I really, really enjoyed this week's This American Life, entitled Going Big (click here if you want to check it out). First of all, I love how Ira Glass (or whoever) groups stories into themes each week because there is always a surprise story that fits in with the theme in a way I'd never imagine (this week it's the daughter getting closer to her mother story). The thing I loved this week was the first story about how Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone came to be. I just thought it was such sound and innovative thinking, so I'll share the parts that struck me and how I applied them to myself.
First of all, they talk about how the traditional approach to trying to break the cycle of poverty has been tragically flawed (duh). Canada himself noticed that all middle class parents seemed to be totally informed on the latest and most effective parenting techniques, while no one--he means NO ONE-- in Harlem had ever heard of any of them. It was just not part of the culture. He started to research if parenting might be the key.
Some of the research upon which Geoffrey Canada based the Harlem Children's Zone was conducted in the 1980, studying 2 sets of families--one where the parents were professionals and one where the parents were on welfare. Paul Tough explains the findings like this: “The kids with professional parents heard 20 million more words in the first three years of their lives than the kids on welfare…and those extra words had a huge effect on their verbal abilities. It was stunning news that the biggest factor in determining a child’s later success in school wasn’t any of the things we assumed to be true—it wasn’t money, it wasn’t parental education, it wasn’t race—it was the sheer number of words your parents spoke to you as a young child.”
The researcher they (they=Paul Tough) interviewed was James Heckman from the University of Chicago. He's an economist who studies inequality, and his job was to find out why Job Training was not working as a solution to welfare. He found that most disadvantaged people in his study weren't just lacking a skill set valuable to employers.
"Some very basic skills were never learned," he explained. “The ability to communicate, to solve simple mathematical puzzles, to understand even how to read the newspaper, as well as non-cognitive [skills like] self-control, motivation, the ability to get out of bed and show up at work on time, to engage and to be open to new ideas—these traits were in very serious short supply.” This observation led to the question, "How are these skills formed [acquired]?"
The answer was that they are learned at home in the first 3-5 years of life, and then after that it's really hard to teach them or make a change. The good news was that even small early interventions yield huge results. So Geoffrey Canada, trying to help people in Harlem, made the decision to stop trying to help the kids by helping the parents, and just focus on the kids from birth all the way to college. The basic philosophy is that the parents (even in they're still teenagers) are kinda beyond the point of making these fundamental changes, but they can learn how to parent (the way middle-class families automatically do) and their children are successful.
The story ends like this:
“Although Geoff is committed to his choice—save the kids rather than the parents—it still involves some painful trade-offs for him," said Paul Tough. It's tempting to want to help the parents, too, but Canada knows that the program works when everyone is focused on the kids.
“I am always surprised by how easy it is. It’s is not like decoding the human genome…it takes people to really focus and concentrate. And I am always stunned—how is it no one knows this? The reason it seems so difficult is that so few people have learned to actually DO it.” –Geoffrey Canada
“All the experts I interviewed for this story told me the same thing. It’s much easier than people think. And so far, the experiment is working.” -Paul Tough
***
First of all, they talk about how the traditional approach to trying to break the cycle of poverty has been tragically flawed (duh). Canada himself noticed that all middle class parents seemed to be totally informed on the latest and most effective parenting techniques, while no one--he means NO ONE-- in Harlem had ever heard of any of them. It was just not part of the culture. He started to research if parenting might be the key.
Some of the research upon which Geoffrey Canada based the Harlem Children's Zone was conducted in the 1980, studying 2 sets of families--one where the parents were professionals and one where the parents were on welfare. Paul Tough explains the findings like this: “The kids with professional parents heard 20 million more words in the first three years of their lives than the kids on welfare…and those extra words had a huge effect on their verbal abilities. It was stunning news that the biggest factor in determining a child’s later success in school wasn’t any of the things we assumed to be true—it wasn’t money, it wasn’t parental education, it wasn’t race—it was the sheer number of words your parents spoke to you as a young child.”
The researcher they (they=Paul Tough) interviewed was James Heckman from the University of Chicago. He's an economist who studies inequality, and his job was to find out why Job Training was not working as a solution to welfare. He found that most disadvantaged people in his study weren't just lacking a skill set valuable to employers.
"Some very basic skills were never learned," he explained. “The ability to communicate, to solve simple mathematical puzzles, to understand even how to read the newspaper, as well as non-cognitive [skills like] self-control, motivation, the ability to get out of bed and show up at work on time, to engage and to be open to new ideas—these traits were in very serious short supply.” This observation led to the question, "How are these skills formed [acquired]?"
The answer was that they are learned at home in the first 3-5 years of life, and then after that it's really hard to teach them or make a change. The good news was that even small early interventions yield huge results. So Geoffrey Canada, trying to help people in Harlem, made the decision to stop trying to help the kids by helping the parents, and just focus on the kids from birth all the way to college. The basic philosophy is that the parents (even in they're still teenagers) are kinda beyond the point of making these fundamental changes, but they can learn how to parent (the way middle-class families automatically do) and their children are successful.
The story ends like this:
“Although Geoff is committed to his choice—save the kids rather than the parents—it still involves some painful trade-offs for him," said Paul Tough. It's tempting to want to help the parents, too, but Canada knows that the program works when everyone is focused on the kids.
“I am always surprised by how easy it is. It’s is not like decoding the human genome…it takes people to really focus and concentrate. And I am always stunned—how is it no one knows this? The reason it seems so difficult is that so few people have learned to actually DO it.” –Geoffrey Canada
“All the experts I interviewed for this story told me the same thing. It’s much easier than people think. And so far, the experiment is working.” -Paul Tough
***
So you know I am a "hand-up, not a hand-out" person and I have been pondering what I can do to contribute to the community next year when James starts preschool and I start to have more and more time that is not filled with mom-stuff. This show helped me decide.
1-Keep serving in the church: All those skills that Heckman mentioned are learned as we live the gospel and participate in church programs. I kept thinking of all the things we can learn as we participate in the Primary program, Personal Progress program for Young Women, or in scouting. These programs, while part of the church, are available and beneficial to everyone and I should invite the kids we interact to participate. It also reinforces to me that spending my time and talents on these programs is a worthwhile investment for my whole community, not just my church family.
Doctrine & Covenants 81:5-"...succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees..."
2-Participate in more early childhood programs: I think I would like to get some training and certification from the state to do more early childhood work once my kids are in school. It really is an investment in the future--the best community investment, as far as I am concerned.
PS: Next month is my birthday and Paul Tough's book, Whatever It Takes has shot to the top of my wish list. I'm just sayin'.
