How many books in your home? Could you count them? Do you even want to? Researchers from the University of Nevada did just that…for 73,249 homes in 27 countries. They wanted to explore the possible connection between home library size and children’s educational attainment. The results of the study hit the presses a couple weeks ago. Science Daily, for example, announced that “Books in Home as Important as Parents’ Education in Determining Children’s Educational Level.”
I did some digging. Always weary of grand claims about causation (that the number of books in a home, for example, “propels a child 3.2 years ahead in education” as was stated in the SD article), I decided to look at the study myself. Here is what I found.
Data: Surveys from 27 countries. The researchers did not actually go into the homes of the respondents – at least not physically. Instead, they analyzed the data from 5 key surveys spanning multiple nations.
Survey Questions: Focused on home libraries when children were young. What about children’s access to books as they grow older? The survey data is limited, as it omits important information about an adolescent’s access to printed text in the home.
Country by Country Analysis: I’m not sure I should advertise this…but the number of books in the homes of families in the United States only plays a modest role in boosting a child’s educational success. The actual number of books matters more in developing countries.
So, what matters more in the United States? Not surprisingly, LOTS of things. Sure, there is an association between the number of books in a family library and a child’s educational attainment…as evidenced by this study. But there’s also an association between a parent’s educational attainment (e.g. high school, undergraduate, etc) and a child’s educational attainment.
Yet again, we see that there’s no magic bullet in the complex world of learning and teaching. Indeed, go out and buy more books…or borrow them from the library.
But please also keep in mind that the sheer number of books that you have in your home is not going to automatically qualify (or disqualify) your child from educational success.
Talk about the books. Live them. Enjoy them. Make sure your child understands them. And…with your free time and money – consider donating books to countries where the sheer number of books in a home may matter even more.
