You know those vacation souvenirs that seem so life transforming until you get them home? I confess: I’m the person who buys a Provençal tablecloth in France imagining the 3-hour lunches I’ll share on the patio with friends over olives, baguettes, and a few bottles of wine. Once I’m home I remember that, unlike France, North Carolina has mosquitoes that carry off small children. The tablecloth goes in the pantry right next to those dusty hand-blown margarita glasses and that pareo that had seemed like such a versatile piece of clothing in Polynesia but that doesn’t match any of my loafers.
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The only souvenir I actually use is the conch shell I blow to get the kids to come inside for dinner. I suspect it’s why our neighbors have forbidden me from ever going back to the Yucatan. In return, let’s just say that if they’re waiting to attend my Provençal picnic, it could be a while.
Minority Report
Are you amazed at how many things we thought impossible only a few years ago are now commonplace? Who could imagine that within our lifetimes, we’d be able to sequence a person’s genome for a few thousand dollars, print useful household objects from our computers, or watch a different reality TV show every hour for a whole week? Now researchers at Duke University report that they can identify children at risk of becoming violent criminals and intervene early enough to lead them to productive lives. It may not be as cool as binge-watching “Pawn Stars” on your iPhone 6, but still, it’s impressive.
The news comes from the latest analysis of the Fast Track Project, a joint undertaking of researchers at Duke, Vanderbilt, the University of Washington and Pennsylvania State, that started in 1991 with the screening of nearly 10,000 5-year-old children in Durham, Nashville, Seattle, and rural Pennsylvania. Researchers identified 900 of those children whom they felt were at particularly high risk of growing up to become violent, antisocial adults. I don’t know all the criteria they used, but I suspect that they automatically included any kindergartener with a tattoo.
Half of the kids were randomized to receive the Fast Track intervention which, despite coming from North Carolina, did not involve NASCAR. Instead, from 1st through 10th grade, the children received tutoring in reading, self-control, and social-cognitive skills while their parents had home visits and training group sessions to learn problem-solving skills. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree: Why aren’t we providing Fast Track interventions for Congress?
By age 25 years, the Fast Track group has had fewer convictions for violent and drug-related crimes, less substance abuse, less risky sexual behavior, and fewer psychiatric problems than did the control group. They even had lower rates of harsh parenting, suggesting that the benefits of the intervention may last for generations. The improvements transcended race, sex, and geographic area. Of course, the program was not free: The per-child cost came out to $58,000 over 10 years. Compared with the costs of violent crime, drug use, psychiatric disease, and prison, that strikes me as a bargain. I admit I’m no economist, but I can recognize value -- I’ve watched “Pawn Stars.”
Half-baked sale
Is there anything that kids don’t sell these days for school fund-raisers? Back when I was in middle school band, there were only three choices when it came to raising money: plain milk chocolate, almond, and puffed rice. My parents were good, too; anyone who walked into their offices left with at least one overpriced bar, and I came tantalizingly close to selling enough to earn a real working stoplight for my bedroom, although in retrospect the traffic didn’t really justify one.
These days, our five kids have tried to sell everything from wrapping paper to tangerines to discount coupon books (if only we’d used every coupon in the book we could have saved enough money to just buy a stoplight, but does anyone really go bowling that often?). Their middle school has even followed the Public Radio route and just asked for flat-out cash, and they don’t even give you a coffee mug.
Apparently, however, none of that entrepreneurial spirit has filtered across state lines to South Carolina, where the State Board of Education is requesting an exemption from U.S. Department of Agriculture Smart Snack school nutrition guidelines on the basis that the only way South Carolina schoolchildren could ever raise enough money for their projects is by selling donuts. Apparently, they have the childhood obesity problem licked down there, since childhood obesity rates are actually higher in Mississippi and, uh, did I mention Mississippi?