February 13, 2016

Recently, I happened upon a program on PBS, which was part of a series: The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of Our Nation (see raisingofamerica.org).

This media initiative, produced by California Newsreel, grapples with what I think is the worm eating at the heart of our country. The worm is our collective denial of the importance of a safe and supportive social framework for the growth and development of our children. Selfishly put, our children are our future. If for no other reason than that, we should treat them better.

We are lofty about “family values,” yet we are in the basement when it comes to global ranking of the wellbeing of our children.

“How is this possible,” you ask. The Raising of America series addresses how we got to this place and also how we can extricate ourselves from it. For one, children do not grow in a bubble. The stressors placed on parents become the stressors on them as well. The environment and societal structure are crucial to the maturation of the child even down to the cellular level. Quick example: The families and children in Flint, Mich., depended upon the authorities to provide them with safe drinking water. Instead, the water was contaminated with lead. Children’s developing brains will suffer the deleterious long-term effects.

While it is true that the most impoverished suffer most deeply from our society’s lackluster response to the needs of children and families, even the middle class and more affluent feel the stress of no supportive infrastructure. The United States is the only developed nation that does not guarantee paid parental leave. While other countries legally provide generous paid leaves, sometimes beyond a year, a mother (father) is “lucky” to receive three months here. Isn’t it wonderful that the health benefits of breastfeeding are finally being recognized? Yet a mother must return immediately to work. To compound that craziness — breastfeeding is great — but often there is no space for mother to pump her milk at her workplace.

Daycare is also an issue — a major expense that other developed nations subsidize. (The US does provide a minimal Child Care Tax Credit.) Moreover, good day care can be difficult to find. It was noted in the series that there is more oversight to cemeteries than there is to child day care centers.

The series also noted, “childcare in America is a frayed patchwork — uneven in quality, unaffordable to most, and failing many of our youngest children and their families. However, there was a brief moment in our history when there was affordable daycare. The episode “Once Upon a Time, when childcare for all wasn’t just a fairytale” explores how, during WWII, the Lanham Act funded a national network of child development centers for the “Rosie the Riveter” mothers of that day. When the war ended, the women went home and the childcare centers were shut down. In 1970, with the number of working mothers on the rise, U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale introduced a “bill that would provide high quality childcare, and early education, home visiting, and other services…”

The bill, the Comprehensive Child Development Act passed Congress with bipartisan support. However, President Nixon, at the urging of conservative Patrick Buchanan vetoed the bill. This veto was actually the first invocation of the term “family values” to mean the exact opposite.

Ironically, now, there is a federally funded, high quality childcare program for the Armed Forces. It is wonderful that safe and nurturing environments have been established in the military community. We need to extend this to our entire community. No child left behind, perhaps?

Dr. Renée Boynton-Jarrett is a Boston Medical Center pediatrician and founding director of Vital Village, a collaboration of agencies committed to families and children. Interviewed in Raising of America she affirms that if we can create safe and reliable social environments for young children, “the capacity of the brain and human spirit to thrive and develop is beyond what any of us could predict.”

Our children are our future. What are we waiting for?

* The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of Chadds Ford Live. We welcome opposing viewpoints. Readers may comment in the comments section or they may submit a Letter to the Editor to: editor@chaddsfordlive.com

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.

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