Culture of Health Blog

“The biggest hope every parent has for their children is for them to be healthy, happy, and educated.”

This quote sums up a universal sentiment, expressed by a mother living in New York, about what all parents and caregivers want and strive to provide for their children. But what happens when parents are doing everything they can to fulfill those hopes and it’s still not enough? More than meeting families where they are, we need to meet them at their aspirations.

We can begin by truly listening to parents and caregivers, and building from their wisdom. To help achieve this understanding, over the last 18 months, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) commissioned in-depth research with parents and caregivers to learn about the aspirations they have for their children, the challenges they face, and the factors that help them thrive.

Dr. James Comer is a pioneer. Decades before the science of learning and development caught up to him, he understood that all children need well-rounded developmental experiences in order to seize opportunities in life. His parents hailed from the deeply segregated South, but they helped him thrive in the era of Jim Crow, investing in his social and emotional well-being and providing safe, supportive, nurturing and demanding educational experiences.

Through that lived experience and Dr. Comer’s work as a physician and child psychiatrist, he understood that one of the most important ways to support children was to focus on where they spend a substantial part of their day: schools. He also understood that many children did not have opportunities to benefit from an environment that supported their well-being and their ability to have a full learning experience. He set out to change this through a remarkable model that has earned him the moniker “the godfather of social and emotional learning.”

New menu labeling information will help families make healthier choices and may save billions of dollars in health care costs over the next 20 years.

Like many high school graduates in Brazil, Caroline was eager to find a job. She desperately needed money to continue her studies and pursue her dream of becoming an engineer. But two years after graduating, she was still unemployed. Caroline eventually managed to improve her job prospects in an unlikely way—through drawing, dance and breath work.

Intent on breaking free from a family history of women who weren’t able to get good jobs or finish high school, Caroline discovered a job training program run by Rede Cidadã (The Citizen Network). The non-profit organization connects youth to jobs and apprenticeships throughout Brazil, where the youth unemployment rate is nearly 25 percent.

My aunt, a teacher in Connecticut, likes to say that her students carry more into their classrooms than just their backpacks. As some 50 million students enter the classrooms of our nation’s public elementary, middle and high schools this month for a new year of learning and growth, it’s important to remember that schools are more than places of academic achievement. They’re also key community institutions that influence the health and wellbeing of our nation’s children.

We already know that schools are important places to promote kids’ health. That’s why, for nearly a decade, RWJF has worked to improve food choices and increase physical activity in schools nationwide. Through our longtime support of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program—which this year celebrates its 10^th anniversary—we have helped students in nearly 30,000 schools eat better and move more. This is important because research shows that health has an impact on kids’ academic and lifelong success.

But schools also teach kids social and emotional skills like sharing, cooperating, and engaging positively with each other and with adults. These are critical skills—a recent study shows that kids with better social emotional skills are more likely to graduate from college and secure good-paying jobs later in life. The opposite holds true as well. Kids with weaker social skills are more likely to drop out of high school, abuse drugs and alcohol or spend time in jail.