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Social & Emotional Development

A Call to Conscience

January 18, 2019
January 15th would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 90th birthday. How should we honor him today? Earlier this month Dr. King’s personal attorney and friend Clarence Jones convened an intergenerational, interracial, interfaith group for the launch of the Gandhi King Institute for Nonviolence...
Marian Wright Edelman's picture

5 Family Media Resolutions to Make in 2019

January 12, 2019
What do you remember from 2018? Did you share pics of your kid on Facebook? Did you sneak a peek at their texts with their friends? Did you yell at them to get off their devices ? Did you watch a movie that made you both laugh (or cry) ? Did they send you a text that filled your heart and reminded...
Caroline Knorr's picture

Lucy Durr Hackney

January 11, 2019
When Lucy Durr married Sheldon Hackney in 1957, the custom alterations to her beautiful gown were done for her by a family friend–Mrs. Rosa Parks. This wonderful detail opens a small window into my dear friend and former Children’s Defense Fund board and volunteer staff member Lucy Durr Hackney’s...
Marian Wright Edelman's picture

A New Year for Children

January 4, 2019
As we begin the New Year, every new headline reminds us that these are very tumultuous times. I start this season redoubling my determination to focus all my energies towards helping build a transforming movement for children to end child poverty and inequality at this extremely dangerous time of...
Marian Wright Edelman's picture

UPDATED! Let Cyntoia know you are with her!

December 21, 2018
*** Did you see this campaign? MomsRising is fighting for Cyntoia Brown, and your signature is still urgently needed. Please take a few moments to sign our petition asking Governor Haslam to grant Cyntoia Brown clemency NOW! Read on for all the details, and thank you for all you do. *** Yesterday...
Beatriz Beckford's picture

Prayers for the Holy Season

December 21, 2018
All during the Christmas season, as millions celebrate a poor, homeless child Christians call Savior, I think about the irony of some political leaders proposing (and citizens permitting) policies that would result in millions more children becoming destitute, homeless, and hungry and being...
Marian Wright Edelman's picture

A Unanimous Voice in Support of Students

December 18, 2018
On October 2, the Graham County School Board quietly joined all the other 114 local school districts in North Carolina by voting to prohibit the use of corporal punishment in the public schools. Thus, for the first time in the history of our state (as well as the colony before it), no students...
Tom Vitaglione's picture

In Honor of Her: Venida Browder and her fight for justice told by her son Deion Browder.

December 18, 2018
On June 6th 2015, the news of Kalief Browder’s untimely death was mourned across the country. Kalief at sixteen had been arrested for theft of a backpack, a crime he contended he did not commit. Subsequently, he was detained without being charged with a crime at Rikers Island simply because his...
Beatriz Beckford's picture

How to Help Children on Long Car Trips or Plane Rides

December 18, 2018
I was sweating at the base of my spine thinking about the possibility that my two-year-old would wake up from her nap and I would have to tolerate all of the passengers staring and judging. This was my first trip alone on a flight with my daughter and my mind was whirling with multiple worst-case...
Lina Acosta Sandaal's picture

How Many Gifts to Give Young Children During the Holidays?

December 14, 2018
Every December at my center , parents ask me how to not spoil their children and how to manage the gift-giving frenzy of the holidays. The following are the answers to the most popular parent questions during the holiday: How many gifts should we give our kids? There is no magic number but if the...
Lina Acosta Sandaal's picture

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