How misinterpreted research upends equity.
If you're like me, you are invested in doing the best for your children. One way to achieve this is follow parenting and educational research. However, a quick search of Amazon reveals more than 50,000 parenting books - many of which are completely contradictory. Below we have unschooling, followed by teaching your baby reading and math (p.s. - I'm NOT endorsing any of these books!)
So, how does a parent make sense of so much competing information? The basic problem with educational and parenting research is that humans are so very, very different from one another.
The good news is that this frees you up to *let go*. Need an example? Try my post on mathematics here or watch the short video below on Summer Learning Loss.
Every time you hear about parenting and/or educational research telling you the "right" or "best" way - ask these questions:
Who did the research?
Are the research participants similar to your child?
Is the group sharing this research going to financially benefit from your belief in this idea?
Is this one piece of research? What does the body of research (the research conversation) say?
Does this fit your child?
Does this seem true for most children?
Does this impact the broader community (locally? state? nationally?) If yes, is the impact positive or negative?