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Ellen Galinsky
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Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder of Families and Work Institute, helped establish the field of work and family life at Bank Street College of Education, where she was on the faculty for twenty-five years. Her more than forty books and reports include Ask The Children, the now-classic The Six Stages of Parenthood, and the bestsellingMind in the Making, published by HarperStudio in April 2010.

At FWI, she co-directs the National Study of the Changing Workforce, the most comprehensive ongoing nationally representative study of the U.S. workforce, the National Study of Employers, an ongoing nationally representative study tracking trends in employment benefits, policies and practices as well as When Work Works, a project on workplace flexibility and effectiveness. Ms. Galinsky directs Mind in the Making, a project on the science of early learning that includes the book, videos for teachers, and learning modules for teachers and for families.

She has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award from Vassar College. She served as the elected President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources in 2005. She holds a Masters in Child Development/ Education from Bank Street College of Education and a BA degree in Child Study from Vassar College. She was a presenter at the White House Conference on Child Care in 1997 and on Teenagers in 2000 and is featured regularly in the media, including appearances on Today, World News Tonight with Charles Gibson, and Oprah.

Blog Entries by Ellen Galinsky

Preschool for All: Getting It Right

(26) Comments | Posted February 14, 2013 | 3:15 PM

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...
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FibbStrong: What to Teach Kids About Lying

(2) Comments | Posted January 18, 2013 | 2:29 PM

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...

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Talking to Young Children About the Death of Young Children

(2) Comments | Posted December 18, 2012 | 6:12 PM

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...

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The Essential Human Task Is Learning to Be With Others and Other Lessons From the Research of Daniel Stern

(1) Comments | Posted November 27, 2012 | 2:25 PM

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...

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Texting, TV and Tech Trashing Children's Attention Spans

(11) Comments | Posted November 5, 2012 | 1:51 PM

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...

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Candidates Need Workplace Flexibility Reality Check

(2) Comments | Posted October 17, 2012 | 4:41 PM

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...

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Let's Take Life-Skills Learning Seriously

(5) Comments | Posted October 11, 2012 | 11:22 AM

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...

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Having It All!

(3) Comments | Posted October 3, 2012 | 1:06 PM

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.

...
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New Evidence: Early Ability to Focus, Have Self Control Linked to College Completion

(5) Comments | Posted August 27, 2012 | 10:49 AM

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...

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Understanding the Language Of Children's Behavior: Lessons From the Research of Berry Brazelton

(0) Comments | Posted August 10, 2012 | 3:43 PM

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...

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U.S. Employers Help to Pave a New Beginning for Military Vets

(0) Comments | Posted July 30, 2012 | 5:13 PM

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

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Moving Beyond Perfectionism and Finding a Work-Life Fit: Lessons from Marissa Mayer and Anne-Marie Slaughter

(1) Comments | Posted July 20, 2012 | 6:03 PM

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...

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Success in Parenting -- Avoiding the Happiness and Self-Esteem Traps

(8) Comments | Posted July 5, 2012 | 5:40 PM

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...

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The Work-Family Debate, All Dressed Up

(1) Comments | Posted June 22, 2012 | 7:26 PM

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...

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Executive Function Skills Predict Children's Success in Life and in School

(2) Comments | Posted June 21, 2012 | 11:39 AM

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...

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Fear Is an Ally: The Story of Kennedy Odede of Kibera, Kenya

(0) Comments | Posted May 31, 2012 | 11:51 AM

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...

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You Can Turn No Into Yes and Other Lessons Learned

(2) Comments | Posted May 29, 2012 | 12:10 PM

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...

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Executive Function Skills Are Essential to America's Present and Future

(4) Comments | Posted April 10, 2012 | 12:10 PM

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...

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Let's Put the Child Back Together -- The Social, Emotional, Physical, and Cognitive Child

(6) Comments | Posted March 29, 2012 | 5:57 PM

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"...

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Free Time: Why Women's Views of It Are Out of Sync With Reality

(1) Comments | Posted March 7, 2012 | 2:40 PM

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")....

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