Christian Craig

In Dr. David Hamburg’s new book, Today’s Children: Creating a Future for a Generation in Crisis, the U.S. is committing “atrocities” on its children. A substantial portion of the generation of kids under age 16 is lost to drug abuse, crime and teen pregnancy, but also to more subtle corrosives like malnutrition, illiteracy and poor self-esteem.

He argues that special attention must be paid to two crucial stages of development: prenatal and early childhood, and early adolescence. Hamburg asserts that women must have access to prenatal care, drug-treatment programs and nutrition counseling to prevent brain damage to the fetus’s intellectual ability. In addition, to assign parental mentors to new mothers and fathers, and to consolidate social and health services into “one-stop shopping” at local hospitals and clinics would help child’s learning as well as emotional growth.

Youngsters ages 10 to 15 are also vulnerable. Hamburg favors abolishing junior highs or radically reforming them, by creating smaller, more intimate schools to help youngsters make the transition from childhood to adulthood more smoothly.

To reform the current situation, simply reallocating current resources could yield dramatic gains. The elderly may be called on to sacrifice. Moreover, as a society, we’ve got to stop concentrating on the short-time horizons and start taking stock of the long term. Children are a long-range investment.