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Originally posted by AGDee
There are also factors like: lack of nutrition, lack of heat, frequent moves/transiency, increased stressors due to an unstable neighborhood, having to work to help contribute to the household budget (rather than to just buy the designer pair of shoes you want, which is less stressful), having to babysit younger kids in the family, or just do more things around the house that richer kids don't do because the families hire it out.
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OK - but what role do these factors play? Are these causes, or effects of the same situation on the prior generation? And, yes, it can be both - that's definitely why the issue is difficult to address.
Quote:
Originally posted by AGDee
Most people in higher socioeconomic status groups are well educated and therefore, place more value in education, have higher expectations, and assist more in the learning process.
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This is circular - essentially stating, "poor people are less educated than rich people because rich people are better educated" - I guess I'd like to see more specific application of the differences this causes, if you're relating it to cyclical divergence of upper/lower-class education.
While I will certainly agree that there is an element of negative cycle ("downward spiral") associated with the situation, I think the material issues are the root causes of the correlation between socioeconomic status and educational achievement, and how to address these issues. We need to examine
causation, not correlation.