Kate Middleton Says It Isn’t Enough to Simply Wish For a Better World
Back in January, the Princess of Wales launched her campaign Shaping Us to highlight the importance of the earliest years of a child’s life. And today, she has given what a royal aide described as her biggest speech on the subject yet, calling for societies to take action to focus on and invest in the early years.
“It isn’t enough therefore to simply wish for a better world,” the Princess said during the a Shaping Us symposium at the Design Museum in Kensington. “We must acknowledge and address the root cause of some of today’s toughest social challenges and work together to find better answers.”
The Princess began her speech by outlining how she cares “deeply about making a positive difference.” “We must also look at creating long term, preventative change. And that takes us right back to the beginning,” Kate said.
"Despite the fact that each and every one of us, has had our own childhoods, few people understand the true impact our formative years have had on shaping who we are today...The latest science clearly indicates that early childhood development must focus on more than just the physical and technical skills of our children – we also need to prioritize their inner worlds too," Kate said.
The Princess added that, "Nurturing skills that enable us to know ourselves, manage our emotions, focus our thoughts, communicate with others, foster positive relationships, and explore the world are just as valuable to our long-term success as reading, writing or arithmetic.”
A source described the speech as the biggest that the Princess has delivered in this area and said it was a blueprint for how she thinks about early childhood and how she will be working moving forward. Her Royal Foundation for Early Childhood has convened experts from 21 countries for the latest phase of research. “This is her signalling that she wants this to be global and you will see that more and more this year and beyond,” the source said.
Professor Jack Shonkoff, Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard took part in the event, giving a presentation about the science behind why the most connections are developed in a brain between 0 and 5. Kate met him when she visited Boston last year during Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.
When Kate launched Shaping Us in January she did receive some criticism that raising awareness wasn’t enough. Some may feel that her speech today goes further, with the Princess describing at one point how she launched the campaign to “raise awareness of, and action on” the importance of the early years. However, she has continued to stay well clear of anything that could see her accused of being political, and her speech did not make reference to any specific action plan to tackle the issue.
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