Malcolm Gladwell famously wrote about the tipping point, that moment when change happens quickly. It's the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point. Memphis appears to be at the tipping point when it comes to early childhood development.
That's the unmistakable message from the past two months as we brought leading experts to Memphis and asked them: what gives our children their best chances for healthy, positive futures? Their answers should inspire our best efforts for optimal brain development for every child.
More than 100 years ago, abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass said it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults. Recently, Harvard economist Ed Glaeser, when asked for his advice for cities, said: "It's fundamentally about kids. You really want to be investing in children." That's why we've been so busy over 60 days emphasizing the pivotal factors that determine if our children have their best chances to succeed in school and in life -- toxic stress and brain development.
There are times when we use words or phrases so often that their full impact gets lost in their repetition. We’ve dedicated ourselves this month to making sure that this doesn’t happen with a term we use often, toxic stress. Its meaning is profound.
As many musicians in Memphis know, becoming an overnight success usually takes years of hard work. It's the same with early childhood brain development. The Urban Child Institute has been working for a decade with partners and community leaders to spread the word about how crucial this issue is to the future of Memphis and the region. Today it is clearer than ever that this message is finding a wide audience.
It's the time of year when we look back at the past year and make resolutions for the new one. It's no different at The Urban Child Institute, as we step back to consider what has been done for children's brain development in 2011 and what our plans will be for 2012.
