Peter,

My first concern is to end destructive adolescent behavior: car accidents, unwanted pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse, attempted suicide and suicide.

When I speak of skills of adulthood, I refer to those which make a successful adult, such as becoming a decent, mature, responsible, aware of and interacting with moderation to her surroundings as a considerate, thoughtful and deliberate human being.

In short, those skills children of our ancestors, before The Industrial Revolution, learned by observing, reflecting upon, simulating, and eventually copying as a way of navigating puberty and what we call adolescence, concluding as an adult contributing to his community.

We have a hard time realizing the destructiveness to the stable adult community children were used to and depended upon the earthquake of The Industrial Revolution wrought.

Unintentionally we have neglected to address the damage resulting to our children that became the source of what we now know as destructive adolescent behavior.

That's partly because we were ignorant of the role the cerebellum plays in the development of character, good or bad, based upon the internal models passed to it by the experiences of our children, good or bad.

We did not know how much of our adolescent behavior is a result of the unconscious influence of the cerebellum.

Sapolsky is right, poverty and trauma experienced in childhood, unconsciously effects related adult behavior.

He just doesn't mention the cerebellum as its vehicle of transport.

Elementary school can, if we so choose, replace the destroyed stability  the adult community suffered some 150 years ago, if and only if, we present to children the skills of adulthood, such as driving lessons--yes; for our kids, driving is a skill of adulthood-- beginning in fourth grade as a way of depositing internal models of appropriate behavior to be used by the cerebellum to unconsciously prompt appropriate behavior in adolescence, eliminating its destructiveness.

We still depend on the academic character-building curriculum given to us by the ancient Greeks.  But the perfect student of that curriculum can drive recklessly, get pregnant not wanting to, commit suicide, or try.  Cerebellum research calls loudly for an updating of our youngest children's training for adulthood. 

Neglect is no longer unintentional.