Parenting

On learning to parent well.

Data Visualization: Inequality, Parenting and Brain Development

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1. Parenting Quality by Income Quintile (from the Brookings Institution) The statistical distribution is almost a perfect correlation between parenting quality and income quintile. 2. Relative Economic (Im)mobility by Income Quintile (from the Pew Charitable Trust) Children in the top and bottom income quintiles are most likely to be income immobile. 3. Brain Development over …

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The Crisis of Empathy and Moral Ecology

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“How are you today?” a caller asks Dave Ramsey. Ramsey responds without hesitation, “Better than I deserve.” What do you deserve? In Where is the Love? Nicholas Kristof laments the erosion of empathy for the poor, which he receives in the form of comments on his blog and Facebook page. Behind comments like, “Why should I have to …

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Hurricane Illegitimacy and Institutional Illegitimacy

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How often is it that you have an African American sports writer for ESPN write a powerful article on the preservation and restoration of the traditional family unit? Jason Whitlock has provided this in taking Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver Dez Bryant’s recent temper tantrums as a springboard to name and shame ‘Hurricane Illegitimacy.’ ESPN’s Jason …

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Pre-K is important, but not as important as parents

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Last week two important pieces appeared in the New York Times concerning early childhood: Quality Preschool Is the ‘Most Cost-Effective’ Educational Intervention on the Motherlode blog, and Language-Gap Study Bolsters a Push for Pre-K on the front page. The latter article attracted letters to the editor from experienced educational leaders. This one was particularly salient: To the Editor: The …

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To help young children, focus on parents before Pre-K

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On Monday the New York Times published an article titled Language-Gap Study Bolsters a Push for Pre-K based on the recent Developmental Science publication by Anne Fernald at Stanford University. The headline should be: Language-Gap Study Bolsters Push for Early Parent Support. As Fernald’s research shows, for low-income children in language-poor home environments high quality pre-K is not …

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The Parenting Gap is Gaping and Growing

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Parenting quality explains 40 percent of the cognitive gap between children at age four — more than any other factor. This is the fulcrum of education, inequity and flourishing society. The degree to which a community acknowledges and addresses this dynamic will be the measure of success in measurable strides toward flourishing. Closing the Parenting Gap In Can …

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Parenting in Community: You need other parents

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“If, as a parent, you feel as though you can’t do it alone, that’s because you were never meant to.” In Baby Brain Rules, developmental molecular biologist John Medina argues for the power of parenting in communities – for children, parents, and their communities. What are some of those benefits? You need wisdom from other …

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