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Going to church means heavenly grades?
Filed under: Teens, Day Care & Education, Religion & Spirituality
I'm not sure there could be a worse headline, as far as I'm concerned: "Church Attendance Boosts Student GPA's." Luckily, it's not quite that simple. Researchers did find that going to church affects a teenager's grades, chances of dropping out, and sense of school community as much as whether or not the parents had college degrees, but it's not so much God's work as it is several other, identifiable factors.The reasons for the improved performance include:
- The students have role models they see regularly from multiple generations.
- Parents are more likely to be in touch with the parents of their kids' friends.
- It is more likely that their friends' families will have the same values and expectations as their own.
- They tend toward higher rates of participation in extracurricular activities.
"If we use it to help explain why religious participation has a positive effect on academics," explains Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist at the University of Iowa and one of the scientists who compiled the report, "parents who aren't interested in attending church can consider how to structure their kids' time to allow access to the same beneficial social networks and opportunities religious institutions provide."
All of these factors seem like no-brainers to me, although I'll admit I hadn't actually considered the third reason. It makes sense, though, that if your kids' friends want to do well in school and know right from wrong, it will help your kids keep on the straight and narrow. Once again, though, it shows that it's the parents and community that make all the difference.
Says Glanville: "the act of attending church -- the structure and the social aspects associated with it -- could be more important to educational outcomes than the actual religion." So we don't really need God, we just need each other.
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 2)
8-21-2008 @ 6:44PM
SKL said...Thank you, Goddess! I always enjoy reading your wisdom too.
8-21-2008 @ 6:45PM
bob15s15 said...Just because teenagers who go to church get better grades than those who don't, doesn't necessarily mean church attendance increases grades. It seems highly likely that kids who go to church (and whose parents encourage church attendance) tend to be the kinds of (well-behaved? more serious? more trouble-free? focused? etc.) kids who would work harder at getting better grades (and receive more parental encouragement to get better grades). Kids who do their own laundry might tend to get higher grades than those who don't, but that doesn't mean doing laundry causes grades to increase; maybe kids who do their own laundry are more responsible people and being a responsible person also helps one get better grades.
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8-21-2008 @ 8:29PM
bob15s15 said...Just because teenagers who go to church get better grades than those who don't, doesn't necessarily mean church attendance increases grades. It seems highly likely that kids who go to church (and whose parents encourage church attendance) tend to be the kinds of (well-behaved? more serious? more trouble-free? focused? etc.) kids who would work harder at getting better grades (and receive more parental encouragement to get better grades). Kids who do their own laundry might tend to get higher grades than those who don't, but that doesn't mean doing laundry causes grades to increase; maybe kids who do their own laundry are more responsible people and being a responsiblhttp://www.aol.com/e person also helps one get better grades.
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8-22-2008 @ 10:19PM
Adrienne said...LS, the Bible doesn't actually say that God helps them who helps themselves. God helps the helpless! Isaiah 25:4 declares, "For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat..." Romans 5:6 tells us, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
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