OK, Bryan is right (as was Alex) and I'm wrong. This from the horses mouth (a note I got today from Judith Harris): =================================================== My theory is definitely not an excuse for people to throw up their hands and say "We give up -- there's nothing we can do!" Because (as you said) children are socialized first at home, any aspect of socialization that is common to the majority of the children in a given group is likely to be effective. If the majority of the parents in a given neighborhood decided to teach their children to nod their heads three times whenever someone gave them something, then that custom would probably become standard behavior in their neighborhood; children who were new to the neighborhood would quickly pick it up. That's how cultures are passed on. That's why it matters where you raise your kids and where they go to school. When people choose a neighborhood in which to raise their kids, what they're doing is trying to find a place where the other parents have attitudes and customs that are similar to their own. By doing that, they maximize the chances that their children will retain the attitudes and customs they acquired at home. ===================================================== and ===================================================== Thanks for enclosing the note from Bryan Caplan (actually, N = 2). Yes, Caplan is right, and Dan Quayle had a point. When you're looking for a neighborhood in which to raise your kids, it's a good idea to look for one in which most of the kids have fathers. ==================================================== The reference to a sample size of 2 comes from earlier in the note in which she had said that she had concluded that economists were very smart but that that was based on a small sample (N=1). So I guess that Bryan impressed her. -- Bill Dickens William T. Dickens The Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 797-6113 FAX: (202) 797-6181 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AOL IM: wtdickens
