<p>I remember seeing a documentary years and years ago about people working with young inner-city mothers. The social worker would be advising to young woman to pick up the baby when it cried, hold it, talk to it, feed it, etc. The grandmother was standing there saying, no, just let it cry, prop the bottle, don’t bother to hold it for feeding, etc, etc.</p>
<p>And, please don’t call it, "it’. LOL! This will be difficult.</p>
<p>Trying to teach different ways of raising babies IS tough. It works best if the knowledge is desired and there is consensus among the baby’s loved ones that better results can come from change. As post 61 shows, change is extra hard when young parents are given messages from loved elders which conflict with the new info imparted by ‘strangers,’ who may be younger and have little or no connection to the parents’ community.</p>
<p>@marian agreed, all things being equal, heavy parent involvement counts. Mine struggle for their B grades, howver, one is dyslexic and one has neuro problems but they are “bright.” I shudder to think where they’d be if I hadn’t been at home to tutor them daily. Though as many mentioned in the thread about choosing a flexible career, I paid the price financially during those years. I’d do it all again though.</p>
<p>I had better speak up to defend some people not accused of anything. Here is my humble attempt to go overboard finding words and expresssions very carefully, and that are popular today in hopes no one is offended(known as politically correct), here goes:</p>
<p>Dartdad mentions having seen minority parents on subways not interacting with babies, and white parents on buses in his neighborhood often interacting. Some have/or might- unfairly drawn huge generalizations from his observation. Allow me to speak about some of my experience. I saw some people on a subway a couple months back interacting with a baby. I think it terribly unfair to make broad generalizations and to paint all subway riders as uninterested parents based on dartdad’s personal account. I have personally seen some subway riders involved with babies.<br>
Of course dartdad did not draw conclusions about subway riders he witnessed, he only wrote what he saw, but I thought in the best interest of going overboard, and in keeping with political correctness, to defend subway riders against generalizations that all people who ride subways are inferior parents compared to those that ride a bus.</p>
<p>I have seen these studies, and always find them fascinating, and shocking. It seems so obvious that we, as a society, need to take this into account when making education policy decisions. Kids that start out ‘behind’ are at a distinct disadvantage throughout the course of their education. The problem seems to only compound.</p>
<p>I don’t believe it’s a race issue, but of course, is a socio-economic issue, and in a way, a cultural issue. For some of us, the constant interaction with our babies, toddlers, etc is what seems to come naturally…that is what we grew up with (to some degree or another)…and has become part of our culture, where for others, the norm (from other studies I have seen), is to speak to young children primarily to tell them what to do…“Stop that.”, Pick up your toys.", Sit down.", etc. </p>
<p>Someone mentioned Sesame Street (PBS). I just want to say, Thank goodness for these shows! I do think they have a positive impact for those kids who are going to watch TV (TV viewing controversy aside), and without those calm, truly educational shows, the kids who do watch TV would only have Sponge Bob and the like to learn from…(and Family Guy, and, much worse…It’s amazing what some kids are allowed to watch…perhaps a topic for another thread.)</p>