Books in the House and Future Education Success

According to this post on Salon, it looks as though there's a correlation between having books in the house as a kid and future education success.


A study recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility found that just having books around the house (the more, the better) is correlated with how many years of schooling a child will complete. The study (authored by M.D.R. Evans, Jonathan Kelley, Joanna Sikorac and Donald J. Treimand) looked at samples from 27 nations, and according to its abstract, found that growing up in a household with 500 or more books is "as great an advantage as having university-educated rather than unschooled parents, and twice the advantage of having a professional rather than an unskilled father." Children with as few as 25 books in the family household completed on average two more years of schooling than children raised in homes without any books.


I don't know about you, but it makes me feel better about all the books in my house.  It seems like we all have our own collection.  For us, it's not just about having access to books, it's more about being surrounded with good memories of something you read, or time that we enjoyed spending together.  Just the other day, I laughed at myself because I bought a copy of "The Little Engine that Could".  It was one  of Joshua's favortie books and I just wanted to have a copy of it in my house.  I can't help but smile when I see it or when I pull it out to share with a child visiting.  

You know how everyone is worried that electronic stuff if taking over...I don't know, but I would find it very hard to believe if a study with e-books and iPads and iPods produced the same results....I could be wrong....but I'll keep our books, especially now that I know they have subliminal messaging.