Small Talks, No. 69

July 22, 2022

Jul 22, 2022

Welcome to the sixty ninth 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!

Summertime Outdoor Kids Mini Sessions | J&D Photo LLC | Richmond, Virginia

What I’m celebrating -

July is Disability Pride Month, which is celebrating its 32nd year after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed on July 26, 1990. About 1 in 6 children in the U.S. had a developmental disability.
- New findings published in June 2022 in Frontiers of Psychology by researchers at Cambridge University reframe dyslexia as playing an essential role in human adaptation. In.a similar vein, check out this cool campaign “made by dyslexia”, led by Richard Branson.
- At the recent Global MindED conference, I had the chance to meet IRL Temple Grandin, Professor at Colorado State University, who has changed the way we think about autism. In her bestseller book “The Autistic Brain” (initially published in 2014), she outlined three types of specialized thinking: visual thinkers, math/pattern thinkers, and word thinkers. Her view is that children who think differently will often thrive if they have more hands-on activities.
Even Elon Musk speaks about child care and family supports!
For inspiration:
- Check out this new start-up called Moonrise where children age 5-15 (called risers) build things and learn together.
- ClassDojo, used in 95% of U.S. schools today, raises $125m to bring kids to the metaverse, and expand creativity, collaboration and other valuable soft skills.
The science of why we laugh….

What I’m listening to -

Tim Ferris interviews Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, the language-learning platform. Luis was born in Guatemala. The company is headquartered in Pittsburg and went public in 2021.
- With more than 500 million users, it is the most downloaded education app in the world, and has surpassed public schools in language learning.
- What I appreciated the most is the mission orientation and long-term thinking of the organization, and its effort to monetize while maintaining a free offering for users.
- Interesting to hear that Duolingo is also launching maths for elementary level and reading for younger children.

What I’m reading -

From Reopen to Reinvent: (Re)creating school for every child by education thought leader Michael Horn is an incredibly timely read after 2+ years of pandemic. It features various innovations in learnings pods (e.g., Prenda), traditional districts and edtech (e.g., outschool), while providing big ideas to move forward.

What I’m watching -

Aftershock is a Hulu documentary about Black maternal mortality that is 3-4x higher than White women due to (1) structural racism; and (2) weathering—the premature biological aging and associated health risks caused by social adversity. As the documentary shows well, studies have demonstrated that pain is interpreted differently based on race, leading to different treatment recommendations.
- One stat that continues to horrify me - The pregnancy-related mortality rate for Black women with a completed college education or higher is 1.6 times higher than the rate for White women with less than a high school diploma.

What I’m learning more deeply -

New Gallup survey shows alarming data: only 28% have confidence in public schools (14% for Republicans/43% for Democrats). Near all-time lows. It was above 60% in the 1970’s.
20% drop in physical activity in children during the pandemic. On a related note, one study found that students who incorporated movement into their learning strategy remembered 76% of the material, while those who simply used their brain to memorize recalled only 37%.
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According to a recent survey, 80% of parents say their kids either dislike or are bored at school. A sad state of affairs, especially when learning is inherently fun. Also, 80% of teachers believe group projects should be introduced much earlier in childhood.

The U.S. student body is more diverse than ever, but public schools remain highly segregated, a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows. More than 1/3 of students attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school during the 2020-21 school year.
Unstructured play leads to greater self regulation in young children.

Two Related Quotes I’m pondering -

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, it is imagination.”
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
—Albert Einstein (who experienced severe speech delays as a child)

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.

Small Talks