Pew Report released on various statistical trends on mothers in US, and levels of education. Demographic trends in this arena would likely have  big impacts on learning in the US, as mothers are one of the most important “teachers” in a child’s life. Or at least one assumes that to be true.
Mothers with infant children1Â in the U.S. today are more educated than they ever have been. In 2011, more than six-in-ten (66%) had at least some college education, while 34% had a high school diploma or less and just 14% lacked a high school diploma, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
Although less educated women are a shrinking share of all new mothers, less educated women still have a higher average number of births throughout their lifetime than more educated women. By the end of their childbearing years, women without a high school diploma have on average 2.5 children, and women with a bachelor’s degree have about 1.7. This gap has closed only slightly over the past 25 years.
I wonder about that last statistic…as “lifetime” numbers of children per mother stat would likely take a while to reflect new trends…
My prejudice is slanted in favor of mothers having more education than less, in the interests of their offspring, themselves, and society as a whole. But that’s not the same as “proving” that more educated mothers “produce” more educated children… Maybe economics of mothers are more important than education level for children learning?
Probably some studies have been done on this?
Bottom line, there’s a great deal of need for learning enabling tools to be more or less universally available, and that’s an implied goal of PSA activities.