Episode Information

James Comer is one of the nation’s leaders in early childhood education – and his innovative ideas have been put to work in more than 1000 schools.

Comer is founder of the School development program, and a professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University Child Study Center.

He says our ideas of “school reform” are missing an important piece: The actual development of the child. We worry too much about testing and curriculum, and not enough about actually getting kids ready to learn, Comer says.

Our tendency to teach in a top-down, authoritarian manner, causes more problems than it solves. Today, where we live, we’ll talk with award-winning educator James Comer about his new book, What I learned in School: Reflections on Race, Child Development and School Reform