Center for Universal Education Media Mentions
[I believe] in the resiliency of the human spirit and that the negative aspects of pandemic isolation can be mitigated by the type of safety net parents provide for their kids.
The current environment [is] a kind of “social hurricane” with two major risks: Infants and toddlers don’t get to interact with one another and, at the same time, they pick up signals from their parents that other people might be a danger. We’re not meant to be stopped from seeing the other kids who are walking down the street.
If it's educational television and it's well designed TV, it's not so bad for kids. And in fact, can very much help under-resourced children. If, however, it's watching the nightly news or some of the violent programs that we all have on our televisions today, it's pretty terrible for children.
No country that has reopened schools so far has had the pandemic under such little control. That’s what’s complicating everything for schools.
It’s emergency education. [Efforts to continue classes online is] trying to provide at least some educational opportunity, but it’s nowhere near what kids were receiving in schools.
Education should be, not only part of the investment for the future, but it's really a solution to [COVID-19] recovery. And I think that's important for developing countries in particular.
If you have a very intensive parenting model, that in many ways suffocates that intrinsic motivation for learning and curiosity. Nonacademic skills are important, and we’re looking for kids who are creative and have grit and are resilient. Those don’t show up in SAT scores.
We’re seeing a bifurcation of the economy. Some are moving up toward the high end, while others are stuck or are getting shifted toward the low end. And some are leaving the workforce altogether.
I don’t care if you’re in Mongolia, or China, or the United States or Great Britain. ... Kids grow up the same way. They need human interaction.
For [development impact bonds] to be sustainable, it will be critical to move beyond donor funding and for governments to engage.