Impact of background on achievement

[lecce]

I have been looking at some other threads and thinking about research in this area and it has raised this question in my mind:

When it is said, as it frequently is, that social class/parental job etc, have a huge impact on the development and academic success of children, is this a passive or an active effect?

In other words, does growing up in a household in which books are read and discussed frequently, interesting outings take place and are discussed etc etc benefit dc, or is it the case that these kind of families do more of the active stuff - flashcards, tutors, workbooks etc?

My Indian friends have left behind the corner shop/newsagent life so I can't there. As for my Chinese friend, he gets up to take the kids to school. He does general household chores and about 2pm he and the wife goes to the shop and starts prepping for 5pm opening time. The wife will break off to pick up the kids and everyone will have a quick meal before the shop opens.

He cooks, she fries and puts lids on
They have a student that does the counter. By 9pm the rush is over so he runs the shop with the student while the wife settles the kids. Shop closes 10:30pm. Cleaning up finishes 11:30pm. Watch some tv and then bed.

Hardly long hours. As for owning a chain :) :) Hiring staff is very difficult. Many young Chinese want a western lifestyle ie 9-5 job, weekends free. Others prefer hustleem of London Chinatown. This difficulty in hiring staff plus smaller margins means that no one is getting rich these days and certainly not starting off chains.

If you have direct experience of what you are talking about then we obviously know different Chinese people.

Interesting thread.
Put is this way I came from a middle class background with one parent from overseas. My dh also from overseas but from deprived background.

Put it this way I'vebeen told that education is my arena and that dh expects great things. But here I am - ds having dinner - dh just come home with a notepad with games for ds so dinner abandoned in favour of computer games. Given by dh. It's a school day and ds is only 5 years old.

I feel very strongly that ds will not achieve that well at school even though he's bright.

I feel that parental encouragement is important. DS has a parent who just chucks stuff at him. ie yesterday I took ds to a party. Came home and it was on the understanding he'd do his homework. He was straight to dh who put him on a phone computer game.

Sorry, I have direct experience of an Indian restaurant owner, setting up several restaurants in a 50 mile radius, and involving other members of his family.

I grew up in a very working class family but one where education was prized above everything else as the 'way out' of poverty.
I had books from an early age and,more importantly,my parents read too.
I went to grammar school and eventually got first a teaching certificate then a degree.my late husband had a similar background-his mum was widowed young and he left school at 16,did A levels at night school and eventually got a first and then a Masters degree.
Our children had no grammar schools but both did well at the local comp and went on to get decent degrees from good universities.
It wasnt about class but about prioritising books and learning and the dc growing up to respect education and be hungry for learning.
Their father became a university lecturer and I was a teacher yet thr grandparents were factory workers,railwaymen,market traders,pitmen etc.

I don't think the association of middle class and education is particularly British. I bet there are similar cycles of deprivation, underprivilege and ignorance to be found in the Parisian suburbs which erupted into race riots a few years ago. I'm not sure how many of those we saw hurling molotov cocktails on French TV we'd expect to see studying at the Sorbonne. I don't think many of the Turkish guest workers in Germany expect to end up studying at Heidelberg, Basel or Vienna either.

"Sorry, I have direct experience of an Indian restaurant owner"

Well, your views on Chinese restaurant owners are out of date :)

Many of today's Chinese grew up seeing their parents working long hours, not taking holidays, too busy for parents evenings etc. Many juggled school and homework with working in the family business. And when friends called for them to come out and play ....

Consequently, many Chinese today want a 'normal' 9 to 5 job with evenings and weekends free. As for those in the restaurant business, many want their DCs to study and go onto well paid office jobs.

From what I've seen (Generalisation Alert!) Indian families are where Chinese families were 20 years ago what with the long hours and children working in the business.

I find this subject fascinating OP.

I come from a very disadvantaged background and was the only one of my peers to pursue education. This was down to two factors. First, I have the ability. Second, my mother, though untterly uneductaed herself had huge aspirations for me.

My own DC are now absurdly advantaged and all their peers appear to being doing well at school. The majority will go on to university. Why is the difference so marked?

Perhaps as a cohort my DC's peers are more intelligent. Certainly their parents tend to be intelligent and well educated, so the genetic factor may play it's part.

However watching their parents now for several years I cna see how so many other factors play their part. Perhaps play an even greater part than natural intellect.

First, there's the passive things that others have mentioned. Homes full of books and music and conversations. Parents with high expectations and aspirtations.
Then there are the active things they do. Teaching their DC. Helping with homework. Engaging with schools on a day to day basis to overcome any difficulties and ensure their DC are challenged.
Then there is the environment. Good food. Nice homes. Little conflict.

And let's be very honest, hard cash can really help. Everything from tutors, to private school, to days out, to trips to the theatre.

And time. The parents I see, spend a lot of time with their DC. And this time has a huge impact on the educational achievemnet of their DC.

In my experience it has to be active. No point parents banging on about doing well at school if there's no active input. I grew up in a household where my parents had very little education and gave us no active hands on input whatsoever, but 'told us' they wanted us to do well in school - none of us excelled.

Now I have my own children I'm right there with them helping with the maths, reading, everything in fact. I've gone the extreme Tiger mom way, weekly tests, workbooks, science lectures the whole lot. Needless to say children are doing well.

That's despite me surfing on Mumsnet 24/7 if only there was a diploma for that!

Wordfactory, that is a really important, even profound post.

"And time. The parents I see, spend a lot of time with their DC. And this time has a huge impact on the educational achievemnet of their DC."

I also think that parental time is a huge driver of children's achievement.

Its not just about money. You cant buy intelligence and no amount of after school activities will make your child intelligent if the bare bones aren't there.

However parental expectation and examples are very influential. If you see your parents reading, interested in current affairs etc, society etc then you will most likely pick that up.

Unfortunately it is generally the children of lower socio economic classes of whom least is expected and so the vicious cycle continues

I think it's almsot impossible to imagine just how much time things take with small children until you are actually doing it.

In the same way that any job around the house costs twice as much as you think it will, any task with young DC takes twice as long as you think it will.

I do think this is one area where a wonderfully patient grandparent can come into their own.