What family characteristics are most conducive to inspiring a love of learning?
Modeling is the best strategy. If the kid grows up seeing that his parents and other adults have no interest in anything except making money, it’s unlikely that he or she will learn that it’s fun to study or learn new things. It boils down to the essentials: support and challenge. By challenge I mean high expectations, high standards, allowing the child a lot of independence, exposing students to new opportunities whenever possible. Support means simply that the child feels that the family as a whole is interested in every member’s welfare. If the mother comes home tired, the kids will notice it and try to help her and so forth. When their families give them both support and challenge, children are more likely to choose harder subjects in high school, get better grades, end up in better colleges, and have higher self-esteem in college or after college. If they receive support only, the kids tend to be happy and feel better about themselves, but they’re not necessarily ambitious. They d
