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Pennies From Heaven : Why Cash Works Best To Ensure All Children Thrive
Paperback Edition: 1
This book addresses three main questions. First, what does it mean when we say that every New Zealand child deserves a 'fair go'? What does a thriving New Zealand child look like, and what do they need from their families and 'the village' - the systems designed to support and supplement parental care - in order to thrive? This question is not as straightforward as it might seem at first glance. Advances in science have yielded some startling insights into the ways in which our early childhood conditions determine our later life. Our brains are quite plastic and malleable - that is, they are capable of being re-wired by experience - throughout our lives, but so much of what and who we are is irrevocably determined by what we experience in those critical first, few years. Poor outcomes for children today become the burden their children have to shoulder tomorrow. The intergenerational impact of insufficient resources is best understood, we find, through what happens (or does not happen) during the fundamental development stages of the first years of life.
Second, the book seeks to quantify the problem. How many children are missing out? That is, how many Kiwi children are not receiving a fair go, or are being denied the opportunity to thrive? The problems that afflict New Zealand children seem to be associated with the lack of resources available to their families, but how? How does a lack of resources cause poor outcomes for children? What can the latest science tell us about what actually happens in resource poor families and what the biological and psychological impact on babies and young children living with less is?
Third, what works to fix it? What policy option or options has science shown to be effective, here or overseas, in redressing the imbalance? The book finds that the power of money 'without strings' far outstrips many of the popular interventions we deliver. How much do the various approaches cost? And what prevents us accepting the most effective solutions? As the last point suggests, the book confronts a great deal of mythology and fallacy along the way. There is plenty of beguiling rhetoric from across the political spectrum yet polemic thinking in a complex world is of little use to real people.
A new conversation is needed. One focussed on understanding the complexity of the lives of both whanau and children on low incomes, what the science tells us about the pressure and stress they experience, how this pressure impacts the opportunities and wellbeing of our children and which solutions makes the most sense (and actually work) in light of such information.
Featured in the 13 March 2017 New Zealand Newsletter.
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Featured in the Term One 2018 Cool for Schools Newsletter.
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Pages : 343
Publisher : Independently Published
Publication date : 2017-03-01
Subjects: Non-fiction, New Zealand, NZ Politics, NZ Social Services & Welfare, Criminology