Author: Nelson Rosario

If you walk into almost any Colorado Head Start classroom, the first thing you’ll notice is the noise. It’s the happy, tired, constant noise of little kids exploring the world. It’s hot work. If the data are correct, it’s also breaking the people who do it in a quiet way. Early childhood educators in Colorado are getting tired at a rate that should worry anyone who is paying attention. During the school year, almost half of all early childhood education teachers in the US say they are very stressed out every day. In contrast, about 25% of American workers say…

It seems very planned that the world conference on children’s rights will be held in Poland. It’s not because it’s easy or because the venues are great (though Poznań’s Adam Mickiewicz University is a pretty big stage); it’s because the ground itself has a moral weight that is hard to find elsewhere. This is the place where Janusz Korczak lived. Where he taught. That he wouldn’t leave the kids in his care, even at the very end of his life. OMEP’s 78th World Assembly and World Conference will be held in Poznań from July 13–18, 2026. The theme of the…

Every parent has had this moment, even if they don’t want to admit it. It’s on the floor and pulling on a toy. The toddler is babbling something that only parents can understand because it’s not fully formed language. The parent is staring at a phone. They are tired, distracted, and for a moment human. This goes on for about two minutes. But what pediatricians are now talking about is those two minutes added up over months and years. For years, almost all of the talk about kids and technology was about kids: how much screen time is too much,…

A press release doesn’t have all the power that other types of communication do. Its name doesn’t appear in the news when a major treaty is signed, and it doesn’t show up with heads of state very often in official records. But that treaty might have had very different language if it hadn’t been for it. That’s kind of the story of OMEP, or the World Organization for Early Childhood Education, and how it has quietly worked with the UN system for decades to protect children’s rights. OMEP was created in 1948, not long after the UN itself. The timing…

While the UN General Assembly was going on in New York, something strange happened. Heads of state, first ladies, and health ministers from more than 25 countries got together to talk about sick children, not trade or borders. The event was titled “A Global Movement to Improve Survival and Reduce Suffering for Children with Cancer and Other Catastrophic Diseases.” Uzbekistan, the World Health Organization, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the Zamin Foundation all put on the event. There were many powerful people in the room. But a voice that most people have never heard of is one of the…

There is something everyday about it. A parent sitting on the edge of a bed with an open picture book in front of them. A child pulling up a blanket next to them. It happens every night in millions of homes without any fuss. And yet, something measurable is going on inside that child’s head. For years, neuroscientists at Harvard have been trying to figure this out. The study, which came from Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, found that the brain structures of kids who were read to regularly (about 20 minutes a day) were different from those…

Duncan Ivison chose to move to Manchester after living in Sydney for more than twenty years, which is one of the best places to live in the world. Not in London. Not in Oxford. It was grit, music, and a strong sense of who you are that made Manchester what it is today. Taking on the role of President and Vice-Chancellor at The University of Manchester wasn’t just a job for him. “It’s an extraordinary university; really embedded in the city and with a strong sense of place,” Ivison has said. “This city has a lot of heart and soul.…

There is something quietly unsettling about how little attention is paid to one of the most important choices a family can make during the elementary school years. The 11-plus exam, which pretty much decides if a kid gets into grammar school or not, has always been exceptionally important. But lately, the dates and due dates that go with it have changed in ways that make it easy to miss and hard to make up for. Now, in May of Year 5, you can sign up for the 11+. That’s not Year 6, which is when most parents think the real…

It’s pretty scary to find out that a private thought you shared online with a few friends has been copied, edited, shared, and given to government officials—all before your boss calls you in for a meeting where you can’t bring your lawyer. That’s pretty much what happened to Suzanne Swierc, who used to work at Ball State University. What happened next makes me uncomfortable when it comes to how public institutions sometimes react to political pressure. Even though Charlie Kirk had died, Swierc still wrote on her private Facebook page on September 10, 2025. The post was calm, even careful.…

The message that Manurewa High School would be closing early on Friday, May 29 wasn’t very exciting. There were no protests or major events. There was only a simple note from the senior leadership team saying that 29 staff members were not present and the school could not continue to cover the gaps. It almost gets worse when you think about how practical it is. One of the biggest high schools in Auckland is the South Auckland school, which has almost 2,300 students. Everything works well on a normal day. It turns into a completely different issue when almost three…