If only our country focused on finding the potential in its children, amazing things could happen, as this inspiring article from The New York Times shows. When a committed philanthropist spent a relatively small amount of money, $11 million over 21 years, it completely turned around student educational attainment in a mid-sized predominantly African-American town in Florida. It also had a major positive impact on the community itself. The key was aggressive early-childhood education, along with training for parents. And also giving high school students hope that if they graduated they could afford to go to college. This is the routine situation in most European countries, where child care is free or highly subsidized, and higher education is readily available for those who want it. Why isn’t it the standard in the U.S.?
