[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591445-105":59,"doc-detail-591445-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","school-ties-a-psychiatrists-longtime-commitment-to-education","School Ties - A Psychiatrist’s Longtime Commitment to Education","","Jennifer Dubin profiles Dr. James Comer’s decades-long work linking early childhood experiences to later adult challenges and educational outcomes. After witnessing contrasting life paths among his childhood friends, Comer pursued psychiatry and developed the School Development Program at Yale. The model strengthens adult relationships in schools to support academic achievement and student development through six connected pathways, emphasizing climates that motivate learning. For over 40 years, the framework improved behavior, parent involvement, and achievement despite later neglect.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/school-ties-a-psychiatrists-longtime-commitment-to-education/591445/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/school-ties-a-psychiatrists-longtime-commitment-to-education/591445.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-16","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What question drove Dr. James Comer’s life work?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Comer was haunted by why his childhood friends—who shared similar backgrounds—ended up with very different life outcomes, including addiction, incarceration, and mental health institutionalization.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What is the School Development Program designed to improve?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It improves relationships among adults in schools—teachers, administrators, staff, and parents—so they can foster academic achievement and support student development.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the program connect adult relationships to learning for children?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Positive adult relationships help create supportive school climates, emotionally bond with students, model positive behaviors, and motivate children through a strong academic curriculum aligned with child development.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591445,1792123261,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":34,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","School Ties  \nA Psychiatrist’s Longtime Commitment to Education  \nILLUSTRATIoNS BY PAUL zWoLA K  \nBy Jennifer Dubin  \nA  \nlmost 60 years have passed since Dr. James Comer last saw three of his elementary school friends, yet he vividly remembers them. They were African American boys just like him. They, too, came from two-parent  \nhomes, and their fathers also worked in the local steel mill. But unlike Comer and his siblings, these three youngsters did not take an interest in academics. They grew up to lead hard lives: one died from alcoholism, a second was in and out of jail, and a third was in and out of mental institutions. As a young man, the question that always haunted Comer was why.  \nHis mother had an idea.“Madison was known as a troublemaker in school, and yet he was a bright boy,” she once told her son about one of these friends.“His problems stemmed from his family life. I don’t think they sat and talked with the children or did anything together.”1  \nJennifer Dubin is the assistant editor of American Educator. Previously, she was a journalist with the Chronicle of Higher Education. To read more of her work, visit American Educator’s authors [index at www.aft.org/](index at www.aft.org/)[ ](index at www.aft.org/)[newspubs/periodicals/ae/author.cfm](newspubs/periodicals/ae/author.cfm).  \nComer’s own childhood differed considerably. His parents routinely sat and talked with him and his siblings; the family did everything together. Ultimately, the stark, sad contrast between his experiences at home and those of his friends led him to devote his life to studying the science behind his mother’s keen observation.  \nTo understand how promising lives sometimes falter and fail, Comer decided to learn about people. And so he trained in psychiatry at Yale University in NewHaven, Connecticut. His work in the early 1960s at the university’s Child Study Center taught him that many adult problems are actually rooted in childhood. With time, he began to understand the decline of his three friends.  \nIn 1968, Comer and his colleagues at the center created the School Development Program.* The program focuses on improving relationships among the adults in schools—teachers, administrators, other staff members, and parents—so they can foster academic achievement and support student development. The model, mainly geared toward elementary schools, is based on Comer’s belief, grounded in research, that academic learning and  \n*To learn more about the School Development Program at Yale University, visit www. [schooldevelopmentprogram.org](schooldevelopmentprogram.org).  \n20 AMERICAN EdUCAToR | SPRING 2013  \nchild development are inextricably linked and proceed along six specific pathways: social-interactive, psycho-emotional, ethical, cognitive, linguistic, and physical.  \nAccording to Comer, a medical professor and child psychiatrist at Yale, healthy development in school occurs when children form positive relationships with adults. First, though, adults must create school climates in which they relate well to each other. When they do, they become emotionally available to bond with students and to model positive behaviors. It is their relationships with adults, combined with a strong academic curriculum, that in turn motivate children to learn.  \nOften, children from low-income families do not receive the nurturing inherent in positive family relationships. Economic hardships and stress that cause parents to work multiple low-wage jobs may not allow them the time to engage their children the way middle-class parents typically do—and some may not even knowhow to engage them.† And so Comer regards schools as the only institutions strategically located to work with parents and communities to foster the healthy relationships poor children desperately need.  \nWhen he began his work, few shared this view. Long before A Nation at Risk warned in 1983 that “a rising tide of mediocrity”threatened our schools, urging that we make them a national prior","cbCaigaTVht0eeIp","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigaTVht0eeIp","pdf",187445,"English","# A Psychiatrist’s Longtime Commitment to Education\n## School Development Program at Yale\n## Six pathways for student development\n## Schools as partners with families\n## Career impact and program evaluations","[{\"question\":\"What question drove Dr. James Comer’s life work?\",\"answer\":\"Comer was haunted by why his childhood friends—who shared similar backgrounds—ended up with very different life outcomes, including addiction, incarceration, and mental health institutionalization.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the School Development Program designed to improve?\",\"answer\":\"It improves relationships among adults in schools—teachers, administrators, staff, and parents—so they can foster academic achievement and support student development.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the program connect adult relationships to learning for children?\",\"answer\":\"Positive adult relationships help create supportive school climates, emotionally bond with students, model positive behaviors, and motivate children through a strong academic curriculum aligned with child development.\"}]","School Ties - A Psychiatrist’s Longtime Commitment to Education | PDF",1792072423,18]