Intent.

I'm reading a book called "Freakonomics".  It's...different.  An economist wrote it (with a journalist's help) about the correlation of certain things.  Cheating teachers, why drug dealers live with their mom, cheating sumo wrestlers, and about parenting.

The parenting part is interesting because he spends I don't know how many pages (it's a rather dry read with some interesting bits) saying that what school a kid goes to, participation in Head Start, being read to and various other factors don't really affect how well a kid does in school.

It really boils down to this:  Do the parents make an effort to be a part of the kids life and try to make it better?  If so then all is good, within reason.

So if the parent tries to be a good parent and does research, implements research, is involved with the kid, and actually expects the kid to work and try then their is a good chance that the kid will pass with decent grades, graduate high school, and not be involved with drugs/crime/pregnancy.

My parents would have said "They paid him how much to do this research?"  "Are you sure?"  "Everyone knows that."  "Dummy".  My mother would have said the last comment.  Don't make her mad.

Some parts of the book (sumo and drug dealers) made great sense as long as you didn't get too bogged down in the data mining and analysis.  The parenting part made me laugh though.

My children go to a good (charter) school now and I think they would do well in a not so good school.  But, of course, I want any little edge I can get for my children.  Wouldn't all parents?