April 21, 2010   373 notes

A Home Library’s Educational Edge

austinkleon:

After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home — and the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school.

“Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics,” reports the study, recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. “Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.

“This is a large effect, both absolutely and in comparison with other influences on education,” adds the research team, led by University of Nevada sociologist M.D.R. Evans. “A child from a family rich in books is 19 percentage points more likely to complete university than a comparable child growing up without a home library.”

  1. harbingersofhappiness reblogged this from fairlightday
  2. lotusohm reblogged this from booksinthekitchen and added:
    I just had my boyfriend read this and told him that my book collection will be worth it when we have children. He said:...
  3. so-treu reblogged this from and added:
    i completely agree! sorry, i put this in my queue w/ the intention to come back and add some commentary to this before...
  4. so-treu reblogged this from austinkleon
  5. william-elms reblogged this from austinkleon
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  7. cu3421 reblogged this from aliform and added:
    hmm, found interesting:)
  8. foreverfalling reblogged this from loveandzombies
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  10. leavemethismess reblogged this from awritersruminations
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  12. brent-miller reblogged this from jennaymichelle
  13. pseudolibrarian reblogged this from librarianista
  14. aliform reblogged this from equivoque and added:
    But. But. This explains why I was reading college level work at ten-ish.
  15. librarianista reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    Being surrounded by people who have learned to value books, learning, and reading is the important factor… which is why...
  16. xdoriangray reblogged this from internetdump
  17. natknox reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    Don’t think my family home could be any other way!
  18. olga-aglow reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    this might also be linked to the parents’ level of education though, because people who are more intellectual and...
  19. wtyang24 reblogged this from fairlightday
  20. sonatafarm reblogged this from treehuggingarchitect
  21. loveinalgebra reblogged this from austinkleon
  22. hashii reblogged this from austinkleon and added:
    After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home...
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