Thinking about the Belmont 112, it does have the value of an experiment whether that was intended. I think bad policies are formed partially because we want simple interventions before we get a good understanding of the full picture. I think learning from these successes and failure is very important. What I've seen of the results so far makes a great deal of sense to me.
I don't think George Weiss understood all the needs, but they seem to have had a commitment to looking at the whole person and learned some important things. While they seem to have had the desire to see all the different factors and issues of poverty, they were learning. I want to pick up that Newberg book. One kid would have gone down when he didn't take his medication. He was helped and was one of the college graduates. We have a completely broken public health system for mental health. We don't have a clear idea about how much the complete lack of behavioral health care for poor needy kids affects some of their life paths but we have that anecdote. At some point, Say yes offered resources to help parents engage adult education. They had discovered that the parents' education was an important factor for the kids who achieved best. In my work, I saw the benefit of offering adult literacy services to women with small children. I assigned my students (women in drug treatment programs and a South Philly literacy program) to read to their children. I saw tremendous benefits for my students. It also turned out to be a motivating reason they joined the programs. It is generally recognized now that children benefit tremendously when the parents read to them at an early age. Given that so many kids don't have music or art teachers let alone chess clubs, student newspapers etc., there are real and serious ways that all public schools should get resources to improve outcomes. It's simply more important than welfare for Penn and Drexel. Opinion: If Penn/Drexel want something else completely, I think they should build their own building and foot the entire bill. If they are charitable, they will allow free admission to Phila. kids while we, as a city, fund steps to give all the kids a shot at the admission standards and application. Sincerely, Glenn
