Healthy Learners: A Whole Child Approach to Reducing Disparities in Early Education

The early childhood field has long understood that targeting the intersection of health and learning is integral to serving children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Yet this developmentally informed educational philosophy has been jeopardized by an increased emphasis on standards-based accountability. In this book, the authors explain why healthy learning is good for children, schools, and society, and they suggest concrete ways to make it happen. Moving back and forth between national statistics and the intimate voices of parents, teachers, and service providers in a large urban school district, they formulate an action plan for educating the whole child and reducing educational inequities. While the book covers a broad spectrum of American children, special attention is given to the growing population of Mexican immigrant children. Chapters include: Issues to Ponder, Keywords, Take-Home Messages, and Next Questions.

Book Features:

• An in-depth examination of the connection between good health and learning that all too often is lost in the daily hustle and bustle of families and schools.
• Statistical evidence from the national level combined with the voices of participants on the local level, providing a scientifically rigorous and personalized portrait of early childhood education in the United States.
• A focus on diversity and inequality, highlighting the experiences of children from underserved and often marginalized groups.

Robert Crosnoe is a C.B. Smith, Sr. Centennial Chair at the University of Texas. Claude Bonazzo is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas and a predoctoral trainee at the Population Research Center. Nina Wu works at Children’s Council of San Francisco.