Parents Who Own Bookshelves Raise Kids Who Do Better in School
Over on Core77, Rain Noe discusses a sweeping international study by a team of Stanford and University of Munich researchers, who looked at all sorts of questions about how economics, school conditions, and parents end up affecting education. But one of the most interesting tidbits concerned the fact that a child’s achievements at school are correlated to whether his or her parents own a very simple object.
That object? A bookshelf. Two, actually. According to the study’s authors, the educational achievements of British children whose parents owned two bookcases differed from children whose parents didn’t by 1.15 standard deviations. In plain language, that’s three times the amount of what the average kid learns during a year of school.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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3 Replies to “Parents Who Own Bookshelves Raise Kids Who Do Better in School”
Did they have to have books on them? I read but my bookshelf has become virtual…which my husband loves.
That’s a great question which I don’t think they considered. However, my gut reaction would be to say no, since the children won’t see that you have books. I think the visual nature of seeing that they’re available might have something to do with it.
Over on Core77, Rain Noe discusses a sweeping international study by a team of Stanford and University of Munich researchers, who looked at all sorts of questions about how economics, school conditions, and parents end up affecting education. But one of the most interesting tidbits concerned the fact that a child’s achievements at school are correlated to whether his or her parents own a very simple object.
Did they have to have books on them? I read but my bookshelf has become virtual…which my husband loves.
That’s a great question which I don’t think they considered. However, my gut reaction would be to say no, since the children won’t see that you have books. I think the visual nature of seeing that they’re available might have something to do with it.