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The idea that new babies are empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge of the world around them doesn’t sound unreasonable. With their unfocused eyes and wrinkly skin, tiny humans sometimes look more like amoebas than complex beings. Yet scientists have built a body of evidence, particularly over the last three decades, that suggests this is patently untrue. “When kids are born, they’re already little scientists exploring the world,” said the filmmaker Estela Renner via a video...

When someone decides to embark on healing from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and/or when concerned loved ones of a survivor want to help that person begin to heal, it can be confusing to know how to start. This last article in the series focuses on finding the best healing resources. It is a slice of all the resources available to someone and does not represent either endorsement or rejection of any particular source. Many of the resources listed here provide links to still other...

This state has a reputation for experimentation. It often leads the United States in adopting practices that profoundly change the country’s approach to public policy. It is also a national leader in restorative-justice practices, thanks to its numerous specialty courts, where offenders avoid prison time and earn second chances if they commit to an intensive rehabilitation program. I recently spent a week at the Orange County Community Court , which houses multiple specialty courts. The...

[Photo by danna § curious tangles ] The brains of teenagers with serious antisocial behaviour problems differ significantly in structure to those of their peers, providing the clearest evidence to date that their behaviour stems from changes in brain development in early life, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge and the University of Southampton, in collaboration with the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" in Italy. In a study published in the Journal of Child...

A strong and prosperous Tennessee depends on the health and well-being of all children. Science shows brain development begins before birth, with the first three years serving as an especially intense period of brain development. Experiences in this critical early period literally shape the architecture of the brain and establish a sturdy or fragile foundation for all of the development and behavior that follows. Quality early childhood programs like evidence-based home visiting provide...

It wasn’t long into Damon Holmes’s tenure as the new principal of Malcolm X Shabazz High School this fall that Sharon Cook, an administrator at Shabazz, knew the school and students were going to be okay under the new guy. Cook was having a meeting with Holmes in the principal’s office when he suddenly stopped talking. In mid-sentence. Cook wondered what prompted the dramatic pause—until she glanced around and saw a student hovering outside. Holmes had interrupted his meeting with a key...

Barry Latzer is that rare academic with both practical and theoretical knowledge of his subject matter. He prosecuted and defended accused criminals while teaching at the City University of New York graduate center and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His new book, The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America , makes use of more than a century of crime statistics to sum up the wisdom of a long career studying why crime waves rise and fall. It’s a book that does not shy from the...

https://safekidsstories.com/the-question-i-never-want-to-hear-430577e096de#.z5sai487j The caterers bustle about in the luxurious conference room, arranging utensils and igniting food warmers. I drop my bags beside the media cart and acquaint myself with the electronic equipment, fiddling with buttons and cords. My presentation slides appear on the massive projection screen. I smile. I have never presented in a room this large. I look around at the vacant tables that will soon be filled with...

We’ll start to populate the new Resource Center next month. One of the sections lists ACE surveys that have additional questions. The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study revealed that ACEs contribute to most of our major chronic health, mental health, economic health and social health issues. It measured five types of abuse and neglect: physical, verbal and sexual abuse; physical and emotional neglect. And five types of family dysfunction: a family member with mental...

Nationwide, the income gap could be more accurately described as a chasm: at $1,153, 293, the average yearly income of the top 1 percent of earners is 25.3 times that of the bottom 99 percent, who bring in $45,567. But a new report from the Economic Policy Institute —the the first to include data at the metropolitan and county level—found that in nine states, 54 metro areas, and 165 counties, those numbers are even more disparate. The problem is a national one. While New York is the most...

London’s mayor announced this week a ban on advertisements appearing on the city’s subways and buses that “could reasonably be seen as likely to cause pressure to conform to an unrealistic or unhealthy body shape.” The prohibition was inspired by protests over an ad that showed up in the London Underground last year, featuring a slim woman in a bikini surrounded by the words “ARE YOU BEACH BODY READY?” The ad was for weight-loss supplements by a company called Protein World. Mayor Sadiq Khan...

One morning before math, the fourth-graders took a little vacation. To soft music, they walked through woods, climbed a mountain and lifted off with imaginary wings, flying over an ocean, a gentle breeze on their faces. One student saw a school of fish; another spotted a rainbow. “I see it!” the others piped in, their eyes squeezed tight. “I see it, too!” With the sound of a chime, they were back in their yellow-and-blue school uniforms in a classroom overlooking a blighted neighborhood that...