A caring society? 

Earlier this year, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine came across my desk. The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth is based on the work of an expert committee convened by the National Academies to look at how the science of adolescent development can inform efforts to improve adolescent well-being and overcome structural barriers to opportunity and equality. (Pro tip: The report summary is remarkably readable for an academic study.) In the preface, the report’s authors state that “the challenge for a caring society is to take maximum advantage of the developmental opportunities afforded by adolescence to forge positive trajectories into adulthood.” That particular sentence stopped me cold. Before I read any further, I immediately wondered, would most people consider the United States a caring society?  

If your daily news feed is the barometer you use to answer this question, the answer would, of course, be a resounding “No.” Every day, it seems, the media report tragic and terrifying stories about young people. But the answer goes beyond the headlines. In a grim portrayal of childhood in the United States, Atlantic writer Annie Lowery last year wrote a piece that details the nation’s awful record on infant mortality, poverty, health, incarceration, and a host of other childhood indicators. The “savage inequalities” that Jonathan Kozol wrote about almost 30 years ago are as potent as ever. Gaps of all kinds continue to widen in the United States, and while we all may face the same unpredictable slings and arrows, the most disadvantaged among us are bearing the brunt. This is especially true for children as they grow and develop.