Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Fun with logic

Laura over at 11D has a great discussion of this David Brooks piece from the NYTimes.


I'm just struck, though, by this one little bit here (this is Brooks, not Laura).

"Lareau says working-class children seem more relaxed and vibrant, and have more intimate contact with their extended families. 'Whining, which was pervasive in middle-class homes, was rare in working-class and poor ones,' she writes.

But these children were not as well prepared for the world of organizations and adulthood."

Here's what I want to know: Does this prove that whining prepares children for the world of organizations and adulthood?

For another fun example of this kind of false logic (correlation does not equal causation) check out the Literary Mama blog right now and the comments.

1 comment:

Lorraine DeLuca Placido said...

Kids from wealthy families tend to whine because they get results from that behavior-they often get whatever it is they are complaining. Less affluent children realize that complaining isn't going to change the situation. Privileged children become adults who expect to get results and poor kids accept less comfortable situations which make them less competitive in a corporate climate. I guess you could consider wealthy kids as having a resource that poor kids do not have-the expectation that their ideas, desires and plans will be carried out.

Enjoying your blog-Lorraine
http://delucaspeak.blogspot.com/