Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt; Stephen J. Dubner

Author:Steven D. Levitt; Stephen J. Dubner
Language: pt
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Sociological aspects, Behavioral Economics, Social Science, Business, Probability & Statistics, Popular Culture, Economics, Economics - General, General, Popular Culture - General, Economics Of Special Subjects, Psychological aspects, Mathematics, Probability & Statistics - General, Business & Economics, Finance
ISBN: 9780060731335
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 2009-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

Matters: The child had low birthweight.

Doesn’t: The child attended Head Start.

A child who had a low birthweight tends to do poorly in school. It may be that being born prematurely is simply hurtful to a child’s overall well-being. It may also be that low birthweight is a strong forecaster of poor parenting, since a mother who smokes or drinks or otherwise mistreats her baby in utero isn’t likely to turn things around just because the baby is born. A low-birthweight child, in turn, is more likely to be a poor child—and, therefore, more likely to attend Head Start, the federal preschool program. But according to the ECLS data, Head Start does nothing for a child’s future test scores. Despite a deep reservoir of appreciation for Head Start (one of this book’s authors was a charter student), we must acknowledge that it has repeatedly been proven ineffectual in the long term. Here’s a likely reason: instead of spending the day with his own undereducated, overworked mother, the typical Head Start child spends the day with someone else’s undereducated, overworked mother. (And a whole roomful of similarly needy children.) As it happens, fewer than 30 percent of Head Start teachers have even a bachelor’s degree. And the job pays so poorly—about $21,000 for a Head Start teacher versus $40,000 for the average public-school kindergarten teacher—that it is unlikely to attract better teachers any time soon.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.