I never, ever thought I would hear a president of the United States, much less a president in the State of the Union address, call for universal preschool. But two nights ago, I listened to President Obama do just this:

Tonight, I propose working with states to...

For the near future it will be Lance Armstrong, all the time and everywhere, confessing his history of lying and revenge against those who tried to tell the truth. For those of us who cheered his wins, his recovery from cancer and the Livestrong Foundation, it is heartbreaking...

The front pages of newspapers show hearses lined up and the headlines talk of the mournful task of saying goodbye. An 8-year-old child is quoted in a New York Times article, speaking of his six-year-old friend, Jack Pinto: "I used to do everything with him. We liked to...

When Daniel Stern died this November 12th, we lost one of the truly greats in child development research and theory.

Daniel Stern was a psychiatrist, an author and a researcher at what's now the Weill Cornell Medical College and at the University of Geneva, however...

Two studies on teachers' views of the impact of digital media on children's learning were just released, one by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the other by Common Sense Media.

Although teachers see a number of advantages in young people's heavy...

During the presidential debate Tuesday night, both candidates talked about the challenges women face trying to deal with family and work issues, and the issue of the workplace flexibility was raised.

Today we were doing a live chat with TODAY Money and the candidates' responses were a topic...

When I left the Education Summit everyone seemed to be talking about developing life skills, not just basic academics, in children as a way to ready the workforce of the future. That's a good thing. What's not so good is the perception that such skills, including self-control and...

If you think you've heard what Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University has to say on "not having it all" because you were among the 1.7 million people who downloaded her article "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," from The Atlantic, you are only half right.

Learning how to learn plays a key role in whether children go on to graduate from college, a new study by Megan McClelland of Oregon State University and her colleagues finds.

It turns out, one aspect of executive function skills in four-year-olds -- what the researchers call...

On May 10, 2012, pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton turned 94 years old. On June 18, 2010 The White House honored him as a Champion of Change.

If you ask this inspirational man -- this Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus at Harvard Medical School, this author of the best-selling...

The media headlines reflect a bleak reality for returning vets: "As Wars End, Young Veterans Return to Scant Jobs".These reports are echoed by employment statistics. According to Reuters, unemployment among recent veterans was at 13.3 percent in June 2011, more than four percentage points higher

In the July 18th Wall Street Journal blog live chat discussing their article on Marissa Mayer, my opening line was "We are THE STORY." The story is less the fact that Yahoo! appointed a pregnant CEO, Marissa Mayer, or, for that matter, that Princeton's Anne-Marie Slaughter...

The Aspen Ideas Festival (AIF) is designed as a marketplace of "ideas of consequence." Its purpose, according to Kitty Boone, Director of AIF, is "to bring leaders, problem solvers, deep thinkers and enthused champions to inspire us to imagine the possible for change and progress."

Thus, it is...

I never, never, never thought I would see issues of work and family life create a media firestorm, although I have long known that they deserve to!

Today, front and center on page one in the New York Times, Jodi Kantor responds to the article that Anne-Marie Slaughter...

Lessons from the research of Adele Diamond

This blog continues my series to share the research of child development researchers and neuroscientists who have genuinely inspired me in my 11-year journey to create "Mind in the Making." Their work is truly "research to live by."

I am sharing...

On May 27, a 27-year-old graduating senior at Wesleyan University from Kenya stepped onto the podium and delivered the commencement address. Kennedy Odede rallied the graduates, their families and the Wesleyan community by having them repeat with him, "I promise to promote the power of hope."

I have spent much...

Being asked to give a speech about lessons learned in life is daunting; every day, you accrue new ones. That said, here is a list of life lessons I've learned as of May 2012:

1. Dare to Dream

I am often asked how my career began. My first real...

There have been an increasing number of highly influential calls for America to wake up to the importance of what are called "executive function skills."

Take the high school graduation rate. Economics professor at Princeton University and former member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, Cecilia Rouse, was...

Learning equals intellect.

Is this true? Increasingly, this seems to be the prevailing wisdom.

In 1990, the president and 50 state governors established National Education Goals. The first goal was notable in that it included children before school entry, stating "all children in America will start school ready to learn"...

Many of us have grown up in a world where bells marked the beginning and the end of classes at school, where a series of homework assignments had to be completed each day, and where we were supposed to finish dinner before we could have dessert ("the clean plate club")....