Here’s a sobering comment by Bill Jackson. He reviews the importance of parents in the schooling of their children. By itself, this could be another yawn. However, Bill expands on common sense.
In a 2001 review of dozens of research studies on this topic, MIT economist Caroline Hoxby reported that the consensus view is that family factors account for about 90% of the education attainment of 30-year-olds, while school factors account for less than 10%.
The full comment as well as the chapter by Hoxby are worth reading.
Thanks for your perspective, Bill.
The Hoxby conclusion reminds me of a study by Bernard Farber in his book Kinship and Class (1967). He examined family structure’s affect on learning of pre-schoolers. With one explainable exception, IQ scores of children from “open” families rose while scores of children from “closed” families dropped across five types of instruction programs. David Harvey in his book “Potter Addition” (c. 1970s) used ethnographic data to describe possible differences in family motivations for participating and not with schools. Hoxby, Farber, and Harvey’s observation seem to reoccur with each generation of observers. I guess we as educators have to decide if we want family influence to remain so strong.