{"id":29103,"date":"2023-11-01T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/?post_type=update&#038;p=29103"},"modified":"2024-05-28T08:19:50","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T12:19:50","slug":"speaking-of-kidscreating-a-children-first-mindset-in-policy-and-society-with-adam-benforado","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/speaking-of-kidscreating-a-children-first-mindset-in-policy-and-society-with-adam-benforado\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 3: Creating a Children-First Mindset in Policy and Society with Adam Benforado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Subscribe:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/speaking-of-kids\/id1711094805\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/6slj8kkWH4KOAUd3zqLVQ7\">Spotify<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/269-speaking-of-kids-125312061\/\">iHeart RADIO<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/podcastaddict.com\/podcast\/speaking-of-kids\/4638652\">Podcast Addict<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/b3413fb5-6a73-487f-a633-1ad11b2d3cf7\/speaking-of-kids\">Amazon Music<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.deezer.com\/us\/show\/1000336901\">Deezer App<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/player.fm\/series\/speaking-of-kids-3519515\">Player FM<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.podchaser.com\/podcasts\/speaking-of-kids-5499301\">PodChaser<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/podcast\">\u21b5 back to the Speaking Of Kids Homepage<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show Notes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">In this episode, our hosts Bruce Lesley and Messellech \u201cSelley\u201d Looby chat with law professor Adam Benforado about the lack of attention paid to children in the policymaking process. Benforado, who focuses on criminal justice and children\u2019s rights, argues that many societal problems we see all around us \u2014 incarceration or homelessness, for example \u2014 are prevented most effectively by investing in our children. For the U.S. to remain competitive and produce healthy, happy, and thriving adults, Benforado believes we must prioritize the well-being of our youth. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Benforado explains that American society has gone backward on children\u2019s rights. We haven\u2019t made the same progress as our peer nations on leading causes of childhood death, like gun and automobile safety, which jeopardizes the well-being and security of our youth as well as our nation. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Learn more about children&#8217;s rights:&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"\">\n<li class=\"\">Book: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Minor-Revolution-Prioritizing-Kids-Benefits\/dp\/1984823043\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\">A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All,<\/a> By Adam Benforado&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Book Review: <a href=\"https:\/\/brucelesley.substack.com\/p\/a-minor-revolution-proposes-improving\">A Minor Revolution Proposes Improving the Rights of Children<\/a> By Bruce Lesley<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/politics\/1982\/08\/16\/two-little-texans-in-thick-of-textbook-battle-for-young-minds\/89a0a151-1779-4ee1-a18d-d8f2ef5661ba\/\">&#8216;Two Little Texans&#8217; in Thick of Textbook Battle for Young Minds,<\/a> By Dan Balz<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Be sure to check out Adam Benferado\u2019s website and follow on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/adambenforado\/\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/adambenforado\">LinkedIn<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Benforado\">Twitter<\/a>. To join the conversation. Follow First Focus on Children on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/first_focus\/\">Instagram<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/first-focus\/\">LinkedIn<\/a>, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/First_Focus\">Twitter<\/a>. Connect with our hosts and tell us what you would like to hear on the podcast at:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"\">\n<li class=\"\">Email:&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:SpeakingOfKids@wordpressmu-1207585-4417844.cloudwaysapps.com\">SpeakingOfKids@wordpressmu-1207585-4417844.cloudwaysapps.com<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Twitter:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BruceLesley\">@BruceLesley<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/First_Focus\">@First_Focus<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Please rate and review this podcast and share it with friends and family.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><em>Want to be a voice for kids? Become an Ambassador for Children<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/campaignforchildren.org\/ambassadors\/\"><em>&nbsp;here<\/em><\/a><em>. Connect with First Focus Campaign for Children for easy&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/campaignforchildren.org\/ambassadors\/\"><em>training on how to be a powerful advocate for children<\/em><\/a><em>. Please consider donating to First Focus on Children<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/join.firstfocus.org\/donate\/?_gl=1*16b4f16*_ga*MTg4MzY1NDkyLjE2ODY3NjcxODQ.*_ga_ZZ2PZQ149Z*MTY5Njk2OTIwMi40Mi4xLjE2OTY5NjkyMTguNDQuMC4w\"><em>&nbsp;here<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Speaking of Kids Podcast: #3 Creating a Children-First Mindset in Policy &amp; Society w\/ Adam Benforado\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5ahRZgb9WTY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"transcript\">Full Transcript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>00:03<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Hey\nMessellech. Do you remember your high school literature class?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>00:06<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Vaguely.\nBut now I&#8217;m curious as to why you&#8217;re asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>00:10<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">So when\nI was the high school editor of our newspaper, we had a situation where a\nparent didn&#8217;t like a book that some of us were reading for our high school\nEnglish class called The Canterbury Tales. So she got the principal of the\nschool to actually ban it. And so we decided we were going to run a story in\nopposition to the banning of the book<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>00:33<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Feels\nfamiliar. What was the issue with the book? What was the offense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>00:37<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This\nparent must have, you know, decided that the book was, you know, too racy or\nsomething and had swear words, which we found ridiculous, like, give me a\nbreak. And this is a book that was written in the 1400s. So we were we were outraged\nat the time,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>00:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">It\nreally surprises me how one person&#8217;s offense translates to all this, right?\nLike, who was one person to determine what another family can consume? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>01:02<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>01:02<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">So then\nwhat happened? What was the fallout? What are the other students say? Or<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>01:06<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Well it\nwas interesting? Because it led to sort of conversations about, you know, what\nare our rights and The Canterbury Tales, I mean, it&#8217;s pretty tame, to be\nhonest. And in fact, it&#8217;s in the library today at Coronado High School. So it\njust seems like at the time, we were just like, really turned off by the idea\nthat one parent could decide for all of us what we could and cannot read and\nthat that conversation is happening today across the country. But sorry, I just\nwanted to ask you like, did you have a circumstance where you felt that parents\nrights was also interfering with you know, how you thought of, you should be\nallowed to do stuff as a kid?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>01:43<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I do\nhave similar stories, but they&#8217;re not quite at the level of of book banning.\nThis was more of an internal team family huddle situation, but I felt violated\nnonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>01:58<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">First\nFocus on Children. This is Speaking of Kids, I&#8217;m Bruce Lesley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>02:02<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And I&#8217;m\na Messellech Looby. Speaking of Kids is a podcast that puts kids at the center\nof public policy. A lighter but similar sentiment, as at least as a kid is I\nwas on the yearbook committee. I loved it. It was such a cool project. And you\ngot free yearbooks, and you know those yearbooks were like $40, or $50. So it\nwas always a perk, and you had the opportunity to kind of, you know, feature\nwhat you wanted to feature in the yearbook. So you were automatically like cool\nkids status. And my parents being, you know, Ethiopian immigrant parents, they\nlove the value of, hey, this is a great extra curricular activity, but part of\nthis was covering after school dances, and just the whole notion of a dance\njust immediately in their mind, they just had turned it off. And so I wasn&#8217;t\nallowed to go. But again, like, you know, even as a middle school, high school\nkid, I felt like my rights were being violated to a degree. It&#8217;s funny, because\nthey didn&#8217;t know until years after they didn&#8217;t stop to ask like, oh, so when is\nthe dance? When would you need a ride? And I was like, it&#8217;s just right after\nschool, it&#8217;s over at 5:30. But at that point, the yearbook had been published\nso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>03:20<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I think\nlike that moment, where you sort of realize like, hey my rights are being\ndiminished or being restricted in some way, whether it&#8217;s, you know, something\nthat may be small, and in terms of your interactions with your parents, or, or\nsomething that&#8217;s really big, right? We see that sometimes and you think about\nthings like child abuse, and really horrible things like that. And even in\nTexas, I grew up in we were subjected to corporal punishment. And I just\nremember thinking God that is just, not only is it barbaric, but it really made\nno sense to me, like why is it okay, that adults can inflict, you know,\nviolence against children in a way that that it would be completely\nunacceptable for them to do to each other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>04:03<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Absolutely.\nAnd my example was one that my parents had my best intentions, and were really\njust trying their best. But we know that that&#8217;s not the case all the time.\nRight. And so, for those listening, if you haven&#8217;t caught on yet, today, we&#8217;re\ntalking about children&#8217;s rights. Bruce, how would you define children&#8217;s rights?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>04:22<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I think\nsometimes people think of it in terms of the affirmative rights that kids\nshould have, and then also, the negative rights, but I would actually\ncharacterize it a little bit differently. And I would think of it as\naffirmative or positive rights, and then sort of the protective rights. And so\nwe talk a lot about how kids need both the support of both parents and\ngovernment, but they honestly need sometimes protection from parents in\ngovernment. We know that, in the case of the supports kids need, they need sort\nof the fundamentals we all need, right like so. Nutrition and housing and\neducation and all those kinds of things. And some of those things are provided\nby their parents. And sometimes government, in the case of schools provide\nthose supports. And so kids need both of those. But sometimes they also need\nprotections from parents and government. And so you think about kids need\nprotection from abusive parents, whether it&#8217;s sexual abuse or physical abuse.\nAnd they also need protection sometimes from government and government\nsometimes can do things like censorship and book bands, that sometimes are\ninspired by the public and the fundamental needs and rights and kids ability to\nknow the truth then is restricted. And that&#8217;s just not right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>05:39<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah, I\nthink sometimes it&#8217;s hard for people and systems and structures, to center kids\nin those decisions. You know, oftentimes, it&#8217;s easy to get distracted or\nclouded by your own personal opinions and thoughts. But really, when you&#8217;re\ntalking about children and their growth and their development, and what they\nhave access to, you really do have to center children. Starting at a young age,\nabsolutely by middle school, high school kids have thoughts, right, or they\nhave the ability to decipher and weigh in on their future where, no, that&#8217;s not\ngoing to be the only pillar of voice that is factored into the overall\nequation. But we oftentimes argue at First Focus that it should be a piece. And\nwe talk about this in a lot of the issues that we cover, especially, you know,\nwhen talking about issues like child welfare, juvenile justice, youth advocacy,\nI mean, education, you know, with the book bans, when you really center kids in\ntheir best interest for how to make them complete, whole, well rounded adults\nand humans. It&#8217;s hard to ignore their voice and all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>07:00<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah,\nabsolutely. And it&#8217;s why I&#8217;m really excited about today&#8217;s guest, Adam\nBenforado. He&#8217;s going to talk about this issue of when the issue is about kids,\nwe should center their best interests and their well being in the conversation.\nThat should be first and foremost, we did a poll on this, and the American\npublic agrees. And yet, it&#8217;s unbelievable how often there&#8217;s an issue that&#8217;s about\nkids and the conversation has nothing to do with kids. It&#8217;s all about the\nadults. And we&#8217;ve seen it time and time again, we saw it last year right with\nthe Child Tax Credit. So here&#8217;s something called the Child Tax Credit and the\nreason why it was not extended as people were talking about deservingness and\nindividualism and things about adults, that concerns about how will adults\nspend this money. And the fact is, is most parents, vast majority of parents\nspend that money on children and, and yet this concern about parents and the\ndeservingness of them really caused the Child Tax Credit not to be extended.\nAnd that&#8217;s really what&#8217;s great about our guest today, Adam Benforado talks\nabout how we really need a children first mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>08:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah,\nhis his new book, A Minor Revolution is great. And I think it does a great job\nof demonstrating why it&#8217;s important to center kids in the conversation. Adam\nBenforado is a professor, writer and lawyer. As a legal scholar and teacher\nAdam&#8217;s main focus is on criminal justice and children&#8217;s rights. He is\nparticularly interested in bringing insights from the mind sciences, most\nnotably cognitive psychology to law and legal theory. He lives in Philadelphia\nwith his wife and two children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>08:53<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">So we&#8217;d\nlike to welcome today, our amazing guest, Professor Adam Benforado, and he&#8217;s\ngot an amazing book out right now called A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing\nKids Benefits Us All. I just want to say, Professor Benforado that like as we\nwere reading it, we do this work on a daily basis. And constantly I was coming\nacross aha moments that that was like God, such a great way to talk about that\nor an enlightened moments, so I really appreciate how you really delve into the\nissues and and what an outstanding book it is. And I encourage all our\nlisteners to order it and read up on it. But yeah, thank you, and welcome to\nour podcast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>09:32<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Well,\nthank you so much. And thank you for all that you all do. I&#8217;m an academic, but\nI often think that this stuff is too important to just confine to academics or\neven experts. And so this is a book that I tried to write for everyone. It has\nspecial meaning when people who are pushing so hard on issues I care most about\nwhen it resonates with them, but this for me was it was a project to try to\ncreate a big tent to reach even, you know, young people, it&#8217;s been exciting\nactually to hear from, you know, high schoolers who are reading this book and\ntalking about this book, as well. So great to be here speaking with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>10:11<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Thank\nyou so much. And I think the first thing we probably want to ask you is tell us\na little bit about your backstory and why you got so interested in this issue\nand sort of the well being and rights of children and why that became such a\ncenterpiece of your book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>10:25<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This\ntruly is a lifelong project for me. I think I was interested in children&#8217;s\nrights as a kid. And I think speaking with a lot of people who come to\nchildren&#8217;s rights, I think a lot of it does have to do with our experiences as\na young person. And, and I think I was incredibly lucky in a lot of ways. I had\ntwo very loving parents who supported me my whole life. But I think, as a kid,\nI looked around and saw a lot of injustice and a lot of mistreatment. And I\nthink one of the reasons I was attuned to children&#8217;s rights was because my\nparents actually saw me as someone who had rights, they listened to what I\nsaid, they gave me power in our family to discuss like, what should we have for\ndinner, little things, and big things as well. And so I think I looked around\nand as a kid, you know, I thought it was wrong, that my best friend&#8217;s dad\nspanked him, I didn&#8217;t think that was right. I looked at kind of the effects of\npoverty, I write about this a little bit about other people&#8217;s experiences.\nFirst, recognizing that there are rich people and poor people in the world. But\nI remember the moments from my childhood, particularly going from I had a, you\nknow, little 1200 square foot house, in a neighborhood that, you know, there\nwere plenty of people who had smaller apartments and things. And I felt like\nthe wealthy kid in the beginning of elementary school and then moved kind of in\nthird grade to a school that had much wealthier kids. And suddenly, you know,\nfourth grade birthday party, my friend&#8217;s father&#8217;s had a limousine for the\nfourth graders to go in, and starting to think about the effects of that, on\nthe trajectory of a person&#8217;s life. Those were things that I was thinking about\nin elementary school. And I think certainly I didn&#8217;t understand why as a sixth\ngrader, I was not allowed to vote. I thought there&#8217;s lots of things that I\ndon&#8217;t know about the world. But there&#8217;s lots of things I do know, and that are\ncertainly relevant to the years ahead. And those experiences both shaped the\ndecision to go to law school, and certainly as a professor, the types of things\nI was interested in researching on, and certainly what I&#8217;m interested, I teach,\nyou know, the rights of children. But even when I teach first year courses,\nlike criminal law, thinking about the effects of the criminal justice system,\non young people is a big part of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>12:57<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">You\nknow, it&#8217;s funny that you say that, Adam, I have a girlfriend that was sharing\nwith me that her daughter got an invite for a 10th birthday party in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>13:08<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">That&#8217;s\none of the funny things is that I think, when you were in these insulated kind\nof communities, whatever community you are, you start to imagine that everyone\nis similarly situated. That&#8217;s one of the really great things and challenges\nthough of you know, my kids go to a public school in downtown Philadelphia,\nthere are just such a diversity of experiences in my children&#8217;s classes. So you\nknow, last year, first little table, she was sitting at, you know, there was a\nrefugee from Afghanistan, there was a refugee from Ukraine, there were kids\nwhose parents have houses that, you know, are couple million dollar houses and\ntheir kids who are living in public housing all in the same classroom. And I\nthink when you have that exposure, it&#8217;s so much easier to start to think about,\nlike little things like, okay, we&#8217;re having the festival to celebrate the\nschool and raise funds. Should we sell tickets? I mean, if you go to a school in\nthe suburbs of Philadelphia, it&#8217;s like, oh, yeah, just charge $100 a ticket and\nraise the money. In our school, it&#8217;s like, No, we actually need to go to\nneighborhood restaurants and things and ask for donations because we can&#8217;t\ncharge any money. We want everyone to be part of this. And you can imagine the\nchallenge of a teacher who has parents who have PhDs and doctorates, and kids\nwho are honestly living in a shelter and going to school, from the shelter. And\nI think, you know, one of my goals when I&#8217;ve talked to people, is to be\nthinking about all children in America in our policies and understanding you\nknow, I think the word privilege is a little overused these days, but I think\nthinking about the ways that little things matter so much, and how those kids\nwho have less start life with such a greater set of challenges ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>15:10<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Absolutely,\nabsolutely. In your book you know you describe at our nation&#8217;s inception,\nchildren were treated as property of their fathers, whereby children could be\nused, sold, hired out to employers, when you think of the progression of\nchildren&#8217;s rights and where it is today, looking back at the history, what made\nyou start there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>15:31<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">In part,\nI always look at things from multiple angles. When I went off to undergrad, I\nwas a history major, and I was very interested in early American history was\nkind of my specialty. And then in law school, I got very interested in\npsychology. And so I think this project is certainly drawing upon a whole bunch\nof social sciences, to kind of understand where we&#8217;ve been and where we are and\nwhere we&#8217;re going. So I start looking at history to understand what I see in\ncontemporary America, which is still the notion that children belong to their\nparents. Some people might say they are, you know, owned, it&#8217;s an ownership\nmentality. But it also can be more of a notion that that you are from me, and\ntherefore I have like some command over you. How it manifests in the United\nStates is unique, in part because of slavery, in part because of some of the\nneeds for labor, even in sort of northern colonies, and the way that children\nwere apprentice. But I think what we see is, as we move into the 19th century,\nwe start to have kind of these Victorian, more sentimental notions about\nchildren, mixing with the horrors of the Industrial Revolution. By the time\nthat we get to the 20th century, there&#8217;s a whole bunch of people and these are\nreally the early progressives, who look at the plight of children, particularly\nchildren living in eastern Northeastern cities, and say, this is terrible for\nkids. But more importantly, this is terrible for the future of America. And\nthey start demanding broad changes across society, it&#8217;s a different mentality.\nIt&#8217;s a mentality that starts to say, we can&#8217;t leave it to individual parents.\nIf we leave it to individual parents, we have kids working in sweatshops losing\nfingers, in factories, we have kids who cannot read, we have children dying of\npreventable things, you know, getting sick from cow&#8217;s milk. And so across\nsociety, we see these, the group was often referred to as child savers, but\nthese progressive notions of we need free mandatory public education, we need a\nseparate juvenile justice system focused on rehabilitation rather than\npunishment. We need health and safety measures, we need child labor laws. And\nwhat is very interesting, and I think depressing, and deeply unsettling is\nthat, you know, at this moment of the early 20th century, we were on the dawn\nof this bright new age, in which prioritizing children would be the goal across\nlocal, state, national government. And what we&#8217;ve seen over the course of the\n20th century, into the last couple of decades, is not simply that we&#8217;ve kind of\nslowed to a trudge, but in many areas, we&#8217;re backtracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>18:31<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Can you\nshare some examples with our audience on where we are backtracking on the\nprioritization of children?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>18:37<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Oh,\nyeah, just the last few months on child labor, you&#8217;d think okay, well, at least\nthat I know, you know, education, at least child labor we&#8217;re not backtracking.\nAbsolutely we are. If you look at the state level, we are repealing laws about\nusing heavy machinery, things that were no brainers 100 years ago, we&#8217;re\nbacktracking. And we&#8217;re using the same arguments that were used in the 19th\ncentury, it&#8217;s economic necessity. Families need this money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>19:05<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Right.\nYeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>19:06<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Businesses\nneed this money. And who loses with that way of thinking is kids. With respect\nto public health measures in terms of infant mortality, early childhood deaths,\nwe really with what we know, in terms of the last 100 years scientific\nbreakthroughs, technological breakthroughs, children should face much safer\nfutures than they currently face. But we haven&#8217;t taken the action that our peer\nnations have done on some of the leading causes of childhood deaths, gun\nsafety, automobile safety, these are these are leading causes of childhood\ndeaths. We have not passed those measures again, often because we&#8217;re focused on\nother people&#8217;s rights, other people&#8217;s interests and not on children&#8217;s rights.\nIt&#8217;s a very complex story, how we go from this moment of really saying hey, our\nfuture as a nation is entwined with children. And in order to be the great\npower that we want to be and the great beacon for the rest of the world, we\nneed to put children first, to a moment where I think on so many levels,\nchildren are always placed second. And I think you know, how we get there is\npartially a story of regression back to these earlier notions of children\nbelonging to their parents. But I think it&#8217;s also a process of elite\ninstitutions. I&#8217;m a law professor, so I always go to what was the Supreme Court\ntalking about over the course of the 20th century, we have some really iconic\ncases that involved confronting these progressive changes like mandatory public\neducation. And we have the Supreme Court having this opportunity to focus on\nchildren&#8217;s rights. And what do they say instead, let&#8217;s focus on parents rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley &nbsp;<\/strong>20:54<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nright, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>20:55<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">To be\nthe deciders of their children&#8217;s destinies, parents rights to exclude their\nchildren from school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>21:03<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>21:03<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Parents\nrights, to exclude their children from medical care, parents rights to exclude\ntheir children from family connections. That was, again, a process that has a\nvery long history in our popular culture. But it also was facilitated in over\nthe course of the 20th century by elite institutions. And we now I think, see\nthe most common notion of children who takes care of children as parents today,\nand it&#8217;s a very dispositional account, good parents should be patted on the\nback, that his parents whose kids have good, in quotes, outcomes, and bad\nparents should be blamed. And so yes, if your kid is not in a, quote, unquote,\ngood school, that&#8217;s your fault. You should be working harder, you should move\nto one of those wealthy schools in the suburbs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>21:56<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>21:57<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">If your\nkid doesn&#8217;t have lunch, that&#8217;s not a societal problem. States shouldn&#8217;t invest\nin lunch, for kids in elementary school, that&#8217;s parents and if we pay for\nschool lunch, we&#8217;re incentivizing bad parenting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>22:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>22:14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And\nagain, I think that would have appalled child savers back in the early 20th\ncentury, who understood, hey, if you don&#8217;t give kids lunch at school, they&#8217;re\nnot going to learn. If you have a bad school that is failing infrastructure,\nyou&#8217;re going to see in 20 years time, children who are not prepared to be those\nfull citizens and productive citizens of society. And unfortunately, today, if\nyou go around the state houses, oftentimes in red states, you will see people\nmaking these arguments which are almost always about bad parents. We can&#8217;t\nincentivize bad parenting as opposed to thinking, well, kids don&#8217;t choose their\nparents. That&#8217;s so obvious. We need to give children a fair shot at the\nAmerican dream, or we are not living up to the country that I think we all want\nto live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>23:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Adam\njust laid out a great history of children&#8217;s rights. Coming up after the break,\nAdam will outline the children&#8217;s first mindset and how it is so necessary to\nadapt this mindset when advocating for children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Leila Nimatallah&nbsp; <\/strong>23:27<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Making\nthe world a better place for all children can seem like an impossibly huge\ntask. Some of you may be thinking, I am just one person, what could I possibly\ndo to make a difference? I&#8217;m Leila Nimatallah, Vice President of Advocacy and\nMobilization at First Focus on Children. And I&#8217;m inviting you to join us and\nbecome one of our volunteer advocates, whom we call our Ambassadors for\nChildren. Ambassadors are our most active child advocates who raise critical\nissues with the US Congress, and with the administration related to child\npolicy and funding decisions, both for kids in the US and worldwide. But don&#8217;t\ntake my word for it. We asked one of our ambassadors to share her experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Katie Landa&nbsp;\n<\/strong>24:18<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I am\nKatie Landa, I live in New York City. I currently work as a researcher for an\ninstitute called the Child and Family Research Center at the University of\nIllinois Urbana Champaign. I joined the ambassador program because it&#8217;s\nimportant to me to participate in working towards public policies that support\nchildren and their families. And I would encourage you to become an ambassador\nif you would like to become a part of a very supportive and warm network of\npeople that value is teaching and learning and activism towards creating a more\njust and caring country. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Leila Nimatallah&nbsp; <\/strong>25:09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">So\nplease join us won&#8217;t you? Check out campaignforchildren.org\/ambassadors on how\nto become a First Focus on Children Ambassador, and to link up with our\nfabulous community of committed child advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>25:35<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">First\nFocus on Children is a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making\nchildren and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>25:44<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">First\nFocus on Children moves beyond individual issues to serve a more important\nrole, children&#8217;s advocacy, we educate lawmakers and the American public about\nthe issues facing children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>25:55<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">We just\nreleased the 2023 Children&#8217;s Budget Book and hosted our annual Children&#8217;s\nBudget Summit not too long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>26:03<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">We were\npleased to have Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, and Kirabo\nJackson with the President&#8217;s Council of Economic Advisers at our summit, and they\nsaid,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">26:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">There is\nno better investment the federal government can make than in kids and families.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">26:18<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Money\nmatters. It matters a lot. It matters for the most vulnerable groups. And\nbeyond that it matters exactly how we spend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>26:26<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Stick\naround, we&#8217;ll get into the Children&#8217;s Budget Book in more detail in our\nupcoming segment, Legislative State of Play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>26:36<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">You\nexplain in such a great way the the important role that parents play in raising\nkids, obviously, but also the role that government and society should also\nplay. And so kids need the support and, you know, from parents, government and\nsociety to do well and thrive. But they also need protections from government\nand parents and society sometimes. And so there&#8217;s this sort of role about what\nare the rights of children? And how do all those things balance? And I think\nit&#8217;s a complicated one I just wanted to give you opportunity to really talk\nabout sort of that evolving the evolving rights of kids, I think for some\npeople, when they think about the rights of kids, it doesn&#8217;t make sense to\nthem, because they&#8217;re like, what do you mean, baby has rights, as opposed to a\n17 year old? And I think what you magnificently do is really sort of talk about\nthe evolving rights of kids. So can you talk to us a little bit about that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>27:34<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah, so\none thing I think is so important to understand, and it&#8217;s a misperception out\nthere, which is that when someone comes along and says, we need to recognize\nchildren&#8217;s rights, it takes away from the rest of us. When you say children\nhave rights, necessarily, that means other people losing rights, older adults\nlosing rights, or parents losing rights. And one of the reasons I wrote this\nbook, is because I think focusing on kids is the best way to create the society\nwe all want to live in. And that is because so many social problems are best\naddressed in childhood. Right, childhood is the window of opportunity, we have\na wealth of research, which suggests right, you can either invest pennies in\nprevention, that is, you know, prenatal care, early education, all those\nthings, or you can wait until problems have metastasized and hardened, and\nbuild prisons and try to do jobs programs and build public housing. So again,\nit&#8217;s not it&#8217;s not a zero sum game. When you make the lives of children better,\nyou&#8217;re going to have healthier, happier, more successful adults. And I think\nthat&#8217;s particularly true, coming out of the pandemic period where parents\nsuffer. I mean, I&#8217;m a parent, and boy, did we suffer, and I had so many\nadvantages over many parents, and I&#8217;m sure we all suffered so much. And so I\nthink sometimes, folks, when they hear children&#8217;s rights, they&#8217;re like, wait, I\nwas so disrespected during this period. And one of the things I want you to\nthink about, if you&#8217;re in that camp, is to think about all of the ways that\nrespecting kids and empowering kids and giving literally just money to kids can\nmake your life so much easier. All of us felt so alone, felt so much like we\nhad the weight of the world. And every day, it&#8217;s worse. It&#8217;s like, you know,\nwhen suddenly you have to be deciding on the vaccine schedule, and you have to\nbe deciding what history, our school can&#8217;t teach about the Holocaust or slavery\nor so, you actually have to be a history teacher and decide what lessons and\nwhat is appropriate. You have to decide about, you know, reproductive health\nand have that conversation. It&#8217;s like, it is so difficult to be a parent. And I\nthink understanding that actually recognizing children&#8217;s rights is a great way\nto take the pressure off the rest of us and to reduce the consequences, right,\nlike all of us feel this enormous pressure to be helicopter parents, to invest\nin tutors, and it&#8217;s overwhelming. And one of the things with respecting\nchildren&#8217;s rights and making a broad societal commitment to children&#8217;s rights\nis allowing parents to relax a little bit. It&#8217;s actually really surprising if\nyou look at, you know, parental happiness in the United States versus other\nmuch, much poor kind we&#8217;re like at the bottom. People struggle, they love their\nchildren, this is the common thing. People love their children and parents are\nsuffering and often feel overwhelmed and despairing. And I think that&#8217;s because\nof the atomized each of you are completely on your own to sink or swim\nmentality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>30:53<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">What is\nyour definition of children&#8217;s rights? What do the rights of children even mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>30:58<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">You\nknow, the way I like to think about it, you know, it&#8217;s certainly in the book,\nthere are kind of an infinite number of rights that we might think about and\nthat are worthy of discussion. But I sort of focus on the ones that I think are\nmost important at each stage of development. So I start looking at first, the\nright to attachment. There&#8217;s a huge amount of scientific literature, which\ntalks about the importance of preserving healthy attachment with primary\ncaregivers in the first years of life. And that yields benefits not just to the\nchild, but actually even to the child&#8217;s children. And so, one of the things\nthat&#8217;s so frustrating in America is all of the ways in which we have this\noverwhelming literature, which we do not follow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>31:42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>31:42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And it&#8217;s\non simple things, like for example, not having paid mandatory leave for new\nparents being the outlier among wealthy countries in the world. But it&#8217;s also\nin the way that we callously separate loving parents from their kids through\nthe child welfare system. So a lot of people think the child welfare system is\nsimply set up to remove child abusers, physical abusers from their parents, but\na lot of time, what that works out to is simply to remove kids who have poor\nparents, so you know, child welfare worker comes to our house and sees empty\nrefrigerator, peeling, lead paint cockroaches on the floor, it&#8217;s, it well\nyou&#8217;re, you&#8217;re negligent, and removes that kid and puts them into foster care.\nAnd again, I think the literature would suggest a much better way to deal with\npoverty is to address poverty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>32:37<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>32:38<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Give\npoor parents money, and you alleviate the conditions that seem to necessitate\nthis thing that we know, harms kids in long, long run. And the same thing,\nobviously, is with the criminal justice system, we remove so many kids from\ntheir parents, and again, the focus is on the parents, it&#8217;s on, well, this is a\nbad person, and we need them to punish them without thinking there are innocent\npeople here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>33:06<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>33:06<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And one\nof the things I want my criminal law students often to think about is, if they\ncome in so attuned to the presumption of innocence, the importance to our\nhistory of preserving innocent and I asked him, you know, what type of system\nwould you be happy with, you know, one in which for every innocent person, you\nknow, we ensure that one guilty person, or is it 10, to what&#8217;s the kind of\nratio? My students are so focused on ensuring that innocent people are not\npunished, they&#8217;re willing to have 10 guilty people go free, 100 guilty people\ngo free. And I say, but what about children? Every time you lock up a mom or\ndad, who is the primary caregiver, you are punishing those children. It is\nclear from a single conversation with a kid whose father or mother was locked\nup when they&#8217;re four or five years old. But it&#8217;s even more clear and looking at\nthe data. And so, again, I think, you know, this is just one example of I\nthink, our rights mindset, when you&#8217;re focused on a right to attachment,\nsuddenly, these things are a lot clearer to you all these ways that we&#8217;re not\nliving up to the country that we want to be, the country that we believe\nourselves to be. And I move through, obviously, you know, later stages of\ndevelopment, I&#8217;m focused on like empowerment rights. So I&#8217;m focused on, you\nknow, the right to vote, the right to hold office, run, run for office, the\nright to serve on a jury, the right to have a say in our major institutions, in\nour business organizations. I really think that in some ways, if I was to pick\none right, that I think is kind of the most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>34:47<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Now\nexpanding on that train of thought, how is it possible that we are the only UN\nmember of the entire world who didn&#8217;t sign on to the Convention on the Rights\nof the Child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>34:56<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Well,\none of the answers to that is while the people who might I&#8217;d actually put\npressure on, you know, the Senate have no power. If you look at, you know, the power\ncircuit, who are the most powerful people even who who&#8217;s running for president,\nwho are the leaders, we&#8217;re gonna have octogenarian leaders without, you know, a\n17 year old American having any power, the only thing they can do is protest.\nAnd to see the courage and the commitment of protesters on gun control on\nclimate change, I am inspired by them, but also appalled to think that&#8217;s all\nthey get. That&#8217;s all they get. And we just say, you know, again, conservative\ncommentary, often disparages them. And I think we need to listen to them, and\nwe need to empower them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>35:45<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Adam, I\ncouldn&#8217;t agree more with everything you just said. I say it often that\nchildren&#8217;s issues are a national security.&nbsp;\nYou know, if we&#8217;re not pouring into our kids, what is this gonna look\nlike? What is our economy going to look like in the next 15 years? And also, to\nyour point about this being an issue that really starts with prevention. You\nknow, you mentioned the child welfare system, we know that most of the kids entering\nthe child welfare system are three and under, which is wild to think about. And\nwe know like you said, children are oftentimes ignored. They&#8217;re invisible.\nChildren don&#8217;t have PACs. They don&#8217;t want political action committees. But it\ndoes go beyond that to your point as a societal problem. And in your book, you\nsay it so eloquently, &#8220;So often, children are at the back of our minds,\nnot the front. They are afterthoughts, are never noticed at all. They are\ninvisible when they are right before us. What&#8217;s particularly worrying is that\neven those charged directly with protecting kids are often infected with this\nheedlessness a careless apathy at critical moments even they are just going\nthrough the motions.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>35:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Absolutely.&nbsp; Yeah, so I mean, I think if we don&#8217;t listen\nto children, we are doomed. I don&#8217;t mean to, to be too dramatic here. But I\nthink if we do not start thinking about not just children, but future\ngenerations, we are doomed. And I mean that, to actually like for you to think\nabout it. I think one of the reasons that we undervalue future generations is\nwe&#8217;re so focused on ourself and our own experience in this moment. And I think\nit results in a society that is not investing enough, in that forward focus\nwhat&#8217;s going to happen, not simply now, but what&#8217;s happening in 20 years,\nwhat&#8217;s happening in 50 years? What responsibilities do we have to future\ngenerations to preserve the environment, for exampl?, That was the gloom and\ndoom part. But this is the good news is that actually children are at the\nforefront of some of the, you know, most promising efforts to get state\nlegislators and others to actually start to change things, is taking state\nconstitutions and saying, hey, it&#8217;s right here written our state constitution,\nyou do have a responsibility to do these things. And it&#8217;s children who are\nbringing that voice. But I think one of the things when we don&#8217;t allow them to\nvote, we can also be too conservative. And there&#8217;s a lot of actually psych\nliterature on this in terms of investors, as people get older, they get more\nrisk averse. And that can be a good strategy in certain environments, but\nparticularly in one, a period of rapid change, staying where you are can be the\nmost dangerous thing you can do. And one of the great things about kids is that\nI think they are willing to take risks risk can be very good. And I think\nthat&#8217;s particularly true politically. Sometimes we need to make urgent changes\nnow. And I think if we empower kids, we could get a lot more of that forward\nthinking into government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>38:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">On that\npoint, I think it&#8217;s really important. And I think you do a great job of talking\nabout, you know, how society doesn&#8217;t respect the voice of kids. And that, yes,\nthey have unique perspectives, some of what you talked about here, like so in\nMontana, the court case that affirmed the right, with respect to climate\nchange, is an example. But I also think your point that kids voices should be\nheard because they actually have unique perspectives in ways that none of the\nrest of us do, right. They&#8217;re the only ones who&#8217;ve experienced cyber bullying.\nInternet did not exist when most adults were children. They also uniquely\nunderstand things like school shootings and having to deal with lockdown drills\nand the current children&#8217;s mental health crisis. It is their perspective that\nneeds to be heard. And we know in society that so often institutions just fail\nkids. You know, you see it time and time again, right. We saw it with respect\nto the US Women&#8217;s Gymnastics Team with the Jerry Sandusky stuff at Penn State\nand you know, the Boy Scouts. Again and again, institutions will cover up and\nthey do not respect the rights of children or their voice and, and we know in\nthe in the case of the US Olympic team that was 20 years, kids, we&#8217;re telling\nadults We often just silence and don&#8217;t listen to them. So yeah, we&#8217;d love your\nperspective on that. And also from your criminal law perspective, like, we\nsilence kids in the legal system. So in the child welfare system, we don&#8217;t\nlisten to them either, or the juvenile justice system? So anyway, yeah. Any\nthoughts you have on how we silence and don&#8217;t listen to kids and really do need\nto hear their voice and it should be respected?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>40:31<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah, I\nthink, again, it&#8217;s a combination of in our family life, that norms, and it&#8217;s\nalso in our formal institutions. And so I think, as a parent, well let&#8217;s get\npersonal here is, you know, as a busy parent, you&#8217;re heading out the door, and\nyou get felt like why, why do we have to do this? And so in those moments, it&#8217;s\nso easy to say, well, because I said, so I don&#8217;t have time to explain or shh,\nshh just like, let daddy speak. I&#8217;ve been there. I experienced that. But that I\nthink notion, we know, it&#8217;s so valuable to kids. They ask those why questions,\nand they&#8217;re listening to the answers. That&#8217;s their little brains. That&#8217;s what\ntoddlers do. They should ask 1000s of why questions. That&#8217;s how they&#8217;re\nlearning. And it&#8217;s important to like, even in those moments of stress, to\nlisten and to respond, and to not have that knee jerk reaction. And I think,\nagain, going to the institutional story, going back to the Supreme Court, I\nthink it&#8217;s the same thing. I think repeatedly, we have kids trying to come and\nassert their rights. And we meet that with silencing by saying, actor, your\nparents, okay, you actually don&#8217;t have standing to sue, you need an adult to\ncome in and do that You have no formal vote, you can exercise your your\nfranchise, in quotation marks, through your parents. And I think, again, you\nknow, in terms of where we need to go, I think we need to give children a voice\nin our families, I think we need to give them a voice at school. I think one of\nthe very frustrating things over all these book ban arguments has been the\nresponse of the left has been to say, well, okay, these people were asserting\nparents rights to exclude these books. We need a robust parents rights movement\non the left, you&#8217;re denying my right to have my kid read the book that I want\nthem to read. I say, well, I actually want to know, like, kids in Florida, high\nschoolers, what would you like to learn? What books do you think you should be\nreading in English? What don&#8217;t you feel like you know about American history\nand racism in contemporary America? And what experiences have you had? You\nknow, Bruce, you mentioned experiences. One of the pushback that I often get\nagainst voting by appeals, they don&#8217;t have relevant experiences. I&#8217;m like, you\nneed to talk to high schoolers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>42:50<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>42:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Let me tell\nyou, they have intimate experience with the key issues that are affecting\nAmerica today. Tell me what do you think are the most important issues? Well\ngun control. Every kid in America has lived through a lockdown drill? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>43:05<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>43:06<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">How do\nwe regulate social media? They actually know how social media, they are on it\nnow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>43:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>43:14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Climate\nchange, like literally an AI. Like anything that you could bring up, kids have intimate\nexperience. Police brutality, 14 year olds in Philadelphia, know what it is\nlike to be afraid of have a police officer chase after them. Yes, they know\nthat. And so again, I think if you listen to kids, you actually learn things\nyourself. You will change your own perspective. One of the really meaningful\nconversations, interviews I did for this book, and I talked to lots of young\npeople I had talked to people looking back on their life and thinking about\ntheir childhood. One of the most meaningful ones that I had was talking to this\n17 year old who had been very affected by some of the recent shooting incidents\nin school and after Parkland wanted to participate in a walkout to show\nsolidarity with the Parkland kids. And unfortunately, he lived in a very\nconservative little town in Arkansas. And so he was kind of the only kid who\nstood up in his high school and walked outside and luckily outside there were a\ncouple other students. And the principal came out, Dean of Students, and said,\nyou better get back in. Police rolled by and said you guys better get in or\nthere&#8217;ll be consequences. After the 17 Minute protest, he walks back into the\nschool and again, the Dean of Students called him in and says okay, well you\nhave a choice. You can either be suspended for school for your silent peaceful\nprotest of a scourge on American society. Or you can receive swats. Swats, what\nare swats? In a public school, public high school in Arkansas, it is legal and\nit is constitutionally permissible by Supreme Court edict a child can be hit\nwith a cricket bat for protesting silently gun violence. The insights of this\nkid say out, you know, the irony here of you know, protesting violence and the\nresponse of adults is, violence was not lost I think on any of us, it was kind\nof his his response. But I think also, the thing that was hopeful from the\nstory was how he said, you know, I&#8217;ve been talking to my dad, my dad&#8217;s a much\nmore conservative guy, as I&#8217;ve talked to him about this, these issues, his\nviews are changing. And that gives me such great hope. Right? Like, if you\nlisten to your kids, if you actually have conversations, they may have very\ndifferent opinions than you. But I think, you know, that is an opportunity for\nall of us to grow in ways that are good for society as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>45:58<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I just\nfinished watching on Netflix, there&#8217;s a new docu series called Live to 100\nSecrets of the Blue Zones. And essentially, it&#8217;s, you know, documenting folks\nthat have lived over 100 communities where there&#8217;s a dense population, and\ntowards the tail end of the docu series, they&#8217;re trying to replicate that,\nright, in different societies. And then the ultimate question that leaves you\nwith is, can we do that in America? And when you look at a life to reach that\nlevel, all of it has started, in their view, with programs educating children,\nabout nutrition, about empathy, about, you know, human connection, or how to\nlive a purpose driven life. And so, you know, I know a big center to your book\nwas on, you know, all of these things, like you said, in early childhood in\nK-12, education, you know, investments with with youth, they require\ninvestments. And you know, when we look at policy, we work at the cross of\nissues. And so that&#8217;s why I think for us, we see it bubble up so much, and we\nsee why it&#8217;s so important to not just be focused on one singular issue. But you\nreally talk about in center, this children first mindset. And so why do you\nthink that&#8217;s so important for children today, especially as it relates to\npolicy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>47:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The\nchild first mindset in everything we do is at the core message of the book. And\nI think why this is is really kind of twofold. I think, first, it allows us to\nfocus societal resources, where they can have the most impact. We&#8217;ve already\ntalked about that a little bit. But I think another reason why focusing on\nchildren can have such a huge impact is that kids are our canaries in our coal\nmines. There&#8217;s so many ways in which all of us are affected by things like lead\nexposure, and drinking water or paint chips. It&#8217;s not good for any human\nbeings, brain heavy, heavy metals, but children are particularly vulnerable.\nAnd so if you are focusing on kids, is this thing good or bad? When we test for\nlead, how careful should we be? If you focus on kids, right? Well they&#8217;re most\nsensitive, you set it at a much lower level, you invest first and removing\nthose things, we all benefit from that. I think, you know, if we focused on\nkids, our flights would be better, our cars would be safer to all of our benefit.\nNow, I think the third reason why focusing on kids and having a child first\nmindset is so valuable, is that it allows us to really draw upon a deeply human\ncharacteristic, which is our empathy. I think it&#8217;s not a coincidence that some\nof the most iconic photographs of the last 100 years have been of children\nsuffering, a child running naked from a napalm attack, a little boy, dead boy\nwashing up on the shores. There&#8217;s a reason why those things hit us so hard, and\nwhy they have prompted societal changes. And that is backed up by the\nscientific literature, which is when we think of children, we care more about\nhumans, we think about people other than ourselves. And so I think, to me, a\nworld in which, you know, we prioritize children in all aspects of government\nin which they are at the forefront of our minds in terms of schools, in terms\nof our families. I think that&#8217;s the path forward for all of us. And I try to\nappeal here. You know, I talked to a lot of parents, I talked to child rights\nadvocates, but I want to reach people who think that they have nothing to do\nwith kids. They don&#8217;t like kids. They do, I asked, what&#8217;s the most important\nthing for you? Low taxes. I&#8217;m like, hey, I got a pitch for you. Child\nprioritization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>49:44<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>49:45<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">You&#8217;re\ngonna love this. This is the way to the lowest taxes imaginable. Put children\nfirst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>49:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah, I\nwas gonna ask you one last question before we sort of wrap up but on that\npoint, you talked about an issue that&#8217;s near and dear to our heart, which is Is\nthis idea of having child impact statements. And because kids are so often\ninvisiblilized and sort of an afterthought in society. And, and that&#8217;s true in\ngovernment, we would argue that every issue is a kid&#8217;s issue. And I think your\nbook makes that point very well. And that often, those issues and interests,\nbest interest of children are not addressed. So we are huge proponents of child\nimpact statements, but love that you are, too. So can you talk a little bit\nabout that as well and why that is important?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>50:31<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This may\nbe for listeners here, it&#8217;s like, okay, I buy in, I&#8217;m actually one of the true\nbelievers like this actually does make sense. How do we operationalize this?\nAnd I think there are lots of things. So part of it is empowering kids that is\nactually lowering the voting age, that&#8217;s things like allowing children to sit\non school boards, things like that. But I think we can also operationalize this\nby writing into law. So other nations have actually shown us the path forward,\nthat when new laws regulations are passed, we can make a requirement that we\nactually look at how is this going to affect kids? We sometimes already do that\nwhen it&#8217;s something that involves kids like an educational spending bill. But\nthere are so many things that affect kids that don&#8217;t seem to have anything to\ndo with kids, right? So like, energy utility, what rates can they charge or\nminimum wage can only happen at the state level, it can&#8217;t happen. Well, each of\nthose decisions, deeply impacts kids. And you won&#8217;t notice it unless you&#8217;re\nrequired to look and one of the cool thing is, is even the United States, we\nhave environmental impact assessment is a standard practice, we have, you know,\nracial impact assessments being done in certain states. And so this is not\nreinventing the wheel. This is a tried and true process, which can get you\neveryday people who are working on things that will affect children thinking\nabout it, I also really argue in favor of creating children&#8217;s bureaus both\ncreating a federal agency tasked with looking out for the whole child, I think\nthis was an idea back in 1912, we created a Children&#8217;s Bureau under President\nTaft. We&#8217;ve lost that idea that we need to have central government entities\nlooking out for children in this broad way. Right now, we tend to, again, use\nthe word atomized, but to focus on these individual facets of things like we\nhave the EPA looking at, you know, to go back to lead, being affected by lead,\nwe have the Department of Education, looking at low test scores, well guess\nwhat those things are linked. And it&#8217;s really important to have a centralized\nentity looking out for that. And so again, in the book, I focused on a lot of\npractical things that we can do right now, as well as those 20-year, 30-year,\n50-year government changes we can make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>52:43<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nawesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>52:44<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And\nAdam, those things will take a lot of time and energy and effort. And our whole\nteam is dedicated to that fight. But on days when it feels overwhelming. Is\nthere a song that you listen to or turn to, to kind of offer some inspiration?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>53:00<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">That&#8217;s a\ngreat question. You know, I love music. Instead of picking a single song, I\nfind my interactions with kids, my own kids and other kids great joy. And so I\nthink for me, when I think about music, I think about actually making music\nwith my kids. My daughter is taking piano lessons, I play piano with her every\nnight. My son has just taken up, five year old, playing the ukulele and we\nwrote a song just yesterday. And so that&#8217;s what your question prompted in my\nmind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>53:28<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Oh my,\ngosh, you will need to send us a recording of it. In our house, none of my\nchildren are into musical instruments. But we do come up with songs. And our\nclassic is &#8220;Parking Genie&#8221;. Whenever we&#8217;re driving around DC and need\nus we have a whole song about how Parking Genie needs to come out and find a\nspot. So that&#8217;s awesome. I love it. Thank you, Adam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>53:52<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah,\nAdam, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your time\nand your awesome book. And thank you for joining the podcast today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Adam Benforado&nbsp;\n<\/strong>54:01<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">It was\nan absolute pleasure. And I look forward to future conversations as well. You\nguys keep up the wonderful work <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>54:08<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Thank\nyou so much. So September, we released the Children&#8217;s Budget Book. The budget\nbook is critically important because what it shows is how are we investing our\nnation&#8217;s children? It calculates all the spending for kids. And I think it&#8217;s\nimportant to note that kids are almost about a quarter of the population. But\nwhat we find is that the investments in kids are less than 1\/10 of all federal\nspending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>54:37<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nright. We&#8217;ve been releasing the Children&#8217;s Budget Book for the last 16 years\nnow. And last year, you know, we really tracked and analyzed spending that was\ngoing to children and families in more than 250 federal government programs.\nAnd so for the purposes of our book, we broke it down into 11 investment areas\nis. And what we found was, to your point Bruce, spending on children declined.\nIt was a decrease of nearly 16% in real spending from the previous fiscal year.\nYou know, we know that money matters as we have tracked federal spending as it\nrelates to children and families over the last 16 years. What have you noticed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>55:20<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah, I\nthink that our guests at the summit really did hit the mark. Senator Whitehouse\ntalked about how important investments in children are. And Dr. Jackson talked\nabout, you know, his research and how he found that money matters, it makes a\nhuge difference in really all aspects of the lives of kids. And what our book\nreally shows, as you talked about Messellech is that there&#8217;s been this decline\nin spending. And so kids are right now standing at a crossroads. And are we\ngoing to be making investments in them in their future are we going to start\npulling back from that? And what we&#8217;re seeing is that, particularly in the\nHouse of Representatives, that is exactly what they&#8217;re doing. It&#8217;s not just an\nissue of neglect, they&#8217;re actually targeting children for budget cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>56:06<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And to\nyour point, we&#8217;ve seen this, the Child Tax Credit, we have seen time and time\nagain, through direct stories from families from across the country, and even\nspending habits and, and the outputs of children. But when that investment went\naway, we saw in 2022, child poverty more than doubled to over 12%, which was\nthe largest increase of poverty in all age groups between 2021 and 2022. That\nwas, according to the recent census numbers that came out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>56:35<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yep. And\nif you kind of marry that to our budget book, or budget book shows this and\nthat, the data reveals that the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit\ndropped from 131 billion in 2022, to just 30 billion. So it was a 77%\nreduction. And so as the theme is, is that money matters, we pulled money away\nfrom families, and it resulted in just what you talked about is a doubling more\nthan doubling of child poverty in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>57:05<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">So\nfirst, what does this mean for an average family?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>57:09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Yeah,\nfor families all across this country, the expiration of the Child Tax Credit,\nresulted in at least $1,000 increase in taxes for every child in America. And\nfor some families, it actually resulted in a $3,600 tax increase. So for the\nfamilies of more than 60 million children, they received a tax increase at the\nvery time, we are seeing rising inflation. And you know, those things have\nreally compounded and affected families. And that&#8217;s why you&#8217;re seeing a lot of\nfamilies expressing concern about the economy. And it really is this\ncombination of what&#8217;s going on in the economy, but also the disinvestment that\nour government has made in families and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>57:55<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And we\nknow the childcare subsidies expired at the end of September, as well. Recent\nreports from the Century Foundation indicates that this will impact 3.2 million\nchildren, which is wild, given the state of child care in this country. I\npersonally have, you know, experience just the shortcomings of the childcare\nsystem and what it looks like, especially for families with young young kids.\nWhy is all this important, Bruce?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>58:21<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Well, I think\nthat what we would argue is that budgets really do show you what you value. And\nCongress is devaluing children and families, they are doing it purposefully, it\nis not just an issue of neglect it is they are targeting kids for the bulk of\ncuts. And so what we really need from the American people and parents across\nthis country, is we need people to sort of look at this data and to call\nCongress and ask them to put their money where their mouth is, and to actually\nmake investments in kids. There&#8217;s no scenario where cutting kids is in their\nbest interest. And so this whole notion that, you know, we need to make these\ncuts to help families is ludicrous. It&#8217;s actually having a major negative\nimpact on families. And so kind of is Professor Benforado said earlier, we\nreally need a children first mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>59:15<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Definitely,\ndefinitely. And you know, for those listeners that are just being introduced to\nthe Children&#8217;s Budget Book, and the fact that First Focus on Children has been\ntracking these numbers for the last several years. We encourage you to read the\nbook, or at least the executive summary that shares key insights, share the\nbook or the summary, call your Congress member. We hope that this helps shape\nyour view of where our investments are made, where honestly your tax dollars\nare going or not going rather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>59:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This is\nSpeaking of Kids thanks for listening. I&#8217;m Bruce Lesley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>59:55<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">and I&#8217;m\nMessellech Looby. Special Thanks to our guest Adam Benforado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>59:59<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Speaking\nof Kids is a podcast by First Focus on Children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>1:00:03<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Elizabeth\nWindham is the Supervising Producer and Julia Windham is the Associate\nProducer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>1:00:08<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Leila\nNimatallah is the Advocacy and Mobilizing Producer and Senior Producer is Jay\nWoodward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>1:00:14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Our\ntheme music is Don&#8217;t Look Twice by Sam Barsh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>1:00:17<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">For more\ninformation about this week&#8217;s episode go to firstfocus.org. You can find our\nlinks in our show notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>1:00:24<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">If you\nhave thoughts, questions or interest in becoming a First Focus on Children\nAmbassador, email us at speakingofkids@wordpressmu-1207585-4417844.cloudwaysapps.com. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Bruce Lesley&nbsp;\n<\/strong>1:00:33<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And\nplease follow rate and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Selley Looby&nbsp;\n<\/strong>1:00:38<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Speaking\nof Kids is produced by Windhaven Productions and Blue Jay Atlantic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Subscribe:&nbsp;Apple Podcasts&nbsp;|&nbsp;Spotify&nbsp;|&nbsp;iHeart RADIO&nbsp;|&nbsp;Podcast Addict&nbsp;|&nbsp;Amazon Music&nbsp;|&nbsp;Deezer App&nbsp;|&nbsp;Player FM&nbsp;|&nbsp;PodChaser \u21b5 back to the Speaking Of Kids Homepage Show Notes In this episode, our hosts Bruce Lesley and Messellech \u201cSelley\u201d Looby chat with law professor Adam Benforado about the lack of attention paid to children in the policymaking process. Benforado, who focuses on criminal justice and children\u2019s rights, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/speaking-of-kidscreating-a-children-first-mindset-in-policy-and-society-with-adam-benforado\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30469,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"issue":[1508],"partner":[],"staff":[1165,1206],"updates-type":[1573],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Episode 3: Creating a Children-First Mindset in Policy and Society with Adam Benforado | First Focus on Children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Subscribe:&nbsp;Apple Podcasts&nbsp;|&nbsp;Spotify&nbsp;|&nbsp;iHeart RADIO&nbsp;|&nbsp;Podcast Addict&nbsp;|&nbsp;Amazon Music&nbsp;|&nbsp;Deezer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/speaking-of-kidscreating-a-children-first-mindset-in-policy-and-society-with-adam-benforado\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Episode 3: Creating a Children-First Mindset in Policy and Society with Adam Benforado | First Focus on Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Subscribe:&nbsp;Apple Podcasts&nbsp;|&nbsp;Spotify&nbsp;|&nbsp;iHeart RADIO&nbsp;|&nbsp;Podcast Addict&nbsp;|&nbsp;Amazon 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