August 2008

How Chronic Illness Threatens Education

By Monica Martinez
Vice President for Education Strategy
KnowledgeWorks Foundation

This article is adapted from one originally published in The San Francisco Chronicle. McREL partners with KnowledgeWorks Foundation to bring information to the public about future trends impacting education and to catalyze transformation in American schooling.

August’s Trend of the Month describes the challenges faced in the future as it becomes harder to be healthy. Pollution, population densities, and the quantity and type of available food supplies are among the factors that could lead to a future where chronic illness is more prevalent ― and this prevalence may very well jeopardize our students’ ability to learn, change how they learn or in what kind of environments.