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In the past decade, the number of children behind bars decreased so dramatically that in San Diego County – and across the state – juvenile halls and camps stand at unprecedented levels of emptiness. But the tough-on-crime politicians who built many of those prisons predicted a much different outcome. In the ‘90s, many politicians from both the left and right – former Gov. Pete Wilson was one of the most relentless ; Hillary Clinton the most notable – evoked coming waves of teenage “super...

In an age plagued with addiction, economic disparity and mental illness, where technology is advancing faster every day, professionals say aging educational systems aren’t meeting the needs of Vermont’s growing minds. “We have to re-think everything we do when it comes to educating these kids,” said Mill River Union High School Principal Todd Finn. “We have so much more flexibility with school leadership, and the world is so different for these kids.” Which is why Vermont schools are...

Plenty of exercise. Healthy food. Positive attitude. Plain old good luck. There’s lots of advice out there about how to keep body and brain in optimal shape as the years roll by. But Louis Cozolino, professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, is deeply engaged with another idea. In Timeless: Nature’s Formula for Health and Longevity , he emphasizes the positive impact of human relationships. “Of all the experiences we need to survive and thrive, it is the experience of relating to...

Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam this week released a report highlighting eight years of progress by the state to improve the lives of children and families. Prioritizing Tennessee’s Children: Our Promise to Future Generations reflects an early commitment by Governor Bill Haslam’s administration to make the health and success of all Tennessee children a state priority. In conjunction with Governor Haslam’s Children’s Cabinet and Deputy Governor Jim Henry, First Lady Haslam set out to...

Frustrated by the obstacles to urban cycling in North America, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett traveled with their two kids from Vancouver to the Netherlands in 2016 to take a deep five-week dive into places that do cycling better. Traversing cities in the Netherlands by bike, they found that cycling is not just a better way to get around; when done right, it leads to healthier, safer, more vibrant, more family-friendly communities. They wrote it all up in their new book, Building the Cycling...

“When a woman is emotional, she’s ‘hysterical’ and she’s penalized for it. When a man does the same, he’s ‘outspoken’ and there are no repercussions.” That was the message the tennis great Billie Jean King tweeted on Saturday, responding — as seemingly the rest of the internet has — to Serena Williams’s fraught U.S. Open loss. In case you’ve been blissfully unplugged: During the match, an umpire penalized Ms. Williams — first because he thought she was coached from the stands, then for what...

Last spring, Paul Strode gave an unusual survey to his advanced biology students at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado. The first five questions were: Define as best you can: What is a racial group? Define as best you can: What is an ethnic group? Define as best you can: What is meant by the term genetic ancestry? True or False: There is too much overlap between racial groups to use a single biological trait (like skin color) to distinguish one racial group from another. True or...

We are all faced with obstacles at work, and sometimes just going back to work after a holiday can feel like a challenge. We might be faced with a backlog of work, new targets or systems, or looming deadlines – alongside all the usual criticism, office politics and pressures from our personal lives. One way we can deal with all this is to build our resilience. Resilience is your capacity to respond to the pressures and challenges brought about by everyday life. In essence, it is about how...

Janine Jackson: Nothing says America 2018 like a spate of stories on how back-to-school shopping includes bulletproof backpacks. Arming teachers and gearing kids up like commandos are presented as more-or-less reasonable responses to concerns about school safety. Any violence in schools is too much, of course, but a conversation about school safety that’s focused on guns and bullets is a narrow and distorted conversation. Recasting our definition of a “safe school environment” could lead us...

In 1949, the Oklahoma legislature proclaimed Stilwell, in the Ozark foothills near the Arkansas border, the Strawberry Capital of the World. This week, Stilwell earned a more discouraging distinction: It has the lowest life expectancy in the country — just 56.3 years, according to the most detailed local health data ever released by the National Center for Health Statistics. That means folks there are expected to die 22.5 years — an entire generation — earlier than the comparable national...

If you were asked to sum up your thoughts about race in six words, could you do it? Eight years ago, Michele Norris, former host of NPR’s All Things Considered, asked people attending the book tour for her 2010 memoir, The Grace of Silence, to do just that. The exercise was meant as a conversation starter, a way to engage people on the uncomfortable subject by having them write their thoughts on postcards and then share them with others—directly and online. But Norris’ Race Card Project has...

I get terribly frustrated and depressed when things aren't going fast enough with Advancing Parenting, advancingparenting.org. Then I get an email like this and I know I won't give up. David, I've been seeing your signs and bumper stickers and I assumed this huge organization was behind all this. To find out this is a one-man show floored me. Your words are concise, powerful, and applicable. I write books on parenting; I blog on motherhood; I speak to groups of moms; I mentor moms. I hope my...