Literacy Now, Together Podcast

E2: Mental Health & Literacy in Childhood

July 17, 2025

Why Basic Needs, like Literacy, Must Come Before Resilience Training — and What Schools Get Wrong

Psychologist, educator, and Raising Moxie® founder Dr. Karin Hodges joins FULCRUM’s Kareem Weaver and Parents for Reading Justice’s Brett Tingley in a thought-provoking episode, uncovering how failure to meet children's literacy needs is driving stress and anxiety. Dr. Hodges warns that as schools increasingly invest in social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula, many of these programs miss the mark by focusing on student characteristics rather than addressing systemic issues like illiteracy. She offers a stark critique of a system that too often shifts the burden to parents while absolving schools of their core obligation to teach literacy and calls for equipping adults with relational tools that foster resilience and confidence—what Dr. Hodges calls “skilling-up” the grown-ups. This episode tackles the harmful belief that some children are “hard to teach” based on their home life or community background and unpacks the dangers of coddling, the ethics of emotional regulation practices, and how “calm-down” strategies can backfire when they dismiss a child’s lived emotional experience.

Watch: YouTube

Listen: Spotify