March 2019

Today I received a message from a former student who is now a grown man. My favorite memory about him was his big beautiful smile. I have not seen him for at least a decade, if not longer. He found me on Facebook a few months ago and today he sent me this message: Never doubt that those moments of care, the ones where we have to dig really deep to take care of one more student, may just be the moment that makes all the difference. My student, with the biggest smile, was hiding a very sad and...

Like many states, New York has a bail law that is half a century old. The legal rules that in 2010 made it possible for 16-year-old Kalief Browder to be jailed on Rikers Island for three years for allegedly stealing a backpack—just because his family couldn’t pay $3,000 in bail to get him out—all remain on the books. Criminal justice reformers around the country are admonishing the Empire State to change its system, arguing that having to pay money to get out of jail unfairly targets the...

In light of the scandal in university admissions that broke on Tuesday, this article by Clifton Mark on all of the fallacies embedded in our attachment to the notion of meritocracy should have particular resonance. The article came out last week but perhaps can be used to capture a fuller set of learnings from the admissions scandal. The title of the piece is, “ A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you. ” Mark makes the case through research that a belief in meritocracy is...

Talking ACEs in Nova Scotia - Elizabeth Perry joins Charlene Pickrem on her community radio program Mental Health: Let's talk about it.

I know from personal experience that trauma can be life-changing, but I didn’t know that volunteering to talk about trauma could change my life. And the lives of others. First, if you don’t mind, a little background. I’d visited Petersburg, Virginia , over the years because my brother and sister-in-law live and work in the area. I loved it! My brother’s colorful tours of Old Towne and Pocahontas Island were educational and entertaining. My sister-in-law’s encouragement to eat in local...

SALEM, Ore. - Oregon's next State Health Improvement Plan will take on social factors that can affect people’s health, including exposure to racism, childhood trauma, living-wage jobs, food security and access to health care, the Oregon Health Authority said Friday. The PartnerSHIP, a steering committee responsible for developing the 2020-2024 SHIP, determined the priorities during a meeting on Feb. 12. They include: Institutional bias : This is defined as the systematic distribution of...

Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed. Dr. @Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our...

This story was co-published with the Chicago Sun-Times. Leer en Español. Eight months after its shelters for immigrant children came under public scrutiny over allegations of abuse and lax supervision, Heartland Human Care Services says it will close four shelters in suburban Chicago and add staff, training and other resources at its remaining five facilities. The decision, announced to employees in a memo Friday, comes as another agency, Maryville Academy, plans to open two additional...

It’s the flu season, and David, a 4-month-old baby with a chronic lung disease, is with his pediatrician for a flu shot. David’s condition leaves him particularly vulnerable to respiratory illnesses like the flu. During the visit, David’s parents, Clare and Dave, discover that they need to make separate appointments to receive their own flu shots, which only complicates their already overwhelmed daily routine. Now imagine a place where David and his parents can receive a flu shot at the same...

The United Nations issued its sixth Global Environmental Outlook report on Wednesday, conveying the message that the world is not on track to meet goals to create a more sustainable future by 2030 or 2050, and that urgent action is required in order to not just meet global temperature goals set in the Paris Agreement, but to ensure they aren't rendered impossible. In 2015, the U.N. developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals to address global challenges including climate, environmental...

Gary Weber estimates that he has clocked over 30,000 hours of meditation and yoga. It all began in 1972. As a 29-year-old Ph.D. student at Penn State University, he felt that he was struggling for control over his own brain. Like many of us, it frustrated him that he couldn’t manage the constant stream of thoughts roaming around in his consciousness. Anxieties about the past, the future, and everything in between would come and go without him having any say in the matter. Deciding that...

Sen. Kamala Harris, a candidate for president, is floating a new idea: funding for mental health treatment as a form of reparations for slavery. She talks with NPR's Steve Inskeep. [To listen to this story by Morning Edition, go to https://www.npr.org/2019/03/14/703299534/sen-kamala-harris-on-reparations ]