Chapter 6

Right before the end of the book mentioned it, I was noticing how unrelated some of the chapters were. However, this was one of the most thought provoking books I've read because of the line of thinking that goes into each chapter. These guys had to sit there and come up with this stuff, wondering, "Hmm... I wonder why drug dealers live with their moms," or something like, "Did you hear about that chick that named her kid Shithead?" (which, by the way, is RIDICULOUS!)

Regarding the chapter though, I've wondered why some names were so popular before but tend to lose their appeal to parents over the years. But really, the name game makes perfect sense. It makes sense that names kind of drift down the ladder from the highly educated, upper class to the less educated, lower class. You don't go around stealing names for kids from your close friends or immediate family, but you won't necessarily have a problem stealing it from the popular businessman that lives a couple streets over; he's not gonna know. Also, if a name is intensely popular, that means that your kid is going to be one of like 5 kids in their class with that same popular name.

Another interesting point was the spelling of names and what it reflects of the parents. Those that were misspelled or "nicknames as proper names" clearly indicate the lower level of sophistication among the parents, like Temptress, which is just stupid. Clearly a parent who makes a mistake about the name AND doesn't know the meaning of the word is not that concerned about how their child turns out. I bet in the next few decades, were going to be seeing a lot of kids named Brenda, Lucy, Lawrence, and then probably some Ricky Bobbys for good measure.

I'm probably going to name my kid something like Michaelangelo or Leonardo, you know, to sound smart. Or maybe Splinter, I don't know.

Bishop OUT

Chapter 5

What makes a perfect parent? I've gotta admit, that's not something often I find myself wondering at this point in my life, but the thought has crossed my mind. As with the other ideas presented in this book, Levitt really supports his claims with strong evidence. Most of all, though the evidence makes sense.

For example, we had school choice when I was younger, but my parents never had the desire to send me to a "better" one. They felt that it wasn't so much the school that would make the difference in my education, it was me my work ethic. I was a good student who paid attention, participated well, and did my homework. It wouldn't have mattered which school I went to in my town because my parents would have had me do all that regardless of where I was.

On another note, I did feel that the different factors that were and were not correlated with test scores was pretty interesting, like how all the things that made a difference were what the parents were as opposed to what the parents did. Its kind of like you had what the parents were, but you really had to take a step back and look at it from a macro level to see what caused those parents to be what they were, and THAT is what makes the difference.

I've seen a lot of studies about the "nature vs. nurture" debate, specifically about twins separated at birth are more like each other than the people who raised them. They have these minute similarities that have to be strictly from nature. Plus, with everything from this chapter, I really feel that fore the most part, people are genetically "programmed" from the beginning.