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"Poor children in developing nations often drop out after a year or two because their families don’t see the relevance of the education they’re getting. These y

"Poor children in developing nations often drop out after a year or two because their families don’t see the relevance of the education they’re getting. These youngsters are more likely to stay in school than their counterparts in conventional schools." Reaffirming that success in school is largely due to parental support -- including approval of the methods. It seems that these children are being provided education packaged in such a way that their presumably under-educated parents will accept in order to maximize parental involvement which maximizes positive outcomes -- a fantastic application of creative eduction: teach the parents and the children. I wonder if children attending schools where the majority of their classmates' parents have an education at the 90th percentile have the best outcomes. That's the promise of private schools for the children of the ultra-wealthy, right?

badsock 12y ago
The thing I don't like about the parental support argument is that I don't see it offering any avenues for improvement. I have a hard time believing that these massive multi-billion dollar organizations full of trained professionals apparently can't have any impact on outcomes because it's pre-determined before the students step into the classroom.
- sukilot 12y ago
  Imagine trying to transport an incredibly fine and delicate crystal ball from Earth to Jupiter. You don't need to spend billions of dollars to create the crystal, you need to spend billions of dollars to not smash it. School may be similar for a child's intellectual development.
- sopooneo 12y ago
  There are various studies that show inner-city kids do much better when they attend various full time summer education programs. I have a strong feeling the benefit is not what these programs provide, but what they prevent: time spent in dysfunctional neighborhoods and households. This is just a thought on why multi-billion dollar organizations might run into decreasing marginal return on education dollars spent to help the children uneducated families.
- saraid216 12y ago
  > The thing I don't like about the parental support argument is that I don't see it offering any avenues for improvement. It actually does. Namely, you need to improve parental situations in order to improve the child's situation. A better societal support structure for the parents means that their kids will do better in school, because the parents will have the time, space, and motivation to provide the necessary support. It's something of a circular argument (which is not exactly rare in societal problems like this), and it may arguably be non-optimal, but it's a valid avenue for improvement.

badsock 12y ago

The thing I don't like about the parental support argument is that I don't see it offering any avenues for improvement. I have a hard time believing that these massive multi-billion dollar organizations full of trained professionals apparently can't have any impact on outcomes because it's pre-determined before the students step into the classroom.

sukilot 12y ago
Imagine trying to transport an incredibly fine and delicate crystal ball from Earth to Jupiter. You don't need to spend billions of dollars to create the crystal, you need to spend billions of dollars to not smash it. School may be similar for a child's intellectual development.
sopooneo 12y ago
There are various studies that show inner-city kids do much better when they attend various full time summer education programs. I have a strong feeling the benefit is not what these programs provide, but what they prevent: time spent in dysfunctional neighborhoods and households. This is just a thought on why multi-billion dollar organizations might run into decreasing marginal return on education dollars spent to help the children uneducated families.
saraid216 12y ago
> The thing I don't like about the parental support argument is that I don't see it offering any avenues for improvement. It actually does. Namely, you need to improve parental situations in order to improve the child's situation. A better societal support structure for the parents means that their kids will do better in school, because the parents will have the time, space, and motivation to provide the necessary support. It's something of a circular argument (which is not exactly rare in societal problems like this), and it may arguably be non-optimal, but it's a valid avenue for improvement.