For many families a choice doesn’t have to be made between more food and more instruction for their children; but, for a surprisingly high number in a study highlighted today from Jiangsu province in China, resources have to be juggled.
As Yanliu Liu of the Nanjing Normal University (et.al) points out the jury remains out on just how much benefit children get from additional tutoring. Where this involves a loss of self-esteem by the tutored, exhaustion or inappropriate instruction studies have shown it does more harm than good. As for extra nutrition?
In the study the researchers address the question, where a trade-off has to be made, how should parents with limited means spend extra money to give their children an academic boost?
The conclusion is, on balance, extra tutoring is a good thing; but as far as adequate nutrition is concerned, in the case of this study breakfast, that’s ALWAYS a winner.
For families trying to allocate limited resource between siblings or governments looking for the biggest bang for their academic achievement boosting buck the conclusion would seem to be self-evident. Moreover, with over eighty thousand children in this study, I’d be prepared to bet recommendations are applicable to children the world over.
You can read the work in full via this link Breakfast or Extra Tutoring?
Happy Sunday