Healthcare, Education, and the Prison Population

The prison population can be profitably considered to be 3yr olds without the benefit of proper nutrition [read healthcare] and education. Note that I say "and" because they go together.

Perhaps the greatest civilization, other than our own, in our documented history, is the Roman Empire; and a major part of its success, I believe, is owing to a saying taken over from Thales by Juvenal who, in his Satire X, remarked: orandum est ut sit sit mens sana in corpore sano. "It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body." Thales expressed this sentiment more sanguinely by saying that the happy man is one : ὁ τὸ μὲν σῶμα ὑγιής, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν εὔπορος, τὴν δὲ φύσιν εὐπαίδευτος or "who is healthy in body (σῶμα), resourceful in soul (ψυχὴν) and in nature (φύσιν) quite teachable (εὐπαίδευτος)."

The words I have included in parentheses are, respectively, soma, psyche, physis, and eupaideutos. Except for the last word, the others might seem somewhat familiar; from the first we get our word somersault; from the second we get psyche, psychology, etc.; from the third we get physics or the study of nature; and the final word is a compound word with the root word paidea, from which we get pediatrics or the branch of medicine devoted exclusively to children.

The connection between mind and body has long been known; however, the full relationship and all that it entails has gotten only spotty recognition at best. I believe the reason for this is that most inquiries into this relationship fail to take into consideration that the nature of the relationship between the four major facets of personality changes over time as a function of the growth of the individual, physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially. For instance, a single instance of nutritional imbalance will affect a child much more readily than it will an adult; but the mind and feelings of a child are much more powerful, owing to their clarity, than those of an adult, whose mind and feelings have become "clouded" and, perhaps, "jaded" over the years. This is the meaning behind, and the reason for, the exhortation that "ye must become as little children." The clarity of thinking and feeling that comes naturally to a child can be effectively cancelled or neutralized by the weight of poor instruction, lack of loving attention, and malnurishment. The higher activities of the mind and feelings are liberated only once the body's needs are met, as Maslow has shown us. If these great gifts somehow break free in the face of these detriments, they evince the tell-tale signs of incompleteness; they shine, but with shadows in their light.

Foundations are usually of a different stuff than the edifice that sits upon them; similarly, what is needed in the early years is quite different than what might be needed later on. If we are to have an informed electorate, they must be educated; if they are to benefit from the education, their more basic needs must be fulfilled; their most basic needs include nutrition and loving attention; loving attention and nutrition are optimized when the time that parents spend at work produces enough income and free time to spend with their children. I do not know what this ratio is; but there is one and we need to find it.

The target age group is 0-3; their nutrition, education, socialization, and loving nurture can be easily supported; from 3-5 a different tack is needed because their bodies need different things as do their minds and emotional bodies. Around 5 their sense of right and wrong emerges and needs to be shaped; their bodies continue to clamour for attention and exercise and true emotions come on stage. These continue to develop through the teen years until adulthood. An adult is one who has gained the mastery at every stage, learning how to still the body, the mind, and the feelings and knowing when to call upon the strengths of each.

We are quickly coming upon the time when the "greatest generation" is being eclipsed by the "baby boom generation" and this largest generation has done precious little to ensure that ensuing generations are equipped, in terms of personal mastery, to face the problems we have not solved; indeed, we have multiplied the problems. It is probably the case that the very talent, insight, and commitment we need to solve these problems is in jail. I would like to think that it is still not too late to make changes so that our nation ceases being a prisoner factory and becomes a beacon of abundance and self-actualization.

The first priority is making sure that the 0-3 yr. olds have all that they need to get to 5; the second priority is to establish the teachers now who will be teaching them at 5; concomitantly, corporate greed has to take a back seat to family survival. What we have been doing is not working; we have been favoring big business with tax advantages and incentives since Coolidge told us that "the business of America is business," but big business has bankrupted the family and filled our prisons. We would be wiser to have listened to Leo Burnett when he said that "what's good for people is good for business." (my emphasis)

We must start by protecting the most valuable elements of our society, viz., our children, and do all and only those things that ensure their survival and continuance.