Blog

By Annette Gordon-Reed, The Atlantic, May 4, 2021 when i was growing up in Conroe, Texas, about 40 miles north of Houston, my classmates and I took Texas history twice, in the fourth and seventh grades. We learned about Texas’s history in the United States, its previous existence as a republic, and its time as a province of Mexico. Among other things, we were exhorted to “remember the Alamo” and “remember Goliad,” famous events in Texas’s fight for independence from Mexico. Some other...

By Rodolfo Cortes Barragan and Andrew N. Meltzoff, Nature, May 5, 2021 Abstract Possessiveness toward objects and sharing are competing tendencies that influence dyadic and group interactions within the primate lineage. A distinctive form of sharing in adult Homo sapiens involves active giving of high-valued possessions to others, without an immediate reciprocal benefit. In two Experiments with 19-month-old human infants ( N  = 96), we found that despite measurable possessive behavior toward...

By Thomas Courtney, EdSource, May 3, 2021 If you asked me two years ago which student owned a guinea pig named Max or eight dogs, I am certain I could not have told you. But now I can. It’s strange to be in a position where we see so much of our students’ lives through a computer screen, and yet also feel so disconnected from the students and the families we serve. Now, as schools and their communities seek to re-establish these relationships, state and district leaders are considering how...

The Ready4K team takes family feedback very seriously. Which is why we're excited to share the results of our first year of surveying families receiving Ready4K Trauma-Informed.

We are excited that the Ok25by25 Early Childhood Coalition 5 Year Update is just around the corner. The presentation will "go live" on Monday, May 10th at 10:00 a.m. Our keynote speaker is Rob Grunewald, economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, who will be introduced by Secretary of Human Services Justin Brown. Four interactive discussions take place between two service providers in each of four topic areas (and OK25by25 metrics) including Child Poverty, Teen Pregnancy, Food...

From Brené Brown, May 5, 2021 This week I’m talking to Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry about their new book, What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing . We define trauma and talk about why big and small traumas activate our stress response systems and create emotional, physical, and social consequences, and how we can find the path to healing. [ Please click here to listen to the podcast .]

Jason Hernandez is an advocate for clemency, process reform, and serves on the board of the Buried Alive Project, which works to eliminate life without parole sentences handed down under federal drug law. Hernandez is known as one of Obama’s eight – the first wave of low level nonviolent drug offenders to be granted clemency by President Barack Obama. While in prison, Hernandez became a respected jailhouse attorney and was paid to work on other prisoners cases.

Tension in a child's or parent's school team is painful and unpleasant. Therefore, you should read this article if you or your child were unable to come to a consensus with someone from the school. How conflict differs from bullying Bullying is a deep and systematic problem, and it manifests itself in the form of aggression by some children against others. In bullying, there is always an inequality of power. However, bullying does not always translate into physical attacks - violence can...

The COVID-19 virus has become something that people are terrified of getting. In response to this fear, people are hoarding everything from meat to toilet paper. However, being so afraid has an unexpected consequence, the lowering of the immune system’s ability to fight off disease. This article will focus on the effects of fear on the human body and ways we can mitigate the danger that stress causes when there is a potentially fatal virus floating around. Stress Hormones and the Human...

Participate in the summer PJI Teachers Academy! The PJI Teachers Academy is a week-long intensive program designed for educators by educators. This immersive cohort-based program supports teachers in reflecting on their lives and current practices and with an eye to deepening equity in their hearts, minds, and classrooms. Based on the latest neuroscience and teaching literature, participants will explore topics such as privilege, race, gender, trauma informed classrooms, ACEs, resilience,...

By Dani Blum, The New York Times, May 4, 2021 With vaccination rates on the rise, hope is in the air. But after a year of trauma, isolation and grief, how long will it take before life finally — finally — feels good? Post-pandemic, the answer to that question may be in your own hands. A growing body of research shows that there are simple steps you can take to recharge your emotional batteries and spark a sense of fulfillment, purpose and happiness. The psychology community calls this lofty...

By Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat, April 29, 2021 President Joe Biden and his education secretary Miguel Cardona have been clear: they want to close America’s school funding gaps. “Across the nation, schools with the most students of color received, on average, dramatically less funding than majority-white schools,” Cardona tweeted last week. Biden has already proposed increasing federal spending on schools by doubling funding for Title I. Now, the White House is indicating it wants to go further,...