
Imagine a world where baseball is a subject taught in school. Just one thing is missing from this imaginary curriculum: the students never actually get to play the game.
In September, they open their textbooks and read about the origins and rules of baseball. After winter break they take tests on pitching and hitting records set by the greatest players. By the spring, classes delve into the nuances of base stealing and bunting.
So what if they never swing a bat themselves or catch a line drive, right? It’s not like any of them are going to become professional ballplayers, right?
To Dean Kamen, this scenario is no more absurd than the way math and science have been taught traditionally.
From “helicoptering” to “snowplowing,” parents are often tempted to simply remove obstacles from children’s way, preventing them from learning how to deal with challenges themselves. Instead, as Ellen Galinsky, Bezos Family Foundation Chief Science Officer and Founder/Executive Director of Mind in the Making, explains, the better approach is to build “Autonomy Support” – helping children gain the independence skills they’ll need to become successful adults. Filmed for Early Learning Nation’s Mobile Studio at the Society for Research in Child Development’s biennial meeting in Baltimore, MD, on March 22, 2019. #SRCD19
I see people signing all the time because I live in the Washington, D.C., area near the Red Line, which...
