This essay addresses the affective and social components on online teaching, components that have been neglected in much research on distance learning. The essay offers accessible and practical advice for online teachers to create a "context of care" in their classrooms, thus minimizing student anxiety and maximizing student learning.

To reduce risk factors for adult disease in our society, we must tackle the problem of toxic stress in early childhood. This condition is associated with the excessive release of a stream of hormones whose persistent elevation can disrupt the wiring of the developing brain and the functioning of the immune system. Children who experience toxic…