Besides both being Chicago residents who give out gifts at year-end in elaborate presentations that involve screaming and crying?
They both now have their own schools (hers for girls in Africa, his in Chicago, run as part of an experiment by a University of Chicago professor).
John List, a University of Chicago economics professor, strides through the Griffin Early Childhood Center chatting with teachers, complimenting girls on their braids and hollering out the window. He acts like it’s his school, and in many ways, it is. The preschool in the low-income suburb of Chicago Heights is the centerpiece of one of the largest field experiments ever conducted in economics, and it’s List’s brainchild.
With $10 million from hedge-fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin, List will track the results of more than 600 students– including 150 at this school. His goal is to find out whether investing in teachers or, alternatively, in parents, leads to more gains in kids’ educational performance…List wants to use experiments to solve youth violence in schools and gender bias in hiring. In each case, he wants to isolate why people behave the way they do.
Squatting on a toddler’s chair in one of the classrooms in the Griffin school, List sketches out the design of the experiment with a magic marker on an easel. Local families with kids 3 to 5 years old were encouraged to enter a lottery and were randomly sorted into three groups. Students selected to attend the Griffin school are enrolled in the free, all-day preschool. Children in another group aren’t enrolled in the school, while their guardians take courses at a “parenting academy” and receive cash or scholarships valued at up to $7,000 annually as a reward.
So, that sounds nice. Humanity and all that jazz. Unfortunately, not everyone is thrilled by the idea and some people are even suggesting Ken Griffin’s being taken for a ride.
“That’s a crazy idea,” says Clancy Blair, who studies how young children learn. “It’s not based on any prior research. This isn’t the incremental process of science. It’s ‘I have a crazy idea and I convinced someone to give me $10 million.’”
As an experiment, just to test if Ken Griffin knows the score, give him a call at the office today and pitch him on whatever crazy– really crazy– idea you’ve got (finance-related or otherwise) that needs funding. If he whips out his checkbook, Citadel investors may have cause to worry.
Chicago Economist’s `Crazy’ Education Idea Wins Ken Griffin’s Backing [Bloomberg]
“This isn’t the incremental process of science. It’s ‘I have a crazy idea and I convinced someone to give me $10 million.’”
I’m reasonably confident someone told Thomas Edison that at some point.
But not to ruin the surprise, but I can all but predict the outcome: if the parents are a loss, you may as well write off the children. No amount of money spent on either the teaching or the parents will fix that. A few bright children with ambition will escape the pit their parents have dug, but they are the exceptions, not the rule.
Both still holding out hope that the IOC will change its mind on Rio and move the 2016 summer games back to Chicago where it belongs. Or at least refund their “donations” for the cause.
Both still holding out hope that the IOC will change its mind on Rio and move the 2016 summer games back to Chicago where it belongs. Or at least refund their “donations” for the cause.
Your comment should be preface with **SPOILER ALERT**
You’ve ruined it for us. Here I was waiting for the:
“As the students move into adulthood, their employment, pay and criminal records, if any, will also be tracked. While early results from the experiment may be published as soon as this year, the project has money to follow the students “until they die,” List says. ”
Employment records and pay tracked? Is it worth it to sell your kid out like that for $7k a year?
another common trait– they both drink a lot milk shakes?
Nature v. Nurture, round 198
Nothing about if the hollar back?!?
Kenny– she’s outdoing you again. Better find an ennea-mom to sponsor. And make sure one of the runts is named after you!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1359342/Oprah-Winfrey-gives-McGhee-parents-miracle-Facebook-sextuplets-250K.html
Oprah gives again: Parents of miracle Facebook sextuplets moved to tears by chat show queen’s generosity
they both have a small penis?
I agree with Clancy – we need incremental improvement, not crazy ideas. After all, if the educational system ain’t broke, why fix it?
Or he wants to see if pitch books can be created by toddlers.
Solves the hiring dilemma for the Broker-Dealer. This is long range planning on KGs part
They’re both black women with wildly fluctuating weight?
He should have spent that 10mm on fixing that crack in the sidewalk
why are you shitting on this?
why are you shitting on this?
I didn’t? The guy quoted in the Bloomberg article did?
You are correct. Its old news that parenting matters which has little to do with parenting class! There is no way the group that sold out their kids is a representative group. Griffin must be kicking himself for drinking that ‘water’ before his meeting with List.
“His goal is to find out whether investing in teachers or, alternatively, in parents, leads to more gains in kids’ educational performance”
Griffin should attend his own school. $10 million to find out that neither investment will help, or that if anything does help, it is not useful to transfer or scale up to help anyone else?
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