>> the likelihood of a child raised by parents born into the lowest income quintile moving to the top quintile by the age 40 was a disastrous 3 percent. <<
Hey, I am a 3 percenter!!!
Maybe it had something to do with my Mom emphasizing that reading was important (I grew up on Asimov, Heinlein, MacDonald, Farmer and, yes that slut Bradbury).
She also made it clear poverty was temporary and education was permanent. It is a long and sad story about how we ended up in poverty but my siblings and I all came away with the same VALUES: education and knowledge for their own sake, intellectual curiosity (why are somethings so and others not so?).
The greatest gift you can provide is these values. I thank God I was able to tell Mom how they shaped me before she died (too young).
Thanks for my new tag :)
Right there with ya. After my parents divorced, we kids stayed with mom. A few nights in the shelters did happen over the years. However, the focus was always on school, patience, treating others with respect, hard work, and having fun (games, puzzles, books, sports, creativity - like occupying ourselves for 3-6 hours with nothing more than a tennis ball and a curb, etc etc etc). Since I left teaching, I’ve been happily “overpaid” for quite some time. Somehow, I don’t recall once getting any steps ahead because I was white. They were mostly from hard work, talking to the right people, making wise educational choices after that first liberal arts degree, and some good fortune (thank You again, Lord).