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Another anecdote people might not like: Sunday school was an amazing form of early-childhood education for me. Some of my first experiences with music, art, and

Another anecdote people might not like: Sunday school was an amazing form of early-childhood education for me. Some of my first experiences with music, art, and reading were in Sunday school. It taught me to love drawing and singing which I still like to this day. We were taught to obey our parents or go to Hell, to pay attention or go to Hell, to share and be kind and to empathize... or go to Hell... Which everyone of course realizes the implications of, even at very young ages. I once had a very interesting conversation with a high school teacher of mine who taught very high-level math. Speaking only of his students who were in honors courses, he said that there was a clear divide between students from religious homes and students from secular ones. The religious ones were much more diligent and willing to learn. The non-religious ones may have been smart but were sometimes unmotivated or couldn't handle the rigorous pace of work. The religion itself didn't matter - we had Hindu, Christian, and Jewish kids in the class, maybe one Muslim but I don't remember. He himself was a Christian so maybe he was biased, but I believe it.

corry 8y ago
Interesting theory, I think there's something to it. There's probably some selection bias going on with the religious homes thing. Like the hidden variable that both religious adherence AND discipline/work ethic are caused by: a belief in a meta-order that one should conform to and operate within. i.e. It's reasonable to assume that more traditionally religious parents are people that tend to prefer (a) explicit order and structure, and (b) conformity or deference to authority. If you value those things, you will likely place a higher degree of value on discipline and work ethic in your own life and in your children's lives. On a more subtle level -- and this will likely be unpopular on here -- I believe that sincerely religious people are also more likely to have a certain "default stance" towards life / the universe... that their actions matter, that they want to be "morally good", that they must take into account a perspective other than their own (either God's perspective, their priest's, their parents', etc). That combined with a kind of earnestness... seems like a good plan for success in life. Obviously not saying those are exclusively or even principally religious attributes. Also not saying that that stance is absolutely the best one. You can likely index too far that way too.
stevesimmons 8y ago
A religion-based anecdote like this sounds very odd to my Western European/Australian ears. I simply can't imagine anyone here in the UK or in Australia (where I went to school and university) making such statements relating students' diligence to religious background. (For what it's worth, I went to a Church of England-run high school, where the top students were overwhelmingly non-religious.) In so many ways, the USA is a very different country...
closeparen 8y ago
Essentially everyone where I grew up was nominally Christian (we were highly unusual as an atheist family), and it was the churchiest pillar-of-the-community families whose kids acted out the worst.
noobermin 8y ago
People who take part in organized religion are probably have a more authoritarian personality.

corry 8y ago

Interesting theory, I think there's something to it. There's probably some selection bias going on with the religious homes thing. Like the hidden variable that both religious adherence AND discipline/work ethic are caused by: a belief in a meta-order that one should conform to and operate within. i.e. It's reasonable to assume that more traditionally religious parents are people that tend to prefer (a) explicit order and structure, and (b) conformity or deference to authority. If you value those things, you will likely place a higher degree of value on discipline and work ethic in your own life and in your children's lives. On a more subtle level -- and this will likely be unpopular on here -- I believe that sincerely religious people are also more likely to have a certain "default stance" towards life / the universe... that their actions matter, that they want to be "morally good", that they must take into account a perspective other than their own (either God's perspective, their priest's, their parents', etc). That combined with a kind of earnestness... seems like a good plan for success in life. Obviously not saying those are exclusively or even principally religious attributes. Also not saying that that stance is absolutely the best one. You can likely index too far that way too.

stevesimmons 8y ago

A religion-based anecdote like this sounds very odd to my Western European/Australian ears. I simply can't imagine anyone here in the UK or in Australia (where I went to school and university) making such statements relating students' diligence to religious background. (For what it's worth, I went to a Church of England-run high school, where the top students were overwhelmingly non-religious.) In so many ways, the USA is a very different country...

closeparen 8y ago

Essentially everyone where I grew up was nominally Christian (we were highly unusual as an atheist family), and it was the churchiest pillar-of-the-community families whose kids acted out the worst.

noobermin 8y ago

People who take part in organized religion are probably have a more authoritarian personality.