Poverty and the Brain


	Poverty and the Brain

wildcat

11-7-2008 6:59 AM

863 views

tags:

poverty, brain, neuroscience

wildcat says:

"The point is that poverty isn't just an idea, or a state of mind: it actually warps the mind. Some brains never even have a chance."
deserves a second thought

1 Comment |

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11-8-2008 7:21 AM

tabsey

My teaching experiences says this is very true and not just in Harlem or places in Australia. It is destroying teachers and those other workers trying to help people escape the cycle. No combined, concerted effort to start with. All working by themselves. Ant colonies die out if that happens. All know this, so is it therefore deliberate?

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/26d6485a-d51c-4ba1-a2c8-092a6b1e649b/5335DE34-A888-4C56-814F-B00BCDE180B3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/11/poverty_and_the_brain.php" href="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/11/poverty_and_the_brain.php" style="font-size: 11px;">scienceblogs.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/11/poverty_and_the_brain.php"><EM><A href="http://www.amazon.com/Whatever-Takes-Geoffrey-Canadas-America/dp/0618569898" linkindex="77" set="yes">Whatever It Takes</A></EM>, the new book by Paul Tough that profiles Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone, is one of the most bracing, sobering and inspiring books I've read in a while. It's the story of one man's attempt to systematically disrupt the cycle of poverty, and fundamentally alter the nature of childhood in Harlem. Fixing the schools is only a small part of the solution: Canada realized that it was also crucial to change the typical parent-child interaction, and so he developed a Baby College where new parents are given lessons on how to speak to their child in the supermarket. In other words, poverty is a culture, a contagious way of life, and not something that can be fixed with smaller class size.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/11/poverty_and_the_brain.php">Tough also deftly summarizes much of the recent work done on the cognitive neuroscience of poverty, or how our brain is changed by the details of our upbringing</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/11/poverty_and_the_brain.php">(One crucial finding is that "middle-class" parents are much more verbose than parents living in poverty.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/5335DE34-A888-4C56-814F-B00BCDE180B3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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