Wellness & Well-being Highlights August 21

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of August 21, 2023

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog consists of topics from Tik-Tok brain to how Canada is addressing its worker shortage by supporting older workers to how some parents in Missouri may now be put in jail for their children’s truancy. Today, I wish to shed some light on the new movement of holding 3^rd grades back who fail standardized reading tests. Experts suggest that students who cannot read at grade level by 4^th grade are more likely to face incarceration. As such, I do not support the concept of social promotion. However, I also do not support politicians who short-change school funding via tax incentives to big businesses (i.e., Walmart, etc.). As someone who devoted nearly his entire career to workforce development, I find it very disturbing when politicians hide behind employers under the guise of “employers demanding a better educated workforce”. Meanwhile, many of these same squeaky-wheel employers are funneling campaign funds to those very politicians for future favors. It never ceases to amaze me how the people in “control” fail to see that these backroom deals can contribute to a community’s race to the bottom. I often shake my head when reading stories like the WSJ article linked below knowing that those parties complaining are at the root of the bigger problem. Yet, society’s solution is to punish our struggling kids…because of the shortcomings of unethical adults!

Source: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/more-states-threaten-to-hold-back-third-graders-who-cant-read-19f9765

Parents / College Students / Legal Docs

Students & Adderall shortage

Kids & Tik-Tok Brain

Kids / Summer Camp / MH

Winning w/ Honor

Sober living in Milwaukee