Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research NYT on income and parental education investment

Another article on the same theme citing some different research. This article very sensibly sticks with what is known (there is an increasing correlation between income and investments in children, especially in education of children).

Unlike some of the other articles, it stays away from bolder claims about whether these correlations arise from indolence or resource constraints on the part of the low-income or about how much of the within-generational correlation in income is explained by differences in educational inputs (as opposed to heredity and many other factors).

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/us/10iht-letter10.html

NICE!

I'm glad that this one is less "kill the rich" and more oriented toward "What does this actually suggest, and what does it really mean, and why is this worrisome?"

Very much better with the additional bit of the puzzle!!

I think that it probably suggests that a broad study (like the one I posted about last week) captures high SES parents who are NOT 'hyper-parenting' as well as those who ARE, and that it captures a less homogenous group, just in general-- and that this study focuses on that same group, but then teases apart the upward-mobility pressure imposed upon a subset of those children who live in fairly affluent-but-not-really-wealthy enclaves. They should have every possible advantage, and they do-- and the parents KNOW it, and that seems to be where the trouble starts.

There has been some research showing that UMC/wealthy children who live in pockets of extreme wealth have more trouble with depression, drug use, and delinquent behavior than those living in more economically diverse areas and neighborhoods. Just an interesting corollary to the idea that income segregation is harmful on the other end as well.

I think it is hard to show income levels in NYC, since the uber wealthy can live a couple of blocks from the projects.

I think it is the private school environment. You stick kids from UMC families in with kids who have charge cards in HS and spend 5K a week on shoes. I am serious. It is unbelievable the cash flow some of these uber wealthy kids have. And if you are UMC and they are a classmate and friend, it is socially hard for a 15 year old.

Unless you are really, really secure in yourself. That is more rare at 15 than being PG.

I don't know, kcab-- I think that the entire thing is a mosaic composed of extremes.

My town is like a high-educational-attainment (which drives even HIGHER pressure) version of the microcosm depicted by things like Race to Nowhere.

Really, I recognized a lot of the little vignettes in Amy Chua's memoir-- not personally necessarily, but I've certainly seen them around town. Thing is, though, a lot of these parent's aren't Asian. My DD's friends call them "Honorary Asian Parents." They mean the zealous, pressuring, involved and VERY push-oriented "you MUST perform at this level" (and then we'll work on improving once you've done that) variety.

Also true in this tiny microcosm is a very troubling trend toward prescription drug abuse, suicide/attempts, and mental-health hospitalizations among adolescents. It's a sleepy college town of less than 75K, so you notice those things.

They are about 70%+ upper-middle-class, about 60-70% Caucasian (maybe 20% Asian, 10% Latino), and most just "good" kids in the classic sense. Many, many homes with two terminally-degreed parents. Probably 15-20% of the city has at least one MD/PhD/DVM/JD/EdD/DPharm in the household. Something like 50% of county residents (this includes outlying rural areas) have a college degree.

Major employers are the land grant Uni, high tech, or medical.

There isn't gang activity, VERY little violent crime (I can think of four murders in a decade) or anything like that. It's isolated relatively speaking since it's not a bedroom community for anything larger, and the cost-of-living is high relative to surrounding areas.

These are highly sheltered, highly pampered kiddos, by and large. Highly pressured and groomed, too. The top ~25% of kids here are expected to go to highly prestigious colleges and conservatories. Many do-- the Ivies, Julliard, Eastman, Curtis, etc.

I thought the summary was more relevant to our Tiger Mom topic.

Dr. Luthar thinks it is reasonable to be a Tiger mom, to make your children as good as they can possibly be so that they can achieve and succeed and do well.

Chris Everett talked about how she was not a natural athlete. She has to really work at being good at tennis. Work harder than others. And she succeeded until she had to compete with a natural athlete who also worked at it and was better.

It is no different for these kids who are trying to shine in what Luthar calls

Not Asian.

German or Prussian.

My line of this is from Alsace-Lorraine.

I know because a member of my line who graduated from MIT posted the genealogy.

In any event, we (Lutherans) stopped being German after WWI, which is why I am unable to read any of my family's older books, including the family bible:

"Historians have tried to explain what became of the German Americans and their descendents. Kazal (2004) looks at Germans in Philadelphia, focusing on four ethnic subcultures: middle-class Vereinsdeutsche, working-class socialists, Lutherans, and Catholics. Each group followed a somewhat distinctive path toward assimilation. Lutherans, and the better situated Vereinsdeutsche with whom they often overlapped, after World War I abandoned the last major German characteristics and redefined themselves as old stock or as "Nordic" Americans, stressing their colonial roots in Pennsylvania and distancing themselves from more recent immigrants."

Fortunately, one of my other ancestors bailed out of the Amish community a few generations ago or I would be growing up without electricity like my third cousins.

I agree with kcab. I never thought UMC kids were ever taught to be contented by their lot. Why you have tighter and tighter turnover cycles on who are the rich.

But what is UMC? A boy in DD's class has a sister in private high school in NYC. They live in a 10 million apartment, father is an attorney for a successful hedge fund. The mother was complaining to me that her daughter is intimated by the rich kids in her class. Meaning the uber wealthy that have their own drivers and charge cards. Kids in high school.