Parental Involvement Is Overrated

Most people, asked whether parental involvement benefits children academically, would say, “of course it does.” But evidence from our research suggests otherwise. In fact, most forms of parental involvement, like observing a child’s class, contacting a school about a child’s behavior, helping to decide a child’s high school courses, or helping a child with homework, do not improve student achievement. In some cases, they actually hinder it.

Over the past few years, we conducted an extensive study of whether the depth of parental engagement in children’s academic lives improved their test scores and grades. We pursued this question because we noticed that while policy makers were convinced that parental involvement positively affected children’s schooling outcomes, academic studies were much more inconclusive.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/parental-involvement-is-overrated/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

Great slideshow of the best Hubble Telescope images, with explanations of what you see.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hubble-heritage/8662120961/in/set-72157642356592763/

All you ever wanted to know about In-and-Out Burger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-N-Out_Burger

Summary:

Opened in 1948 in Baldwin Park, CA and was the first drive through hamburger stand. Privately owned and headquartered in Irvine, CA, is run by heirs of the founders Harry and Esther Snyder. Now over 18,000 staff at more than 290 locations in California and Southwest. History of trashy family feud lawsuits. Favored by celebrity chefs.  Paper cups used at restaurants feature discrete references to bible verses.

Oh, and, the current owner of the company is heir Lynsi (note spelling) Torres, who is listed by Bloomberg as the youngest female billionaire in the US. She was born in Glendora, California to Lynda Lou (née Perkins) and Harry Guy Snyder.  At age 12, she moved with her parents to the small city of Shingletown, California, where she graduated from a private Christian high school and lived on a ranch. Her parents divorced in January 1997, when she was fourteen. She has two older half-sisters (Traci and Teri) through her mother. Traci is married to former In-N-Out President and current COO Mark Taylor.

Some days Robert feels that right now he is living for this moment each day.  He’s chosen a life during these last four years that is scary and uncertain. And there is no stability in sight. This is the time each day that he gets profound joy. There is no way that Cadie and Rory can appreciate what they do for him each day.  Maybe someday they will know it.

Robert has always been dubious of David Foster Wallace.  He tried to read Infinite Jest when it came out about 100 years ago, but after 150 pages of reading paragraphs he did not understand, and of dreading the idea of slugging through hundreds of more pages of them, he gave up.  Immediately after this, he began to think of the book and the writer as simply over his head. Lots of books and writers in that category.

After the writer died, it seemed to Robert, his name entered the public vocabulary and it began to stand for someone who smart people think of as smart.  Wallace seemed to generate fame after he killed himself. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we all think that suicide is evidence of genius.  Which it is not. Because of this, Robert’s estimation of the writer became worse.

Anyway, this last Christmas Robert’s father in-law gave Mira a collection of Wallace’s essays. Robert has warmed up to the writer, a little bit.

Wallace’s essay, “Deciderization 2007 – A Special Report,” is the introduction to the The Best American Essays of 2007 published annually by Houghten Mifflin. Wallace was that year’s invited “editor.”  Of course, the uber “series editor” of the project since 1986 has been Robert Atwan.  Wallace spills the beans in his introduction by explaining that he is really a sub-decider.  That Atwan chooses the total universe of 100 top essays and then allows the invited editor to choose his/her favorites from that short-list. Wallace then says:

“I have never met Mr. Atwan, but I – probably like most fans of BAE– envision him as by now scarcely more than a vestigial support system for an eye-brain assembly, maybe like 5’8″ and 100 lbs., living full-time in some kind of high-tech medical chair that automatically gimbals around at various angles to help prevent skin ulcers, nourishment and wastes ferried by tubes, surrounded by full-spectrum lamps and stacks of magazines and journals, a special emergency beeper Velcroed to his arm in case he falls out of the chair, etc.”

Like many funny things, it is funny because it is true.