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| Why Big Brother can be a good idea |
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| MARTIN WILLIAMS |
May 04 2004 |
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THE problem of underachievers has historically been targeted in schools. But a Nobel Prize-winning economist will today suggest that far more attention should be given to early intervention in the family home.
Professor James Heckman believes the breakdown of the family is putting many children on the back foot when it comes to future education and work skills.
He advocates a system of mentoring, often called Big Brother/Big Sister programmes in the US.
The expert on the impact of social economic programmes and policies, based at Chicago University, will present a grim warning about an underclass of low-skilled Scots today when he delivers the latest in the Allander Series of lectures on Scotland's economic future.
Professor Heckman, the 2000 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, says that, instead of focusing on skills policies in schools, governments should be looking at encouraging and supporting the family unit, arguing that early disadvantages produce severe later disadvantages.
The 59-year-old, who was cited for the Nobel Prize for his work in studying social and legislative programmes to create economic outcomes, says that families are the major producers of skills.
He says: "Families are just as important as, if not more important than, schools in producing human capital. The evidence from failed families points to possible benefits from interventions in them.
"Dysfunctional families produce children with lower levels of ability and motivation than functioning healthy families. A successful skills policy encompasses policies to promote successful families and to supplement failing ones.
"Job training programmes, whether public or private, work with what families and schools supply them and cannot remedy 20 years of neglect. Scottish skill formation policy should be based on this basic principle."
He points out that in 2001, in Scotland, only 48% of lone parent households with dependent children were employed, with about half working part-time, while 90% of couples with children had at least one partner employed.
He says studies have shown that children from single-parent households are more likely to be poor and have health and psychological problems. They are also more likely to engage in crime and have unstable marriages.
In a research paper to be presented at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh today, Professor Heckman advocates a mentoring system to provide surrogate parents for children from one-parent families. The programme matches adults from outside the family to children to help support social and educational development.
He says: "Recent small-scale studies of early childhood investments in children from dysfunctional families and disadvantaged environments have shown remarkable success and indicate that interventions in the early years can effectively promote learning. They demonstrate the value of good families by showing that interventions that good families routinely provide can remedy the failings of bad families."
Professor Heckman cites mentoring schemes in the United States, such as the Big Brothers/Big Sisters programme, and says they have had broad social and academic impacts on shool-age children and adolescents.
He says: "BB/BS pairs unrelated adult volunteers with youth from single-parent households for the prupose of providing youth with an adult friend.
"This promotes private youth development and surrogate parenthood. No specific attempts are made to ameliorate particular deficiences or to reach specific educational goals; a broad, supportive role is envisioned for the mentor."
He says a study found that 18 months after being matched with a mentor, children aged 10 to 16 at the time were less likely to have begun to take drugs or alcohol, to hit someone, to play truant, or to lie to their parents. They also had higher average grades and reported a better relationship with their parents.
Professor Heckman says: "Scotland should seriously consider devising a more selective tuition policy by charging those who benefit most and providing relief for the small minority of bright but poor children. This is one way to raise revenue and promote equality in the society and large."
Wendy Alexander, the former enterprise minister, helped organise the Allander series, in which a host of world economists were invited to deliver a series of papers which consider various aspects of the Scottish economy.
The series coincided with growing concern over Scotland's lacklustre economic performance and calls for a radical change in the Scottish Executive's Smart, Successful Scotland policy.
Critics attacked it as an unfocused response to economic underperformance and trailing levels of company formation relative to the rest of the UK.
A Scottish Executive spokesman would not comment on Professor Heckman's thesis, but stressed it was committed to driving up standards, in particular by closing the gap between higher achievers and those who perform less well.
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