Dan Keating presented on the well documented topic of the impact of toxic stress on the developing brain. According to the article, he did not reference the research into overdoses of cortisol, resulting from constant stress, causing the atrophy of the amygdala and hippocampus to which behavioral disorders have been attributed. Although he did mention nurturing as an antidote, he focused on new borns and infants. There is research into the malleability of the developing brain and the potential for reversing adverse brain reactions to stress through surrogate nurturers such as those provide by schools.

Poverty & Despair vs. Education & Opportunity, cowritten with Al Colella Ph.D., was the outcome of studying the impact of growing up in poverty with its associated stresses. As the book says, the best road out of living in poverty is a good education, while the greatest roadblock to a good education is living in poverty. As Keating notes, behavioral issues play a key role in the lives of children reared in poverty. Having completed the book focusing on children, the question remained on the role the brain development issues played in the numbers of incarcerated adults who grew up in poverty. Keating alludes to the similarity of brain disfunction between cortisol and lead poisoning. A Swedish research study accomplished some years ago traced a reduction in incarcerations to the removal of lead in gasoline in the early 1970's.

Here is a thought. Through the ignorance of parents, many if not most of whom were raised in poverty, we are raising thousands upon thousands of children with handicapping conditions. The handicaps result in behavioral disorders leading to impediments in education for children and, for many, incarceration as adults. (Not to mention, as Keating does, the adverse medical and psychological implications.) Would it not be wiser to identify this phenomenon as the handicap it is, devise and invest in interventions and treatments early on and thus avoid the tremendous costs of incarceration, unemployment and underemployment, and all of the other social costs associated with stress related brain dysfunctions?