Sun or Shade?
Let’s talk about the significance of friendship. This is not to replicate last’s week topic but to build onto it.
Every morning I wake up to The New York Times sitting in my inbox, and I typically just read the headlines. Though there are times that an article will spark my interest. Today was one of those days. It was about how lower-income children can climb the economic ladder.
I have always been an advocate of comingling in almost everything we do to help positively influence and elevate our levels of potential. I truly believe if you have a small group of C students with a large group of A students, the C students will perform better. If you mix the right brains with the left brains, each will take away new applicable thoughts in life. If you have people with no fear mixed with the extremely cautious, they balance each other out.
Please bear in mind, I am not an expert in social psychology or socioeconomics. I have just a few sociology courses under my belt and observations within of my own personal life.
For instance, my son is an avid supporter of a local animal human society. For over two years, he has helped the animals at the rescue. He has even started his own business to raise money for the charity. I’m biased but he’s absolutely amazing.
In fact, our neighborhood is filled with amazing kids. Once word spread about my son’s charitable endeavors, many of the neighborhood kids either started their own fundraising endeavors or joined my son by helping at the animal rescue on weekends.
There is one child in the neighborhood who is afraid of dogs and allergic to cats. Typically, he doesn’t go to the rescue. But this past weekend he mustered up the courage to join his friends.
It’s all about influence… and peer influence is the best kind.
This is the whole idea behind Montessori schools, right?
Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist said it best: “Growing up in a community connected across lines improves kids’ outcome and gives them a better shot at rising out of poverty.”
I think about my high school. We had a blend of a socio-economic status, as well as racial diversity. I’m not ignorant to deny an underlining divide, but there was more of an opportunity to transcend our differences because we were always together. We got to see each other for who we were as people.
I feel Dr. Chetty’s findings are the scientific studies to back what we’ve always instinctively known.
Article referenced above was published by The New York Times, Vast New Study Shows a Key to Reducing Poverty: More Friendships Between Rich and Poor by Claire Cain Miller, Josh Katz, Francesca Paris and Aatish Bhatia, Aug. 1, 2022. (Fair warning, it most likely will ask you to subscribe to read.)