The Hard Work Hypothesis: Is Doing Your Homework Enough to Overcome the Effects of Poverty?
Author(s):
Krashen, Stephen
Format:
Journal article
Citation:
Multicultural Education, Volume 20, Issue 4-Mar (2013-04). pp. 21-23.
Language:
English
Abstract:
It is well-established that the effects of poverty are devastating for children in school. Claims that some children, especially Asian immigrant children and the children of Asian immigrants, do very well even though they come from high-poverty backgrounds. Two such cases are the 'Boat People' of Vietnam, who arrived in the US in 1978, and the Hmong. The author's conclusions are consistent with research showing that high performance on standardized tests of reading is consistently associated with access to print, and that children of poverty have far less access to print. This relationship holds because access to print results in more recreational reading, and more recreational reading results in more literacy development. Massive amounts of traditional homework cannot build literacy nearly as effectively as hours of pleasure reading. The obvious part of the cure for children of poverty is more access to print, via better school and public libraries. Adapted from the source document.