Before COVID-19, one in five young people in their lives, and since 2020, almost half of high school youth reported having , a decline by half from a decade earlier. Hau calls this “relational scarcity” and concludes that while kids need strong early relationships to thrive, those same relationships are among the single strongest predictors of a child’s later success and ability to overcome adversity. 

Hau’s new book, “Love to Learn: The Transformational Power of Care and Connection in Early Education,” tackles this crisis head on, with all indicators pointing toward the power of early care. She includes her own personal story: A psychological test at age 3 concluded that Hau had “low academic aptitude.” Her parents, undeterred, enrolled her in a high quality public preschool in France with strong teachers, where she formed attachments and thrived. “I believe that this moment of benefiting from high quality early education made a huge impact. Which is why I have focused on early childhood education as a huge part of my academic life,” she says in an interview with journalist Rebecca Gale.

The conversation below is edited for length and clarity. 

Your book talks about the need for children to have a robust network of relationships, including with people they are not related to, and how this has changed in recent generations. How can parents and families make a shift going forward?

Isabelle Hau: This is why I wrote this book because I am very worried about where we are regarding “relationships circles” around children. We have a huge body of science that says relationships matter for children in life. However, children are more and more isolated, and while there’s more discussion on loneliness and isolation among adults, I believe that the problem starts in the early years. 

We have children in very small family units: The number of families with only one child over the past 30 years. And it’s intergenerational; have at least one grandkid who lives more than 200 miles away. And only 3% of children with someone above age 65 that is not their direct grandparent. 

There is lots of really on the benefits of [intergenerational relationships]for the child and for the elderly person, and also benefits for the middle generation, the parents. 

How can parents grow their relationship circles?

That starts as a family unit, increasing the number of relationships and making sure the relationships within the family unit are very strong. Turn family time into relational time. I know it’s not always possible for every family, but ideally dinner time is together without any technology interruption or devices at the table. 

To expand the circles of relationships, there are a few things that families can do. Ensure that kids play — focusing on free play, and prioritizing relationships with little ones and families. It sounds also really obvious but with kids who are more and more scheduled, there is less and less time to make those friendships and enjoy free play. Even playdates have become more and more structured these days. 

You have many examples about how our COVID-era policies had detrimental effects on our youngest learners. Can you talk more about why that is, and what else we can do to overcome it?

There is a reason one of the greatest punishments in incarcerated systems is to have people in solitary confinement, because it is one of the greatest human tortures. 

It had a huge impact [during COVID] to be confined at home with minimal interaction. ECE educators are still observing a number of issues at this point. Kids are having more and more issues socializing with others. 

Parents were expressing some concern for older kids too. I was looking at that shows more than 20% of children at this point don’t have a friend. This was for any child, ages 6-12, as expressed by parents. 

And these concerns have seen a shift since COVID?

The challenges we’re seeing today didn’t start with COVID. Even before the pandemic, children were playing less and spending more time on technology — reflecting broader societal trends that predated COVID. However, the pandemic amplified these concerns significantly.

One deeply troubling data point comes from during the pandemic. She studied a cohort of mothers giving birth at the onset of COVID-19 in New York City and tracked the emotional connections between mothers and their babies. Alarmingly, only 20% of these children had a strong emotional connection with their mothers; 80% did not. Even more concerning is that, before the pandemic, only 40% of mothers with young children had a strong emotional connection; 60% did not. Think about that – 60% was already a crisis, and the pandemic made it so much worse.

You focus on the need for relational learning at school, and how not enough attention is given to teaching this. Do you see that shifting, and what do you think progress in this area would look like?

There are many promising experiments happening in early childhood settings, but I would love to see more schools intentionally focus on the importance of relationships. Most teachers enter the profession because they are deeply relational and passionate about building meaningful connections with their students. Yet our current systems often fail to prioritize relationships. For example, early childhood educators are often moved between classrooms early in their careers, disrupting the relationships they strive to build. They often leave the profession as a result. There are concrete steps we can take, such as dedicating more time to free play/recess, or guided play during class, setting relational goals, and starting each day with connection circles. These small but powerful changes can make a big difference in fostering meaningful relationships in early education.

Your chapter on robotic child care sounded like something out of a science fiction movie. How can we approach AI so that we aren’t relying on robots to care for kids but we are still open to learning about ways technology can make things easier?

The option of AI is everywhere; there is extremely rapid adoption. The impact on relationships and learning is really unclear on this point. We want to see technology and AI augment human relationships and not replace them.

Here is where I am concerned — what I call ‘junk tech’ is technology that is not good for us, not relational in nature. We should minimize that, like we do with junk food. We can have a little bit but not too much. But here is a problem I see as a parent and an educator: It is very difficult for any of us to find what is good or not good from a tech perspective. 

If you are looking at or trying to download an app for your child, it is very difficult to know whether it is relational or not. You have tools like that are trying to help, but I would like to see, like in food, that if you buy a bag of chips you can see the nutritional benefits. It doesn’t mean it will change your behavior, but at least you will have information. But for tech tools we don’t have that right now. It is an area I would love to see more progress being made. 

’s K-8 public school students are being taught a new literacy curriculum starting in the 2024-2025 school year. It’s called , and it conforms with what literacy experts call the , which are research-based skills needed to become a strong reader.

Chris Riback: Kumani, thanks for coming by the studio.

Kumani Bey: Thank you for having me.

Chris Riback: So you are a youth speaker at this conference?

Kumani Bey: Yes, I am.

Chris Riback: What did you get to speak about?

Kumani Bey: I got to speak about Black children and their very little access to technology compared to white children in America, and just the disparity of access that we have and how it’s been affecting our community.

Chris Riback: Have you seen that in your own schools and what has the effect been?

Kumani Bey: I have, it’s the resources in general. It’s the resources that not only are we disadvantaged, but we just don’t even know the resources that we’re not getting access to. And we’re not even aware of the amount of opportunities that we’re not given. And it’s important because as someone who does have the access and someone who is in that light, it’s upsetting to see the amount of people around me that look like me and that want to do the same things as me, but they don’t have the access to. And it’s hard to feel okay with that, knowing that there’s so many colored and brown and Black people out there who want to be doing things and who want to be given this access. They just don’t even know the amount of things that they’re not able to do because they don’t have it.

Chris Riback: And I understand that you personally make very good use of the technology that you do have access to.

Kumani Bey: Yes.

Chris Riback: You like creating.

Kumani Bey: I love creating, yes.

Chris Riback: So tell me about that. You create poetry, I believe, you write.

Kumani Bey: Yes.

Chris Riback: And you’re something of a filmmaker as well.

Kumani Bey: Yes. I started my own film production company a couple years ago called AOD Films. And with that I have been producing films, creating movies that I’m able to show off and able to put out in the world and show other people things that they know they feel inside their hearts. They just don’t know how to express it. And that’s also what I like to do with my poetry as well.

Chris Riback: So tell me about one of the films. What is an example of a story that you like to tell?

Kumani Bey: Yes. The latest thing that I’ve done is a mini-documentary that talks about women and the treatment that we get in the world right now. And how it’s so normalized that nobody even talks about it and we just tolerate disrespect. And so I’ve brought together a group of women that I know and I asked them about their stories with this experience and the way that they’ve been treated. And I just built this documentary where I talk about my experience. I chose one of my friends to talk about hers, and then I just had these women at the end that are being shown that you’re supposed to say my name, not whatever else you want to call me, or whatever else you want to say to me. And that’s the name of the documentary, Say My Name.

Chris Riback: What kind of reaction have you gotten to it and how does doing that work change you?

Kumani Bey: A lot of people have seen it and just come to me with all their stories, “Yes, I was yelled at the street. Yes, my boss told me this.” And just all these people telling me, all these women telling me just how normalized it is in their lives to be called certain things and treated a certain way. And it only makes me want to do this more. And it only makes me want to talk about my own experiences more and just be even louder with what I know since not everyone else is going to be.

Chris Riback: Yes, start loud and get louder.

Kumani Bey: Yes.

Chris Riback: What does AOD stand for?

Kumani Bey: It stands for Age of Destiny. My name Kumani means destiny. And I knew I wanted my name in it somehow. I just didn’t know the meaning behind what I wanted to be saying. And so with Age of Destiny, it’s saying this is the age of my life. This is the age of everyone’s lives where we are working towards what we are made of and what we are supposed to be doing here. And you can’t work on your purpose if you’re not working on the little things that bother you and the little things that you know are inside of you that you aren’t expressing. And so with my movies and my stories, I’m expressing little things that people aren’t really touching on so that they’re able to move past them and work towards their destiny.

Chris Riback: There is so much power in the little things.

Kumani Bey: Yes, definitely.

Chris Riback: For any children or any young person who might be watching this, who might be seeing you and saying, “I want that voice.” And I don’t have that ability, or I can’t, or there’s not the opportunity for me, but I’m looking at Kumani and I’m saying I want to be like her. What do you say to them?

Kumani Bey: Do it, but in your own way. Figure out how you want to. Do it in the way that you know how to. I know that growing up, I wanted to be a dancer. I wanted to be a lawyer, I wanted to be a doctor. I didn’t know how I wanted to create and how I wanted to put out. And I’ve been writing since I knew how to write probably at two months old. I’ve been writing my entire life. And it never occurred to me that that is the way that I like to create. And so it’s really just about going inside of yourself and figuring out how do you like to do things. What do you like to do? And in that way, that is the way you’re able to put out your voice and that is the way that other people are going to hear you because that’s what you like to do.

Chris Riback: Well, we are hearing you today and I have every feeling that we are going to get to hear you for years to come as you get louder and louder.

Kumani Bey: Yes, definitely.

Chris Riback: Kumani, thank you for coming by the studio.

Kumani Bey: Thank you.

From teacher to congressional candidate, Nick Melvoin has accomplished much in his years of public service. Now he is one of 18 candidates running in the March 4, 2024, primary for U.S. House of Representatives California District 30. 

Melvoin started his career as an English teacher at Markham Middle School in L.A.’s Watts neighborhood. Motivated to see more change in the school district, he obtained a law degree and worked in the Obama administration with the Domestic Policy Council and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education in 2017 where he has served as a representative for LAUSD’s fourth district and the board’s vice president. With his term ending in 2023, Melvoin has decided to take the next step and run for California’s 30th district, striving to enact the permanent change he wished for as an educator. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

����Ӱ��: What are the main issues you are focusing on in your campaign?

Nick Melvoin: The three top issues for me are … education, affordability and infrastructure. As my generation has come to bear the brunt of climate change, that is also important to me. Gun violence protection, marriage equality, and reproductive justice are all critical platform elements for me.

Before deciding to run for California’s 30th District, what made you want to become a teacher?

I realized … that there were so many barriers that were holding kids back who lived only a few miles away from me in Los Angeles. So I graduated college and became a teacher because I thought that’s what I wanted to do and I immediately saw the barriers that are holding kids back, that are holding teachers back, the bureaucracy, the underfunding. I have just been on this journey to find ways to remove those barriers for kids and that led me to law school then to the school board and now to running for Congress. 

The issues that the Los Angeles school district has faced have been exacerbated in the past few years after post-pandemic issues with high absenteeism and staffing. What do you believe is the best way to deal with these issues?

L.A. Unified led nationally in food security, in internet and service provider, in COVID testing and vaccination. We were not just educating kids, we were making sure that they were fed and their families were fed, that they had internet and computers, that they had tests, and that they had the vaccine…The things we’re doing now are things like expanded time in school, summer school, Saturday school, and still serving three meals a day at most of our schools. We’ve built housing on district property to help employees and, increasingly, families. I have created partnerships with legal service entities to embed lawyers in school communities, to help families with immigration, wage gap, and eviction protection…We partner with Planned Parenthood and put health clinics on campuses. We do vision screening and give kids thousands of pairs of free glasses every year, we do oral health screenings … There’s still more we have to do to get kids there, but we’re doing a lot of work.

You touched a little bit on inclusivity as a huge part of your campaign. What does equity and inclusivity mean to you? And then specifically within the school district how can you encourage equity and inclusivity? 

I think at the higher level, it’s about creating a culture where everyone feels they belong … At the school district level … where 84% of kids are living in poverty, and 90% of kids are of color, equity means righting historical wrongs … We have one of the most equitable school funding formulas in America. It’s called our student Equity Needs index and it looks at factors like poverty asthma rates and non-fatal gun violence and says those communities that have higher rates in all those, receive more money, they need more support in their schools. We’re directing money where it’s needed most.

You mention on your website that it was important for you to ensure good-paying jobs for everyone, how do you think this can be achieved in the district? 

I’m proud that under my leadership of the school board, we have led to the highest minimum wage for public school workers in the country … We need to be creative around other parts of their compensation, so health care, and housing, the district has taken on an ambitious program to look at our underutilized land and build housing for employees… If we can through infrastructure improvement, maybe lower the cost of building housing, we can lower housing costs … I support the public option, medicare for all who want it. Ultimately, I think these things, when braided together, will lower the cost of things for families in LA.

What sets you apart from other candidates? 

There are a few things that set me apart, one is my age … and I think it is important for the next generation to take the helm … I think we are more inclined to work together to solve problems because we have seen the consequences of the failure to solve problems … Also, I have seen implementation, which is so critical, because good ideas often die during implementation. … So I think the mix of age, but also pragmatism, and solution-oriented thinking sets me apart. 

As a child, was a self-described “geek,” thrilled by science fiction. 

In 1969, he watched with awe as Neil Armstrong took his “giant leap for mankind” onto the surface of the moon. For Harris, it was also “a tremendous leap for this little kid,” he said, “this little Black kid.”

The event inspired him to pursue a career in medicine as a pathway to becoming an astronaut. He excelled in high school, college and medical school, even as controversies over desegregation disrupted many campuses in his home state of Texas.

Nearly 25 years after the NASA moon landing ignited his passion for space travel, Harris achieved his longtime goal, embarking on his first space mission in 1993 and flying over 4 million miles in space. Two years later, in 1995, he became the first Black American to walk in space, spending 6 hours in orbit outside the spacecraft.

Now he’s on a new mission — what he calls his “terrestrial mission” — to ensure that all students have access to high-quality STEM education. The retired astronaut serves as the CEO of the , which works with students and teachers across the country to advance learning in those disciplines.

With researchers estimating that pandemic disruptions caused U.S. students, on average, to fall last school year, ����Ӱ�� spoke with Harris about how to inspire students to bounce back and succeed in STEM fields. (Plus some bonus questions about what it’s like to be in space — we couldn’t help ourselves.)

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

����Ӱ��: What inspired you to become an astronaut? And what was the pathway that got you there?

Bernard Harris: My inspiration began when I was 13 years old watching the [NASA] space program. I’ve been a geek for a long time. So I love science and science fiction and particularly space science. So I followed the early space program, you know, as many kids did at my age. 

In 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. And when they said, ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,’ it was a tremendous leap for this little kid. And I should add, this little kid of color, this little Black kid would look at that black and white television and say, ‘Hey, I want to follow these guys’ footsteps.’ And that’s really how it began.

I also remember, I think it was in the beginning of high school, writing a letter to NASA and saying, ‘I would like to be an astronaut, what do I need to do?’ And so they sent back this list of requirements. One of them was to have an advanced degree in a STEM field. So I started looking at careers that could lead me to NASA. One of those was aerospace engineering and the other one was medicine. And the medicine stuck.

You’ve traveled over 7 million miles in space. What’s that like? And also, what did it mean to you to be the first Black American to complete a spacewalk?

I flew on two missions. The first one was Columbia and the second was Discovery. My first mission was about two weeks, and my second one was nine days. … [In the space shuttle,] we’re able to go from zero to 17,500 miles an hour, and reach an initial altitude around 200 miles in about eight and a half minutes. So it’s a very exciting ride. You’re being pushed back in your seat to three-and-a-half times your weight and you go from that to zero gravity in just a split second when the main engines cut off. Then you know you’re in orbit. 

I was lucky enough to [don an extravehicular activity suit and step outside the spacecraft] on my second mission, and spent just under six hours in orbit. … I could look inside and see my fellow crew members, as we all went around the earth at 17,500 miles an hour. That allows us to go around every 90 minutes and see a sunset or sunrise every 45 minutes. So it’s pretty awesome.

Having that view from space … it is a uniting experience to realize that, you know, as big as we think the Earth is, it really is a tiny thing amongst the vastness of not only our solar system and our galaxy, but the universe in which we reside.

That sounds incredible. Do you want to say a few more words about what it meant to you to be the first Black American to do a spacewalk?

It’s not something that I set out to do, it just happened. It had been 30 years since did the first spacewalk [before] a person of color, particularly Black, had had a chance to do a spacewalk. So that’s a long period of time. 

I did feel that I had a lot riding on my shoulders … to help those who may not think that we as Black people can do those things (like space travel and space flight) to say, ‘Hey, we can.’ And not only can we do those things, but we can in many cases do them better.

It’s about breaking the ceiling, it’s about providing a different perspective so when people think about spaceflight, they just don’t think about white guys going into space, or white guys doing a spacewalk. They can see people of color, they can see women that are equal participants in the next frontier, which is spaceflight. And I felt very proud to be part of that moment.

It’s hard to think of a career more thrilling than astronaut. So why then pivot to STEM education?

I like to describe it as my terrestrial mission. My extraterrestrial mission was to go into space. … Now, I want to make sure that any person, no matter what skin color [or] ethnicity that wants to have that same experience can do it. 

We’re in the 21st century where technology drives everything that we do. And I want to ensure that all of our communities have the opportunity to participate in this world equally. Because we all have the same ambitions, ideas, motives and needs. I want to make sure that there is high-quality STEM education that’s being delivered to all of our communities no matter who you are. … So my new mission, which includes the National Math and Science Initiative, is to make sure that we have high-quality STEM education that is delivered no matter where the students are. 

Can you tell us more about the National Math and Science Initiative’s model? How does it work?

Yeah. So the National Math and Science Initiative has been around almost 14 years now. We have what I call four legs of the stool: 

We have what we call the , which is basically Advanced Placement. And so we’re one of the larger providers with Advanced Placement education in the country. Over 2 million students have gone through that program. 

Our second program is called . And this is where we provide STEM education to educators, so professional development to make sure that they have the expertise, and content delivering STEM education. Our idea here is to make sure that teachers can teach effectively to the students. … Over 65,000 teachers have been educated through that program and growing. 

Our third program is called . We have a partnership with the University of Texas where we create a program that takes students who are majoring in STEM, add some additional coursework and now they’re able to leave with their STEM degree and the ability to teach. So that’s part of our teaching preparation pipeline. 

And our fourth leg is one that was accelerated by COVID, and that is to take our programs and deliver them virtually. We have online training for both teachers and students in STEM and so we now as an organization have the capability of doing what we call blended learning. So we can do face-to-face or be able to give them access to our programming virtually.

You mentioned that it was watching the initial NASA space missions that lit your flame in science education. How do we light the flame for current students?

We light that flame by showing them what they can do. And I make that statement specifically for kids of color who, you know, may be watching television and see the stereotypes. We have to get past that. And one way in which you can get past that is to have people who look like you doing the things that you might not think were possible. 

I spent a fair amount of my time in schools so that kids can see me as a Black astronaut, as a Black physician. There was — it’s not mine — that ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ And it is important that we open that door for everyone. 

Just personal background, I grew up poor. I came from a divorced family. My mom had a college education. My dad didn’t. And so one of the first lessons that I learned growing up was the fact that education gives you options. So part of my goal is to make sure that kids, no matter what their background, have options. 

Researchers estimate that U.S. students, on average, fell about a typical year’s worth of learning in math last year with further gaps for the most disadvantaged. To catch students up, what are some successful techniques you’ve seen on the ground that give you hope or optimism?

So of course, I’d be remiss not to say that we are on the ground. That’s what we do. And a couple of programs I’d like to highlight [with which] we’ve done some partnership: 

We have a program that we’re doing in Houston where we are working with colleges and with high schools, to prepare students in high school to become STEM teachers. There are a lot of school districts that don’t have enough teachers, especially STEM teachers. So we’re trying to fill that pipeline. 

We have a program in Alabama in which we’re partnering with the state where we are providing our master teachers to support teachers in their existing schools. And Alabama, of course, they have a large rural population, but this can be applied anywhere. We’re taking this model to many other states. 

I also want to bring up curriculum, because if you open a typical science or math textbook, most of the researchers described — from Newton to Einstein — are white men. But those narratives are incomplete. How can teachers widen whitewashed conceptions of who “does” science and math? Are there other historical figures teachers should highlight? And you’re allowed to include yourself.

Yeah, not only myself, but there are plenty of scientists and folks that are not famous, but should be. Now, I’ll name a couple of them. [] was the first physician, not just Black [physician], to do open heart surgery, but people don’t realize. You’ll find him in some historical texts, but not many, unfortunately. Another one is . He was the architect who laid out Washington, D.C. There are hundreds of other scientists out there. 

And one last thing I’ll say, is that for one of our programs, we invite our funders — we have funders like Exxon Mobil, Boeing and Toyota, for example — and they will give us their scientists and their engineers to go out and be mentors for kids. So these are not “famous” people, but they’re famous to those young people because we’re exposing them to people who look like them. And, you know, it’s not just Black people, it’s not just people of color, but women. They’re also part of this program. We call them rock stars of STEM. So we try to show kids that you don’t have to see these folks on TV to be inspired.