Prosem Notes 44

Prosem Notes 4/4 Researchable questions:

  1. Sean’s interpretation of Julia Wrigley’s data is that we have gone from children as physical beings to children as cognitive beings, and that this drives increased spending by those with the means on education.

But what if we consider this as fundamentally a change in media (in parents’ ability to provide stimulation to their children), combined with changes in family structure: more women working + more intrusive media 

  1. Is there a strong negative association between racial achievement gaps and income-based achievement gaps? (There is a lingering argument within civil rights that expansion of rights along one axis can come at the expense of another axis, possibly because it takes pressure to gain and keep advances.) As our overall level of inequality grows (Pikkety), will these tradeoffs become more exacerbated?

It may be that the racial achievement gap (produced by overtly racist social forces) caused the income gap to appear smaller than it is today.

Sean thinks it’s an anxiety about keeping up; rich parents are able to respond. 

(Compare to new medical technologies: at first, they are inequality-producing, then they are inequality-reducing)

OUR CONVERSATION

  • Media explosion: it’s available, it’s an industry, increased needs
  • What are parents’ priorities for their children? What are their attitudes toward elites imposing their values? Shift from evaluating living conditions to kids. Do we want that kind of kid? (Has school’s normalizing force been ramping up for certain populations?) - 

OTHER CONVERSATIONS How cold schools satisfy some of the early childhood basic needs that lower-class students do not have access to? How could technology help with this?

How do various cultures define enrichment activities?

Look at extended family: Maybe in non-dominant cultures, there is less spending because there is more investment of time (including from extended family)?

If we could do this kind of study in other countries too, we might be able to tease out some of the underlying factors. 

Maybe a lot of this motion is really just how well we can game the tests?

What happens when schools desegregate? What happens when pre-k is provided universally?