By Collin Falloway, Will Foreman, Landon Marcum, Alexa Burke

 Our chapter was all about how to be a perfect parent, as you may have guessed. The authors outlined sixteen points that one might assume affect the educational well-being of a child, and then narrowed it to eight that really do have a strong correlation with the well-being of a child.

 The child has highly educated.  The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status.  The child’s mother thirty or older at the time of her first child’s birth.  The child has low birthweight.  The child’s parents speak English at home.  The child is adopted.  The child’s parents are involved in the PTA.  The child has many books in the home.

 A child’s family is intact.  A child’s parents recently moved into a better neighborhood.  The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and Kindergarten.  The child attended Head Start.  The child’s parents regularly take them to museums.  The child is spanked.  The child frequently watches television.  The child’s parents read to them frequently.

 The two that one might assume are one in the same actually have a different effect on the child. While a parent reading to the child doesn’t affect how a child does in school, having books in the home does. Look at the evidence provided by Isaiah, Emily, and Ricky.

 Has lots of books in the home.  Loves reading  Does exceedingly well on his reading tests in school.

 Lots of books in the home  Doesn’t read at all, only played with her Bratz dolls.  Scores as high as Isaiah on her reading tests.

 No books in the home.  Constantly reads at the library with Isaiah.  Scores significantly lower on his test scores than Isaiah and Emily.

 One would only logically assume that Isaiah and Ricky would have the highest test scores because both of them read frequently, but this is not the case. Even though Emily doesn’t read much at all, she’s scores just as well as Isaiah does on his reading tests. The only thing that her and Isaiah have in common in the fact that they each have books in their home.

 However, Ricky has no books in his house, and he scores a lot lower than Isaiah and Emily. Could there be a lurking variable here? We know that having books in the home is highly correlated with how well a child does in school, but could there be another reason? The fact is, that yes, there probably is.

 Maybe the fact that they each have highly educated parents is the reason for the books in the house, and maybe Ricky’s parents are high school dropouts. This is also proven to have a huge correlation on how well a child does in school. In conclusion, if a child reads it really doesn’t affect how well they do in school, but if they have books in the home, it makes a huge difference.

 In the beginning, we listed eight factors that highly affect a child in school, and eight that really don’t. But did you catch what the factors have in common? The first eight are what parents are, and the second are what parents do. If a parent has a high education, that affects the child tremendously, but if they don’t work from birth to Kindergarten, it has no effect.

 This is the underlying question behind this chapter. Are children more affected by what they are, or what parents do? The data collected seems to support the former, but there is still more research that needs to be done on this age-old topic.

 In conclusion, if you want to be a “perfect” parent, you need to attempt to BE that perfect parent, and not do the actions that you think that parent would do. Be that highly educated individual, but don’t spank them, because it really has no affect on what they become.