What If Everybody Understood Child Development?

"What a pleasure to read common sense wisdom about what young children need!" -- Diane Ravitch
"This is an amazing book. It does far more than chase down the myths about how to ensure that children are successful. It offers real, research-backed, practical strategies every teacher and parent can use quickly and easily. This belongs on every desk for quick and handy use!" -- Eric Jensen
"This book is a must read for anyone who is part of the current education system. It is time to think about what we are doing to the youth who are the new digital generation and to ensure we are teaching them in ways that are the most developmentally appropriate." -- Lyneille Meza
"This is a great read. Its social media flavor is inviting and inspiring. The issues presented echo teacher discussions made around the water fountain. Rae Pica’s expertise and evidence based on research will move your hair-pulling complaints to policy-changing action." -- Leonard J. Villanueva
"This book offers provocative ideas for the new educator, the experienced teacher, and administrators alike. Let’s use what we know about child development to start remaking our schools to meet the needs of all students. This book provides a starting point."  -- Katrina L. Ladopoulos

"Rae Pica has a deep understanding of childhood development and she has delved into every facet of it so that educators, parents, and policymakers will come to that understanding, too. What If Everybody Understood Childhood Development? includes 29 critically important chapters that focus on every single important issue we don’t always take enough time to talk about. This book needs to not just be on everyone’s shelves, but open in everyone’s hands."

-- Peter DeWitt
"Our understanding of young children has become quite distorted, as have our policies and practices. It′s time to reorient our views, and Rae Pica’s What If Everybody Understood Child Development gives clear examples of the problems and the solutions. To her, children are remarkable human beings:  active, caring, and creative. They are more than an investment in the future. They are of immense value here and now." -- Joan Almon

"Rae Pica understands children. With her wisdom and insight, she helps us know how to do right by kids in a world full of conflicting pressures. Thank you, Rae, for this valuable book. We need it now more than ever!"

-- Nancy Carlsson-Paige

"Pica’s folksy, straight talk about the big and small, but still contentious, issues in education today couldn’t be more refreshing. Some of the subjects are among the most vexing of our time, but they’re served up with a wicked wit, not to mention a deep respect for developmental science, which makes them easily digestible.

-- Susan Ochshorn
"What If Everybody Understood Child Development is a great book to give to any parent or teacher you know who is uneasy about aspects of our current educational system: excessive testing, lack of play-based or individualized learning, etc., but having difficulty articulating the problems."
  -- Jen Robinson
"While I was teaching my child development courses, I always had my students read What if Everybody Understood Child Development? Every week they′d be required to read two or three assigned chapters and write a reflection on what they took away or learned and how they could apply it in their classrooms and homes. Over the many years I taught, students would tell me that this was the only book that they read in its entirety and/or shared with others. Thank you for you work in helping to preserve children′s childhood." -- Michele McDowell