[quote=njtosd]Probably much more correlated to parental achievements and outcomes than those of high school classmates. I am a firm believer in the power of genetics. Hard to tease out, though, as successful parents will often raise their children in above average school districts. Freakonomics has a couple of great articles that relate to this point. For example, academic achievement is correlated to the number of books in a home …..even if the children living there don’t read the books. Reason: Smart parents tend to buy more books and also tend to have smart kids. I am beginning to understand where calvin’s idea of predestination came from (although i don’t subscribe to the philosophy). Also – there was a finding that kids who watched “Baby Einstein” videos ended up achieving less well academically than those who didn’t watch. I have my theories about that one – ie low achieving parents more interested in pushing smart baby toys on their children. Nature seems to trump nurture in many instances ….[/quote]I agree with everything you said. But I don’t have data to back it up, which is why I would love to see these kind of data. I’m a big believer of nature trump nurture too, but I do think nurture does bring out the best in what nature allow.
I’m wondering, assuming the same parents and the same kids, would the kids perform best in Carmel Valley with both parents working long hours or in much less expensive areas and have one parent stay at home and be extremely involved in the children’s education. I’m sure there no data to back up either side, but would be an interesting study.
