I was planning to become a general practitioner of medicine in my hometown, when during my internship, I just ran into a lot of people from my area, did it in my hometown, who were on a downhill course. And my three best friends were on a downhill course in life, and that caused me to go into the public health service to give myself time to think about things rather than go straight ahead.

And while there, I ran into more children who were going to go on a downhill course; it was clear to me. And the question became, what was the difference between them, and my own experience, and my own family experience? I’m from a low-income family: my mother was a domestic, my father was a steel mill laborer, similar to that of my friends, who were going on a downhill course.

We were in the same school, our parents had the same kind of jobs. The question became, what happened to them and what was the difference? And that caused me to focus on quality of the developmental experience.

I didn’t immediately connect that to schools, although I realized that later, that it was that developmental experience at home for me, for us, that allowed two poor parents to send five kids to college for thirteen college degrees. I realized that there was something in that developmental experience that made the difference. And the question became, why can’t we do it for all children?

And that led me into public health to think about larger systems and the impact of the larger society and social issues and the like on the individual, also in institutions, and eventually into psychiatry, child psychiatry, and a position at the university.

And it was from that position that the School Development Program was founded. Actually, I was recruited here for that purpose, to found a program in the school that would make a difference for low-income children.

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