Essential Questions

Writers, educators and policymakers have often been reminded that poor people have significantly lower I.Q.'s than rich people. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof makes the case that intelligence is far more malleable than once assumed. The obvious importance of this is that if the I.Q. gap narrows between the rich and poor, so also might the disparities of opportunity and wealth.

Arguments for Malleability
Kristof offers several arguments for malleability. First, when poor children are adopted into upper-middle-class households, their I.Q.'s rise by 12 to 18 points. Second, good schooling correlates highly with higher I.Q's. Third, during gaps in schooling (Iike summer vacation) children's I.Q.'s drop or stagnate.

The Social Reasoning
If I.Q. is malleable, and its most sensitive period is early childhood, then one of the best ways to tackle endemic poverty is to engage children during this critical period. Kristof concludes:

"The implication of this new research on intelligence is that the economic-stimulus package should also be an intellectual-stimulus program. By my calculation, if we were to push early childhood education and bolster schools in poor neighborhoods, we just might be able to raise the United States collective I.Q. by as much as one billion points.That should be a no-brainer."

The Missing Link
The tacit assumption of Kristof's article is that the environmental factors suppressing intelligence in communities of poverty can be addressed by programs. The logic is simple; the practice is anything but simple. Parents remain the most influential force in child development and education. Early childhood programs can help. Great schools can help. But what defines a great early childhood program or school? Parents. Period. Want to meet a world-class administrator who understands that? Look at Geoffrey Canada. His organization, the Harlem Children's Zone, engages parents before their children are born. They target the highest risk populations before birth in order to engage, empower and involve those parents - and their results are outstanding precisely because it is so much more than a preschool or charter school program. It is the parents.

That is both good news and bad news. It means that programs by themselves can't address the I.Q. gap, the performance gap, or the growing class gaps. However, it also means that the programs that treat parents as the most important stakeholders in education and community life have the potential to profoundly influence I.Q., performance, and opportunity.

The real question is whether we have the courage to say that parents are responsible - and take responsibility for treating them as responsible human beings, and not as people who need to be "fixed." Geoffrey Canada has made that courageous decision. Does anyone else have that courage?

On two different occasions, I have had the pleasure of hearing Brother Juniper read aloud to a crowd of attentive young children at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On both days, the children alternated between rapt attention and happy giggles. What was so funny and intriguing? Brother Juniper, in his generosity, gave away all sorts of things - and sometimes the very clothes on his body! The children wonder what can possibly become of such a generous, and seemingly foolish man, who gives away everything. The delightful resolution to the story answers their questions, and provokes children to follow the way of sharing and generosity.

Certainly generosity is a trait that many parents want for their children. Yet like the other virtues, what is most compelling to children (and their parents) is not a lecture about its importance, but a real example of it in practice. Children's literature provides a unique and wonderful opportunity for parents to present, celebrate and emulate these examples. It also provides a shared experience in which parents can point back to 'the generosity of Brother Juniper' as parents and children together face daily opportunities to show generosity.

As parents, the question is not whether we are teaching our children, but what we are teaching. This book is a wonderful tool for such teaching.

Last week that the Metropolitan Museum, I dropped into the Nolen library, which has a small but wonderful collection of children's books (including all of the Caldecott winners!). I picked up a copy of The Inside-Outside Book of Libraries and found it mesmerizing. I 'discovered' the Explorers' Club Library just a few blocks from the Met, which boasts a fascinating collection of maps.

For children who are beginning to explore libraries (or even for those who are well familiar with their local library), this book is a wonderful introduction to the wide world of libraries. It is well worth checking to see if your local library has this book on the shelves