[Phys-l] Making money - self regulation & education

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

> The poor are poor simply because of their attitude toward wealth. I have
> absolutely no sympathy for someone who chooses to be poor in a country
> with the opportunities available here.

If you understood the import of the article from NPR about self regulation
and executive functioning, you would not say this.  Poor self regulation is
not chosen by individuals, but is the product of early experiences.  It
leads to crime, drug addition and all kinds of self destructive behavior.
Also it is a better predictor of school success than IQ.  At present the
educational system is actually promoting poor self regulation by stuffing
the very early school days with spoon fed curricula rather than
opportunities for socialization and imaginative play that build self
regulation.

The worst thing about this is that good suburban schools often continue to
educate students in exactly the same way they always have and the inner city
school give the students a diet of nothing but test review.  So rather than
really improving the poor, they are pushing them lower in the name of
progress.  This is because they do not understand the research that shows
that smarter teaching works better than intensive curriculum review.

The ability to make and save money in legitimate work often eludes many
because of a variety of circumstances over which they have little control.
It is now known that the ability to profit from education and to understand
things like proportional reasoning are trainable.  See articles by Shayer &
Adey, and Reuven Feuerstein.  Also susceptibility to chemical addictive
behavior has a strong genetic component.

The exceptional individual can rise above poor social circumstances, but the
average person will have extreme difficulty.  If you are born with the wrong
genes or happen to live in the wrong part of society, you may find it
impossible to acquire wealth.

Good self regulation should help individuals understand that they are
responsible for their actions, and help them achieve what they really want.
Reuven Feuerstein took individuals with IQs as low as 65 and helped them
achieve normal IQ.  He did this by improving aspects of executive
functioning.

As to choosing to be poor, I have been poor, and I did not choose it.
Neither did my parents.  They worked hard, and did not get ahead because of
economic changes over which they had no control.  Then severe depression
prevented by dad from making the rational decisions that might have helped
them escape.  I now have a small house, with low taxes, in an affluent
neighborhood.  This has allowed us to save money, so those who chose large
houses with high taxes have little sympathy from me.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX