The disparities between educational attainment in poor vs. wealthy communities is well documented, however, not often discussed is one simple reason why. I first encountered the concept of “word deficit” during one of my MSW courses. The basic premise is that children who come from wealthier families have highly educated parents who use more words than less wealthy, and less educated, parents. That had never occurred to me, but has since settled into my stream of consciousness as a natural belief. In short it makes sense. I remember using words when I was a child without having  an idea what they meant, but I was pretty sure I was using it properly. That always struck me as a somewhat odd experience. And so we have an interesting stat, “Children of professionals were, on average, exposed to approximately 1,500 more words hourly than children growing up in poverty.” This is a gap of 32 million words before the age of 4. It is common knowledge that it is easy for one to pickup a new language by being exposed to situations where that language is native, obviously this should hold true for native language as well.
After the age of 4 assumptions are being made about the equal footing that children have. IQ tests, standardized tests, and all sorts of value based judgments are being made with the assumption that they can all use the medium by which these values are administered equally. It calls into question whether or not we are measuring intelligence accurately.
The article cites tests given to students to see if they qualify for Specialized High School’s in NYC. Although the tests seem to be neutral in regards to race and ethnicity, this very simple fact might prove that they are not fair at all. I often argue with “professionals” when discussing issues such as morality, and decision making, in the context of poverty, that the “professional” assumes that the person in question has the rational, educational, and even word, capabilities that the professional has themselves. The professional is trying to use empathy, but a failure in their imagination is not allowing them to truly step into the shoes of someone who has been serially uneducated throughout there lives. Even our sense of morality, the depth and complications therein, Require higher end words and concepts that might be missing. In some sense it is hard to blame the professional, it is the only way they know how to experience life, but empathy is a skill that is picked up by children as well. If a child is not exposed to it, they will be lacking in this equally important area of intelligence. In fact, I believe empathy skills are a sign of a higher level of intelligence.
how to learn a new lanague, exposure, not studying, using it everyday…
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Important topic Matt. Ties into my posts on apathy and how we are all affected and interconnected. The push to adopt Common Core State Standards, already embraced by 45 states and 3 territories, one can argue, is a national attempt to raise our world ranking in education which had/has been falling since the 1970’s. However, such standards do not seem to take individual differences or generational serial under-education into account. How can we raise higher level standards for all when many start public education at a disadvantage due to a larger issue we have not yet begun to adequately address? It can only serve to further the gap.
What concerns me the most is that higher education seems to come with some level of self-centeredness. It replaces the individual thinking that they are the most important thing in the world with their way of perceiving things becoming “correct” somehow. This is the main issue when people blame the poor for their poverty, One can only do so if they presuppose that the person you are judging has the same range of mental tools, and there is no reason to believe so.
Yet– the tests are measuring ability acurately. Children exposed to fewer words are not as grammatically adapt as children exposed to more. This isn’t about changing tetes
Sorry- no edit function?? Bummer!
People are NOT at an equal footing; that really should not even be a goal, as individual inherently have different levels of inteligence and skills as part of their genetics as well their upbringing. Tests point out different levels of ability– accurately. Is it unfair to note that children of less educated families will be less educated if they rely on their parents during their formative years for education? This is an argument for creating educational programs to target those from less educated backgrounds– that is the whole idea behind Head Start. The goal should be equal oppurtunity for all OF SAME ABILITY. And oppurtunity- not gaurentee of success. This doesn’t meant those in poverty don’t have coping skills, nor does it mean they cannot think or reason. Survival skills and ability to live happily are skills that go beyond pure academcis. Yes- therapists and other professionals that use big words and abstract concepts and assume people can just hop in a car and get medicine abound- and though they may try to help, often misjudge capablities. The best professionals assess their client’s abilities and tailor their intervention- including the language they use- in a manner that protects the client’s dignity while at the same time allows the most effective intervention. Reminds of when I worked in prison– many inmates are illiterat; code for that was “I forget my reading glasses”; I quickly learned to nicely ask, “Do you need glasses before we start?”. Lack of academic ability is still does not excuse one from personal reponsiblity in life- it just may change the tools needed to become successful.
They only measure ability based on their grammatical knowledge, but not their inherent intelligence potential. That’s the entire point, intellectual knowledge is only one type of intelligence measure.
Your echoing what I said about professionals. I don’t particularly care about the tests, my problem is with professionals who make moral arguments about how people should act who do not have the same level of mental reasoning, and as a result control, as they do.
In addition, this clearly shows that the intervention level should be educational programs for adults who live in poverty. This will by default give their children more of the necessary grammatical tools that they need in ways that far surpass the ability of schools to do so.
One more thing, the article debunks the fact that the stratification purely the result of ability. To make that claim you would have to say that financial success is purely determined by intellectual capability and yet there are multiple factors involved. Honestly a deep vocabulary has nothing to do with intellectual capability, and the very fact that we one of the main ways we measure intellectual capacity is using language calls into the question “real” differences in ability being the deciding factor here.
I can add an edit function, one second:)
There now you can edit for 5 minutes after a post.
Well– vebal ability IS an ability. It may not be fair as to how one arrived at ability, but it is an ability nonetheless. One that the tests do measure, and one that does affect a person’s success in acadamics. On that level, they are good tools.
But- I agree with you that educational oppurtunities need to be effective and accessable to all, so that those with inherent ability are not denied the chance to grow. They tests measure ability- but there is an inherent unfairness to how that ability is obtained if good public education is not available to all.
you forgot to mention how cool it is that you can edit your comments now lol
My bag– it’s not just cool, it kick’s fing @ss!!! 🙂
Thank you for adding it!!!
Ooops- my bag!! It’s not just cool, it kicks’ bleepin’ @ss!!! 🙂
Thank you for adding it!!
Oopps- my bag! The edit feature ROCKS!!