Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
theatlantic.com
Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
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Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#2dang, five dollar bet this gets to 100 points. :)
This in response to an earlier exchange about how race and gender related posts get many votes in the beginning and are then flagged to death, but ones about class always make it to the top. Is there a way to see how many times an article has been flagged? I would like to gather data for my assertions.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#3Statistics and chances. Some poor kids are bound to thrive eventually -- and chances make sure those kids have some things that other poor kids don't (a mentor in their life, a parent who isn't working 2 jobs or drinking but can spend some time with them, live in a good school district, their curiousness wasn't beaten out of them by bad early experiences, looks enabling them to be taken for better than other poor kids are, a chance higher IQ, etc.).
The same way millions can finish a game in Easy mode, but there are still some people that can finish it in Hard and Ultra Hard mode.
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#4In short - being passionate for something is helping forward. Having no safety net meants you have only one shot. If all the stars allign correctly.
That is not surprising at all. People are their best when they are engaded in something bigger than themselves.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#5I grew up poor. Not Africa poor, but ex Soviet Union falling apart poor. One thing that made a huge difference was parents who sacrificed their career to make sure they were home with me after school. They encouraged education. Mom never finished more than 7 grades of school, but she saved money for and for the 8th of March, equivalent to mothers day (oh the irony) got me cheapest ZX Spectrum clone we could find. It was history after that, but it was just an example of what I think made a huge difference for me.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#6I grew up poor. Not Africa poor, but ex Soviet Union falling apart poor. One thing that made a huge difference was parents who sacrificed their career to make sure they were home with me after school. They encouraged education. Mom never finished more than 7 grades of school, but she saved money for and for the 8th of March, equivalent to mothers day (oh the irony) got me cheapest ZX Spectrum clone we could find. It…
Beautiful story. Thanks for sharing.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#7One of my favorite podcasts, Hidden Brain, had a great episode this week about "Grit", which one of the researchers defined as "passion and perseverance for long-terms goals."
"The thing that was revelatory to me was not that effort matters—everybody knows that effort matters," Angela told Shankar. "What was revelatory to me was how much it matters."
I still think there's this question of "why do some kids have more grit than others?" to be answered, but perhaps this is a start?
Worth a listen:
http://www.npr.org/2016/04/04/472162167/the-power-and-proble...
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#8why do some headline authors not respect journalism?
why doesn't everyone fail?
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#9dang, five dollar bet this gets to 100 points. :) This in response to an earlier exchange about how race and gender related posts get many votes in the beginning and are then flagged to death, but ones about class always make it to the top. Is there a way to see how many times an article has been flagged? I would like to gather data for my assertions.
I too would enjoy seeing this. I submitted an race-and-gender-related article around a month ago that fell off the front page quickly enough to make me cock an eyebrow and wonder if the flagging system isn't giving a small percentage of users an inappropriate veto over certain topics of discussion.
I know I've seen a tool out there that tracks the ranking of HN articles over time. Perhaps the slope of the descent would serve as a good proxy for flagging.
Re: Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?
#10I grew up poor. Not Africa poor, but ex Soviet Union falling apart poor. One thing that made a huge difference was parents who sacrificed their career to make sure they were home with me after school. They encouraged education. Mom never finished more than 7 grades of school, but she saved money for and for the 8th of March, equivalent to mothers day (oh the irony) got me cheapest ZX Spectrum clone we could find. It…
To raise kids, money beyond a low threshold is not relevant, providing a good education is.
Money, or better, social capital gets importance when these kids become young adults and have chosen career paths with less demand.