Comments on: Social Class of the Hyperinvolved Parents http://www.elliotpike.com/2007/02/25/social-class-of-the-hyperinvolved-parents/ weblog of another lost soul in cyberspace Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:56:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: me http://www.elliotpike.com/2007/02/25/social-class-of-the-hyperinvolved-parents/#comment-6 me Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:36:56 +0000 http://www.elliotpike.com/2007/02/25/social-class-of-the-hyperinvolved-parents/#comment-6 I'm not sure that funding is as direct of a causal variable as most people (especially most Democrats) would like to indicate, as my home state of Colorado has some of the lowest funding levels in the nation, but holds its own in performance statistics. I recently saw an article—I wish I remember where; I think it was in Wired Magazine actually—that showed the correlation between the cost of college funding across the 50 states correlated with performance. The interesting thing was that, although there was obviously a positive correlation, there were some states that really broke the expected trend. It's hard to say... I’m not sure that funding is as direct of a causal variable as most people (especially most Democrats) would like to indicate, as my home state of Colorado has some of the lowest funding levels in the nation, but holds its own in performance statistics.

I recently saw an article—I wish I remember where; I think it was in Wired Magazine actually—that showed the correlation between the cost of college funding across the 50 states correlated with performance. The interesting thing was that, although there was obviously a positive correlation, there were some states that really broke the expected trend.

It’s hard to say…

]]> By: Jane http://www.elliotpike.com/2007/02/25/social-class-of-the-hyperinvolved-parents/#comment-5 Jane Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:48:23 +0000 http://www.elliotpike.com/2007/02/25/social-class-of-the-hyperinvolved-parents/#comment-5 Hello, Elliot, I read these same articles in the NYT and also found them engaging. I blogged myself about the PTA article. Families certainly do matter in instilling in kids a sense of "you can do anything". I think, too, that broader social contexts matter a great deal. For example, lower-income kids often attend schools with many fewer resources, less-experienced teachers, and larger classes. Their parents may well be experiencing the turbulence of the new economy -- lay-offs, reduced hours and benefits, outsourcing, all things that can make people feel very disempowered. I certainly agree with you that parents should do all that they can to instill a sense of possibility within their kids. I wonder, though, about why we seldom acknowledge that some parents have the burden of having to also tell their kids that they should believe these things about themselves in spite of the plethora of messages all around them that they're not as good or deserving as other people's kids of such basic things as having libraries of children's literature in their schools. You were lucky to attend a good school system in a college town where paths to all sorts of lives were visible to you. You got messages from many directions about what was possible for you, not just from your parents. The same folks who are very reluctant to fix very unequal levels of funding for public schools are often the same folks who then recommend vouchers or charters as the "solution" to the inadequacies of schools that often lack basic resources. That connection alone gives me pause. Jane http://educationandclass.com Hello, Elliot,

I read these same articles in the NYT and also found them engaging. I blogged myself about the PTA article.

Families certainly do matter in instilling in kids a sense of “you can do anything”.

I think, too, that broader social contexts matter a great deal. For example, lower-income kids often attend schools with many fewer resources, less-experienced teachers, and larger classes. Their parents may well be experiencing the turbulence of the new economy — lay-offs, reduced hours and benefits, outsourcing, all things that can make people feel very disempowered.

I certainly agree with you that parents should do all that they can to instill a sense of possibility within their kids.

I wonder, though, about why we seldom acknowledge that some parents have the burden of having to also tell their kids that they should believe these things about themselves in spite of the plethora of messages all around them that they’re not as good or deserving as other people’s kids of such basic things as having libraries of children’s literature in their schools.

You were lucky to attend a good school system in a college town where paths to all sorts of lives were visible to you. You got messages from many directions about what was possible for you, not just from your parents.

The same folks who are very reluctant to fix very unequal levels of funding for public schools are often the same folks who then recommend vouchers or charters as the “solution” to the inadequacies of schools that often lack basic resources.

That connection alone gives me pause.

Jane

http://educationandclass.com

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