The gringa Latina de corazón Oprah, yes, that’s me – LOL

The correlation between academic achievement and socio-economic status isn’t surprising or new – but I find it dispiriting as well… I know it isn’t much but one thing that made me feel that I was making a small difference was the year I volunteered in a pre-school. The majority of students at the pre-school were from lower income families and many spoke English as a second language. I used to go in each week and read to them one-on-one. Many of them told me it was something their parents didn’t do with them, (some because they’re simply too tired from working, and others because of the generational cycle you mentioned.)

I helped the teachers organize a program where we’d send the kids home with a book from the pre-school library each week and the parents were expected to read it with their child and sign off on a paper. Some consistently didn’t do the assignment with the child. When a parent was a native Spanish speaker, I made sure only Spanish language books went home in the bag. When a parent was illiterate, there was an adult program to refer them to that would teach them to read and write if they were interested.

In the end, while there wasn’t 100% participation, enough did participate that it made me feel the effort was worthwhile.

Anyway – we can all do small things like that to make a difference – support local programs already in place with our time or financial contributions. (Just putting it out there because I don’t like to give bad news without offering a solution.)

As for your own children – I’m sure you’ll find a balance. I also didn’t want to over-schedule my kids, and for that reason, they haven’t been involved in many extracurricular activities. When they’re passionate about something, (like my older son is with music), they will make sure you know they want to be involved – and then by all means – let them follow their hearts.

It’s also good to sign them up for short term programs, (like a week long summer camp, for example.) — That way they get a taste of it, get to explore and find out what they like, without the commitment.

Abrazos and thanks for your (always thoughtful and amusing) comment!

You are a media powerhouse. Are you angling to fill the void Oprah just left us with?

Anyway, nice article. I plan to check out the research you’re referencing. It is depressing, though, to see how low income correlates with lack of access and support for enriching summertime activities and therefore academic and life disadvantages…thus we are trapped in a vicious circle generation after generation. I feel very privileged when you consider the situation of many other minorities and fellow Latinos.

My kids are still in their pre-school years but we are certainly already discussing ways to keep them stimulated and engaged throughout the year. On the other hand, we want to make sure we are not the kind of parents who overburden their kids with extracurricular activities. As the child of highly permissive and less than engaged parents, I think having had free range to forge my own learning path was very important to the development of my creativity. But that’s probably because I’m amazing – everybody else needs structure. I’m just kidding, of course. Not really.

I’ll be on the look-out for your regular columns.

Un abrazo,

Rubén