Posts by Ben Dawson

  • Early Childhood

    Sixty Years of Head Start

    Head Start began as an eight-week summer program; it has since served nearly 40 million children and families across the United States. But today, like other basic needs programs millions of children, young people, and families rely on, Head Start has been under attack.

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  • Education

    Advice for Young Graduates

    During this season I like to share some of the lessons for life I offered my own children and many of the extraordinary young graduates I’ve had the privilege of meeting over the years.

    | National

  • Child Poverty

    Be Careful What You Cut

    Some years ago, the award-winning agency Fallon Worldwide created a series of ads for a pro bono Children’s Defense Fund campaign called “Be Careful What You Cut” that warned sharply against budget choices threatening programs on which children and families rely.

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  • Honoring Mother’s Day

    On this Mother’s Day weekend I share again special prayers for all mothers and all those who are tirelessly sowing seeds of life and hope for the future.

    | National

  • Education

    Teacher Appreciation

    Every year, the first full week of May is a chance to show special gratitude and thanks to America’s teachers. This year Teacher Appreciation Week comes at a moment when the nation’s Department of Education itself is under attack.

    | National

  • Education

    A Legacy of Young Changemakers

    This month marked a Civil Rights Movement anniversary: the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in April 1960.

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  • Child Poverty

    A Time for True Renewal

    In 2020, when the start of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a holy season like no other, Pope Francis published an Easter Sunday letter directed to movements and organizations working for justice for people with low incomes and those experiencing poverty.

  • Transforming the Road

    “A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act."

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  • Dark Enough to See the Stars

    The night before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his prophetic final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a speech he almost didn’t give.

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  • Revisiting an American Prayer

    As Women’s History Month draws to a close, there’s been one more broad attack on methods of sharing our nation’s history: on March 27, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order affecting the 21 museums and 14 education and research centers that are part of the Smithsonian Institution, including the American Women’s History Museum, which is still years away from breaking ground on its official site, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Zoo.

    | National