THE RAISING OF AMERICA looks inside the brain and brings to life recent scientific research that reveals how early experiences, beginning in the womb, can alter brain architecture and developmental trajectories. Through the stories of families from different walks of life, researchers discover how the lack of paid parental leave and high-quality affordable childcare, stagnant wages and overcrowded housing, depression and social exclusion, and perhaps most of all the time crunch, too often undermine the efforts of parents and caregivers struggling to provide the nurturing environments all children need to thrive. The documentary widens its lens to reveal what Sir Michael Marmot calls, "the cause of the causes," the larger structures that contribute - in Harvard's Jack Shonkoff's words - "to a pile-up of advantage for some children, a cascade of risk for others." By exploring how things got this way - the history of U.S. child and family policy over the past century, the victories as well as the defeats - THE RAISING OF AMERICA seeks to better understand what stands in the way of progress, and what Americans can do better.
