Freakonomics Post 5

Alright, so after my Spanish final today, I finished the Fifth Chapter of Freakonomics ( What Makes a Perfect Parent). This chapter discussed the fear parents have of raising thier child "wrong". The topic that was discussed first was that people often fear the wrong things, such as not letting your 6-year old daughter play at a house where there is a gun, but letting her swim frequently in her other friend's pool, when more children drown yearly than by playing with a gun. The second thing the chapter addressed was how important parents are in the outcome of a child. After assessing a list of 16 items that were often thought of as things that helped children succed in school, the eight that were true statements were: Having highly educated parents, Having parents that had high sociceconomic status, Having a mother who was 30 or older at the time of thier first child's birth, the child's birth weight, If the child's parents speak English at home, Wether or not the child is adopted, Wether the child's parents were involved in teh PTA, and How many books the child had in thier home. These eight topics trupmed stuff like wether or not the child went to Head Start and cultural expierences, which leads to the conclusion that it is not what the parents do but who they are that influences the child the most.

This chapter was semi-interesting. I failed to see how it related much to economics other than the choices the parents could make.