16 million American children live in poverty. Research shows that education can lift one out of poverty. While we focus as a country on educating our children, we often don’t think about the idea about educating their parents. For when a single mother gets an education, she can not only help herself but she helps her children too.
Studies show that when parents continue their education, “the home environment becomes richer, it’s more cognitively stimulating, and it helps children learn,” said Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, a professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University. A report by Katherine Magnuson of the University of Wisconsin found that if mothers went back to school while their kids were still young, their children were less likely to drop out of high school or to become teen parents. And very importantly, kids think “mom did it, I can do it too”… potentially changing the cycle of poverty for generations.
US News shared the following article that illustrates this point well. See full article: