Joyful, thriving, and ready to learn
A vision for all children — starting in East Boston
— I have not met a child who was not able to write his name, but I have met many children who could not make friends. — Mary Dooley, Center Director, East Boston Head Start, at August 2 Every Child Shines convening
On Wednesday, August 2, nearly 70 multilingual and racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse parent leaders, school leaders, funders, government leaders, and community leaders gathered for our second Every Child Shines[1] convening, to advance our vision of all East Boston children entering Kindergarten joyful, thriving and ready to learn.
Today’s is the first of several blogs about the “joyful” in the vision: what it means, why it matters, and how to make it happen.
What does it mean for all children to enter Kindergarten joyful?
We don’t use “joyful” lightly. We define joy as sustained emotional wellbeing, or happiness, over time.[2] Childhood, like all parts of life, has ups and downs; we envision helping children be comfortable with their range of emotions and supporting their emotional resilience.
In the context of Kindergarten readiness, Every Child Shines defines joyful as “a child having supportive relationships, an active lifestyle, and a love of learning.”
We are committed to intentionally supporting children’s joy and wellbeing and measuring progress.[3] While we haven’t found validated surveys that directly ask pre-Kindergarteners about joy, Kindergarten readiness measures incorporating social-emotional development can indicate if children are joyful/ on track for joy.[4]
Why does “joyful” matter?
Across the developed world, rates of teen anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation have as much as doubled in just over a decade.[5] Teen mental health hospitalizations are increasing sharply and the mental health crisis is leading to increased teen absences and significant learning disruptions.[6] Research suggests a 40% decline in empathy among college students in just the first decade of the 2000s — and further decreases in empathy during the pandemic — could be related.[7]
By supporting child joy from birth, we can increase the likelihood of improved mental health throughout childhood, and throughout life — increasing joy and improving the ability of children to learn. Our joyful approach is about more than preventing crisis; joy matters because “happy children are healthier, learn better, display more emotional literacy and are better behaved.”[8]
How do we make it happen?
We can use our community joy pillars[9] to increase children’s joy and wellbeing. We utilize a 2-Generation approach[10] and support cross-sector collaboration, recognizing when we support parenting skills[11], parent joy and wellbeing[12], and the skills and joy and wellbeing of teachers and others who support children, we increase child joy and wellbeing.
Stay tuned for our next post where we will discuss how relationships can support child joy directly; the following post will explore the other pillars (purpose, fitness, contemplation and fun[13]). In week 4, we’ll investigate 2-Generation and cross-sector approaches to increase the joy of parents, teachers, and others who support children.
Note: I have been reading The Shallows and just read hyperlinks can harm our reading — so this week, I switched to footnotes with hyperlinks vs. having them in text. I’d love to hear your feedback.
This is the 26th post about boosting joy the only way we can: in community — and the first in a short series about helping children enter Kindergarten joyful. Please share, subscribe (https://medium.com/@justinpasquariello), and join our movement by emailing me or supporting East Boston Social Centers: https://www.ebsocialcenters.org/support
[1] Learn more at https://everychildshines.org/
[2] See our post “What Does Community Joy Mean for You?”
[3] See our post “How do you measure joy?”
[4] We will test this hypothesis over time. In one study among adolescents, “social-emotional learning skills explained 18% of the total variance in academic achievement and 44% of the variance in happiness in middle school students.”
[5] Our post on a public health approach to mental health discusses this crisis.
[6] See this article about hospitalizations and this article about the aftereffects — and attempts to address them.
[7] More about the decline from 2000–2010 here. More about the decline after the pandemic, and associated impacts, here.
[8] See this chapter.
[9] Read more about the pillars in this blog post.
[10] See https://ascend.aspeninstitute.org/ to learn more about 2-Generation approaches.
[11] For example, the children of more affectionate parents grow up to be happier and more resilient. We train parents on the Basics principles including “maximize love, manage stress” to support parenting skills.
[12] “There is plenty of evidence that a healthy, happy parent is more likely to create a healthy, happy child.”
[13] “An active lifestyle” is our pillar of fitness. “Love of learning” combines purpose, contemplation and fun.