Small Talks, No. 64
June 17, 2022
Dear Small Talker,
Welcome to the sixty fourth edition of Small Talks. Every Friday, I highlight 6 areas of weekly joys and reflections in early childhood and the whole family. Small Talks leverages my experience at the intersection of education, philanthropy, and impact investing. Enjoy!
What I’m celebrating -
New Cambridge University study shows that children who play well with peers (by age 3) are likely to enjoy better mental health later in childhood.
“We think this connection exists because through playing with others, children acquire the skills to build strong friendships as they get older and start school. Even if they are at risk of poor mental health, those friendship networks will often get them through.” — Dr Jenny Gibson, Cambridge University.
New research paper finds increased investments in early childhood education leads to (summary here):
Increase in parental employment
Shift to higher quality care
Decrease in family spending on ECE for most
Increase in teacher wages
Thanks EdSurge for publishing my new opinion piece on the need to soften schools, not harden them. Socio-emotional learning, relationship-centered learning environments, and mental health supports should be prioritized.
Schools with armed guards have 2.8x higher rates of death.
Delighted to welcome new CEO Mwasi Wilmore and celebrate founder Nigon Ligon of Ubongo this past week.
Ubongo is now reaching 27 million children via TV/digital in Africa and globally. It is the largest classroom in Africa!
Viewership in the US is rising rapidly- driven by the diaspora and the critical need for more diverse representation in child media in the US.
Ubongo addresses major teacher challenge, and the 177:1 child teacher ratio in Tanzania.
Great impact: +24% literacy after a week & emotional benefits after a day.
Great to see impactful innovations scaling in the early years:
Babbly raises a seed round for early speech & language development- a critical and growing need. Early interventions are estimated to increase 3x due to COVID.
Breathe For Change - a 200-hour digital wellness & SEL teacher training now serves 5,000 educators & 1 million students. Check out their free weekly SEL and wellness webinars and summer session offering.
Kinside expands employer child care options.
Prenda offers tuition-free microschools for 10 students or fewer.
What I’m listening to -
Fascinating conversation led by David Willis with Ed Tronick, Dani Dimitriu, and Eliza Congdon about parent-child relationships during the pandemic. David Willis has been leading a critical movement on early relational health.
Preliminary COMBO data suggest parent-baby emotional connection has decreased by half during the pandemic; but can be repaired.
What I’m reading -
In Raising An Entrepreneur, Margot Bisnow interviewed over 50 families of today’s most successful innovators on how to raise resilient, driven and fulfilled kids. Findings include: (1) give kids extreme independence; (2) actively nurture compassion; (3) welcome failure early and often; (4) let go of control and lead by following. Good summary here.
What I’m watching -
For some inspiration, American Got Talent spotlights an 11-year old girl singing Amazing Grace, as a tribute to her dad who has been fighting cancer for 9 years…Who’s crying?
What I’m learning and exploring more deeply -
Thought provoking analysis by Matthias Doepke dispels some old paradigms on fertility. As fertility rates have declined in high-income countries, the cross-country relationship between women’s labour supply and fertility has reversed. Today, in countries where more women are working, more babies are born. Check summary here and full analysis here.
InsidePhilanthropy shows more funding in early childhood philanthropy, but still a smaller share than K-12.
In “The U.S. Leaves Parents on Their Own For A Reason”, Kendra Hurley writes in The Atlantic why the U.S. is a harsh place for families. A big reason might be the misguided belief that government support for parents is at odds with parents being responsible for their kids.
12 graphs about the state of AI summarizes the state of AI. Interesting to read the latest about AI in reading.
“Benchmarks for tasks such as text summarization and basic reading comprehension show impressive results, with AI systems often exceeding human performance. But when Natural Language Processing systems have to reason about what they’ve read, they run into trouble.”
Incredible epigenetic findings: Genome editing in rodents leads to undoing the effects of early drinking exposure.
New study shows that optimism drives longevity - true across race & ethnicity.
Quote I’m pondering -
“I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging.”
— Beyoncé
Feedback is a gift. Which part above is your favorite? What did I miss? What do you want more or less of? Other recommendations? Please kindly let me know. Thank to all of you who are sending me amazing suggestions.
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Have a wonderful week. Please stay safe and care for each other.
Isabelle