POVERTY'S LONG SHADOW

Q: What do poverty and brain development have in common?
A: Everything, unfortunately.

Scientific research is revealing that the first few years of a child's development have a lifetime of effects in determining a person's potential. Who you turn out to be (and what you can do) is heavily dependent on your situation growing up.

A child's brain forms neural pathways, which allow the brain to process data. The more neural pathways your brain has, the larger your brain. Neural pathways formed during the first three years of a child's development will determine later learning proficiency (or lack thereof).

A child's environment drastically affects the way his or her brain works. The first year is absolutely vital for a child's brain development, but it is also important to be very involved with your child's upbringing up to 10 years of age.

FIVE THINGS TO DO

Talk with your child. Engage in frequent baby talk, repeating sounds and words to the infant and toddler. Take the time to actually talk to your child.
Read to your child every day. Read (and reread) stories to your children, even after your child learns how to read.
Sing children's songs or nursery rhymes. Singing to and with your child is a vital part of brain development. Sing all of the classic children's songs to your child. If you're out in public, with time to spare, sing softly to your child.
Feed your child well. Give your child a variety of foods, representing all of the food groups. Fish is particularly good "brain food." This helps develop both the mind and the body. A balanced diet is essential to brain development.
Provide a stable, loving environment. Listen to your child, don't yell at it or ignore it. Keep your child away from television, favoring active, imagination-inspiring activities instead. Give you child plenty of simple toys (blocks, crayons, finger paints, etc.) instead of prefabricated junk that requires little imagination on their part.

Children born to poverty are more likely to be deprived of any of the above top five, on account of the parent(s) being too busy trying to make ends meet to tend to their children's developmental needs. With the government's welfare "reform" (HA!) of cutting off even basic nutritional supplements to the chronically poor, they have dealt a serious blow to the children of the working poor.

Anarchists think that cooperative living arrangements would help in this respect, allowing beleaguered parents to work together to meet their children's needs. Actually, there is a great deal of research on anarchistic upbringing of children, focusing on developing free-thinking individuals, instead of neurotic, obedient wage slaves.