Small Talks, No. 9
May 7, 2021
Welcome to the 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!
What I’m celebrating —
Teachers’ appreciation week, especially this year. This beautiful message says it all.
This op-ed piece by Nick Kristoff in the New York Times makes the case for investments in physical infrastructure and human capital, with a focus on early childhood.
“The highest return on investment in America today isn’t in private equity but in early childhood initiatives for disadvantaged kids of all races. That includes home visitations, lead reduction, pre-K and child care.”
“As many Americans have criminal records as college degrees. A baby born in Washington, D.C., has a shorter life expectancy (78 years) than a baby born in Beijing (82 years). Newborns in 10 counties in Mississippi have a shorter life expectancy than newborns in Bangladesh.”
What I’m listening to —
This podcast with Mario Small, sociologist at Harvard, discusses the importance of social capital. He highlights some promising experiments fostering networks among mothers in child care environments, driving better child outcomes.
I enjoyed this podcast with Tim Ferris and the amazing Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen, one of the pioneers in impact investing.
Podcast Better Money, Better World by Dan Pianko with Matt Greenfield, impact investor in education, on how Rethink Education built a diverse team and diverse portfolio with 9 Black entrepreneurs in the portfolio and a good discussion about the diversity “discount factor” and investing biases.
What I’m reading —
Two incredible books I had been waiting for with great anticipation:
Pregnant Girl: A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families is Nicole Lynn Lewis’ beautiful memoir narrating her experience as a pregnant teen, navigating through societal stigmas and higher education barriers. Nicole now leads Generation Hope, a non-profit supporting student parents. I also strongly recommend this Fresh Air interview and this interview with Nicole.
What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing is already a best seller. The book is set as a dialogue between Oprah Winfrey, who shares personal stories of her childhood and people she interviewed on her show, and Dr. Bruce Perry who overlays his expertise child trauma research. I loved the book, and already look forward to listening to the audiobook next.
What I’m watching —
LENA is a non-profit that uses a small wearable device, referred to as a “talk pedometer” that tracks conversational turns between child-adult. In this report and webinar, they identified that children who experience more than 40 conversational turns per hour have higher IQ. They also showed that only 4% of toddlers average this number in child care settings, compared to 34% of children in a home setting.
What I’m learning and exploring more deeply —
This year, “moms want more than breakfast in bed this mother’s day” with insights from Nicole Mason at the Institute of Women Policy Research.
Beautiful piece “Crying is easy, laughing is hard”, with my favorite quote:
Happiness lessons we can learn from babies section. “Be here now. Babies are little Zen masters for whom the present is all there is—and they are delighted to be here. Be more like babies.”
The U.S. reaches one of the lowest birth rates since the 1970’s.
Two inspiring young children’s stories:
A first grader in Tennessee convinces an app to add Black hair.
A 10-year old moves from refugee to national chess champion.
Quote I am pondering —
“To the newborn, love is action; it is the attentive, responsive, nurturing care that adults provide. To the infant, skin-to-skin warmth, the smell of the parent, the sights and sounds of her caregivers, the attentive and responsive caregivers’ actions - that becomes love.”
— Oprah Winfrey, Bruce D. Perry
Feedback is a gift. Which part above is your favorite? What did I miss? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please kindly let me know.
Have a wonderful week. Please stay safe and care for each other.
Isabelle