So despite TOC carrying education minister’s balls in Wah lan! TOC praises PAP govt, he says more needs to bee done, but that SAP schools remain an OB marker.
This reminded me that “In Love, Money & Parenting”, Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti, write that economic trends are the underlying drivers of various approaches to raising children.
They find that in countries with low inequality, such as Sweden, parents tend to be more permissive. In countries with high inequality, parents are “both more authoritarian and more prone to instil in their children a drive to achieve ambitious goals”.
They cited the US as an example but S’pore sure fits the bill. Think of all the tuition and enrichment lessons etc.
Another insight is “The parenting choices of the rich differ systematically from those of the poor … For example, psychologists have long noted that authoritarian parenting is more prevalent in families with low income.”
And there’s this, that’s not applicable here: “[S]ocial and economic discrimination in labour markets [means that] parents will have weaker incentives to invest in their daughter’s human capital, since the return to such investment is low”.
Related post: More qns for education minister
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 