full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Helen Pearson: Lessons from the longest study on human development
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into poevtry or into ddisgtaavane, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives. But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, hlpes children beat the odds and overcome some of those early diadvtgeansas. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all? You could argue it doesn't matter if a cilhd is born poor — as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study sowhs that poverty and parenting matter. And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at clidhern growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right — putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else — that only got those children so far. Good pieanntrg only reduced the etoiucadnal gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the ssucecs and well-being of the next generation, then tlcanikg child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.
Open Cloze
Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into _______ or into ____________, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives. But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, _____ children beat the odds and overcome some of those early _____________. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all? You could argue it doesn't matter if a _____ is born poor — as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study _____ that poverty and parenting matter. And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at ________ growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right — putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else — that only got those children so far. Good _________ only reduced the ___________ gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the _______ and well-being of the next generation, then ________ child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.
Solution
- tackling
- success
- helps
- educational
- children
- disadvantages
- disadvantage
- parenting
- shows
- child
- poverty
Original Text
Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into poverty or into disadvantage, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives. But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, helps children beat the odds and overcome some of those early disadvantages. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all? You could argue it doesn't matter if a child is born poor — as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study shows that poverty and parenting matter. And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at children growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right — putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else — that only got those children so far. Good parenting only reduced the educational gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the success and well-being of the next generation, then tackling child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
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remarkable study |
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difficult start |
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scientists looked |
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good outcomes |
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bedtime routines |
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Important Words
- argue
- beat
- bed
- born
- call
- child
- children
- data
- day
- difficult
- disadvantage
- disadvantages
- early
- educational
- ensure
- figures
- fine
- follow
- gap
- generation
- good
- growing
- helps
- important
- incredibly
- lasting
- leaves
- lesson
- lives
- long
- looked
- matter
- matters
- means
- odds
- overcome
- parenting
- parents
- paths
- percent
- persistent
- poor
- poverty
- put
- putting
- reading
- reduced
- rich
- scar
- school
- showed
- shows
- start
- study
- success
- tackling
- tend
- time
- true
- wait