EurekAlert provides the latest dispatch from the class war, the the form of a release headlined " Family wealth may explain differences in test scores in school-age children":
The researchers found a marked disparity in family wealth between Black and White families with young children, with White families owning more than 10 times as many assets as Black families. The study found that family wealth had a stronger association with cognitive achievement of school-aged children than that of preschoolers, and a stronger association with school-aged children's math than with their reading scores. Family wealth accumulated from different sources also was found to have a distinct influence on children at different developmental stages. Liquid assets, particularly holdings in stocks or mutual funds, were positively associated with school-aged children's test scores. Family wealth was associated with a higher quality home environment, better parenting behavior, and children's private school attendance.
The researchers suggest that the stronger impact of wealth on school-aged children may be because school-aged children benefit more from family wealth that is spent on educational resources that require substantial financial investment, such as private schools, extracurricular activities, and cultural experiences. Furthermore, older children may be more conscious of differences in wealth relative to their peers as they are exhibited in the quality of the learning environment, possessions, and the type of neighborhood where children live. These differences may influence their self-esteem and aspirations, which in turn are positively associated with their school performance.
As is often the case with these multiple-regression studies, some of this sounds like statistical noise (in particular, the "different types of wealth have different effects"), probably caused by using a sharp significance threshold. The general effect, though-- family wealth is correlated with educational performance-- is completely believable. Also, unsurprising and depressing.
But, EurekAlert also suggests that we can teach poor kids math by having them play board games, so it's all good...
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An American myth is that we have no Class Structure. We do. Families with wealth teach their children how to acquire and maintain wealth. Those that do not have wealth do not know, and so teach the wrong paradigm. The generic lies told to and by the Lower and Middle Classes include:
(1) Work Hard;
(2) Do what your boss tells you;
(3) Use credit cards;
(4) Everything will be fine if you do so.
The truth, as Upper Class families know and teach includes:
(1) Work Smart; the world is filled with fools who work hard and have nothing;
(2) Be your own boss; or, as John D. Rockefeller said: "It is better to own 1% of 100 men than 100% of one man";
(3) Own a bank or shares in a credit card company;
(4) It's better to be rich than poor, and we're just fine with the fact that the poor don't know how to get rich.
This affects students' Math skills, as well as many other things.
I routinely ask Middle School and High School Math students this question:
"If I've earned a million dollars, which I have; and I've spent a million dollars, which I have; what do I have left?"
The Lower and (Low- or Middle-) Middle Class Students almost always say: "Zero" or "Nothing."
The Upper-Middle Class Students often say, correctly: "That depends on your investments."
I could elaborate, but that's the core of my message.
State lotteries, sports figures, entertainers... Stupid poor is still stupid rich. An individual swims or drowns as an individual. An ethnic town of 10,000 is as predictable as a race between beagles and whippets.
Blacks adopted as babies by Whites have been studied to political exhaustion. Nurture is insufficient to protest The Bell Curve. Consider the South American gradient of GDP per capita versus the gradient of Spanish conquest genetic contribution to the native population from the Equator to Tierra del Fuego. Conquistadors in the New World or Boers in Africa, the invaders were not exactly paragons of intellectual fury - but they pushed aside indigenous populations at will.
"But, EurekAlert also suggests that we can teach poor kids math by having them play board games, so it's all good..."
Hey, I credit Dungeons & Dragons with developing my math skills, so I'm willing to believe it...
Interesting post. I am new to your blog and I like what I see. I look forward to your future work.
"An individual swims or drowns as an individual." That's not true at all. If you've got lots of money, or your parents have lots of money, you can fail dozens of times in ways that would destroy the prospects of anyone without all that money.
I'm not surprised to hear about board games. But whose kids get to play board games before they are school age? Whose kids are more likely to have board games at home? Why? Whose parents were more likely to have played board games as children? When reading and writing became important to the upper and aspiring classes in 17th century England, that's when they invented alphabet blocks.