Child Well-Being: Our Future at Risk?
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Principal’s Office has long advocated for greater attention to the well-being of our children. And so far, it’s been a lonely pursuit.
One reason? Many of our nation’s adults, from parents to policymakers, are no better off ourselves. We remain obese, sedentary, hypertensive, and apparently impervious to warnings of risk.
New Warnings
From Duke University and the Foundation for Child Development comes a compelling new report. Using data compiled since 1975, researchers charted change in seven broad categories of child well-being.
Lead researcher Kenneth Land is not encouraged by the results. Quoted in a recent Washington Post article, Land says of the nation’s economy, “We are now in a no-growth, or slow-growth, era.”
“If that continues, we may be seeing another generation of parents raising families in an environment that will negatively impact child well-being.”
Good News, Bad News
Some indicators did show improvement, particularly in the area of child safety. For example, children today are less likely to commit or be victims of crimes, become teen parents, smoke, drink, or take drugs.
Offsetting these improvements, however, are a lack of progress in education and an alarming decline in children’s health.
Education
Survey consultant Donald Hernandez, professor at the State University of New York at Albany, was stunned by the apparent lack of progress in education. According to the Post, “performance on national reading and math tests—a key marker of knowledge and proficiency, educators say—remained flat.”
Health
Since 1983, the survey reports, children have been getting steadily fatter, and even with obesity removed from the health measure, “children’s health still has not improved since 1984.”
Hernandez said, “We’ve spent all this money on health, obesity has gotten worse, and everything else is the same.”
Politics
As usual, Democrats and Republicans offer decidedly different views on the report:
Democrat Benjamin Cardin, Maryland, calls for “more resources into programs, particularly those that increase children’s material well-being.”
Republican Dave Camp, Michigan, counters that the study shows “if we did spend a lot more, it wouldn’t necessarily impact children in the way we would like.”
Meanwhile, President Bush’s “childhood czar,” Wade Horn, suggests using the survey to “inspire larger cultural shifts in the way Americans respond to certain childhood problems such as teenage pregnancy.” Say what?
Source: Washington Post, Thursday, March 25, 2004, A01.
