Welcome March! The Month for New Beginnings!

Here is an old idea about parenting that is still new in 2024 

See the cover of this 1997 book

Parent Involvement Begins at Birth: Collaboration Between Parents and Teachers of Children in the Early Years 

Book Description

Explaining that birth is the right time to begin fostering children's learning and development, this book presents a three-part strategy to form a parent involvement program that will provide a population of students ready to learn and achieve as soon as they begin school. 

This landmark book that hit the news in 1997 and was meant to be our guide for this still-needed and important concept—“parent education/guidance for every parent as soon as their baby is born and even before.” 

You know the author, and I know her too! Sally Goldberg, Ph.D

Dr. Sally has been studying this topic since 1995 when the Carnegie Commission released their information from a multimillion dollar study about the cause of crime and violence. 

This is the cover of the condensed report that inspired the nation and Sally and that almost changed the world, but then it didn’t …at least not yet! Here is the headline about that study from a 1995 newspaper: ”Study: Millions of U.S. kids at risk of a bleak future.”

How many? Six million

This corporation had a mission to find out why we had so much crime and violence at the time, and then they did!

While they thought it was going to be what happened to teens, young adults or even those in our prison system, much to their surprise it turned out to be their first and most important early experiences.

“The first three years of life,” the report said, “lay the foundation for all that follows. Ideally this learning time should be spent with adults who offer nurturing love, protection, guidance, stimulation and support.” 

“Instead,” they found out that “infants and toddlers” of their time “were society’s most neglected age group.” 

“The risks are clearer than ever,” the report said. “An adverse environment can compromise a young child’s brain function and overall development related to cognitive, behavioral and physical difficulties.” 

Next came this wonderful response from our government leadership at that time. 

President Clinton organized a White House conference to ponder the news and glean all related information at that time. Here you see President Clinton in the East Room opening the program with a huge photo of a baby and saying, “In a day of talking about baby talk and how brains grow, Hilary and I offer parents simple child-rearing advice: Songs and storytelling fire up infants brainpower.” 

This is my absolute favorite part. 

The president “compared the growing understanding of how parents can nurture babies’ intellectual and emotional growth to space exploration and said, “This may be the most important exploration of all.”

As we watch the news today with shooting after shooting and a growing group called Goons, we see that teen time is too late. Let’s turn the sign around and STOP the violence before it starts

When we look at babies in the loving arms of their mothers, we see the proper foundation forming. 

As we look at mothers and babies today, we see that they are our vehicles of prevention. Grandparents are in there too. We never did help those six million children before because we didn’t know how, but we can help our new moms and grandparents today because we do know what to do. Little by little we can guide them skillfully through each step of the way. 

Birth to three 

Three to five 

Five to 10 

11 to 20

One strong stage flows into the next. Each child of strength puts a STOP to one going awry. Become a “preventionist,” a crime and violence buster. It is a wonderful way to be, and the time to start is now.