Nice in Theory, But...

One of the interesting things about theories is that, while they often sound nice, putting theory to practice seems elusive.

This is especially so when you are dealing with the troubling tendency of poor kids being consigned to life long poverty due to factors beyond their control. A Constrained Vision notes that some research suggests environment, not genes, augurs academic performance for the impoverished. Here's the research quoted:

Among families of lower socioeconomic status, variation in IQ is far more environmental than genetic in origin, whereas the converse holds in families of higher socioeconomic status. That is, an impoverished child's background and experiences can so heavily influence his or her degree of achievement that his genetic makeup is nearly irrelevant in predicting his academic success. Optimistically, such a powerful role for experience suggests that intervention may be particularly successful among disadvantaged children.

I commented:

Well, that sounds nice in theory, and makes some kind of sense, but how do you inculcate such an environment?

Take kids from impoverished families and warehouse them with educated people who can speak well?

As always, a nice theory, but what is its practical application?

To quote Rod Tidwell, "show me the money."