Stressed Out On Poor Street

Have you ever wondered why poverty passes on from generation to generation? Why a majority of poor children underachieve later on in life even when presented with opportunities? The Economist provides some evidence that might explain intergenerational cycles of poverty...

According to researchers, the stress of growing up poor affects the brain which in turn affects the ability to retain and process information...This together with the lack of nutrition and opportunities affects the ability of poor children to compete with richer children as adults...

Edited to add:
Elizabeth Gould, a researcher from Princeton University, thinks chronic stress of living in slums causes the brain to change biologically...

Subsequent experiments [by Gould] have teased out a host of other ways stress can damage the developing brain. For example, if a pregnant rhesus monkey is forced to endure stressful conditions--like being startled by a blaring horn for 10 minutes a day--her children are born with reduced neurogenesis, even if they never actually experience stress once born. This pre-natal trauma, just like trauma endured in infancy, has life-long implications. The offspring of monkeys stressed during pregnancy have smaller hippocampi, suffer from elevated levels of glucocorticoids and display all the classical symptoms of anxiety. Being low in a dominance hierarchy also suppresses neurogenesis. So does living in a bare environment. As a general rule of thumb, a rough life--especially a rough start to life--strongly correlates with lower levels of fresh cells. "Poverty is stress," Gould says, with more than a little passion in her voice. "One thing that always strikes me is that when you ask Americans why the poor are poor, they always say it's because they don't work hard enough, or don't want to do better. They act like poverty is a character issue."
Gould's work implies that the symptoms of poverty are not simply states of mind; they actually warp the mind. Because neurons are designed to reflect their circumstances, not to rise above them, the monotonous stress of living in a slum literally limits the brain.

Corporal Punishment In Government Schools

In yet another instance of corporal punishment meted out to a Delhi school student, an eight-year-old boy’s face was painted black on Saturday for scoring low marks in his class test.

These kind of stories are commonplace these days...The question is, what is the government doing (if they are doing anything at all)to minimize such incidents?I think education has become just an election issue for political parties and very few even care about what is happening to children in government run schools...The apathy is unbelievable...What is happening to the 2% cess that they are collecting from tax payers? Is the money being used to train teachers and/or build infrastructure or is it being used to line the already heavy pockets of ministers and bureaucrats?

What kind of people are hired to teach in government schools? Is the criteria the same for private and government schools? I think not...I know for a fact that all private school teachers have to have a B.Ed. degree; I don't think government school teachers have to (I may be wrong)...I have a feeling that most teachers in government run schools are teaching there because they were unable to get more lucrative jobs elsewhere...As a result they are frustrated and take out their frustrations on little defenseless children by hitting, pinching and stripping them...What gives them the right? Power does...What these teachers don't seem to understand is that corporal punishment does not instill discipline in children- instead it lowers their self esteem...School going children are still developing and their minds are impressionable...Rebuking them in public or hitting them creates deep scars which only compound with time...As a result of corporal punishment, many lose interest in studies or simply drop out...

Some states like Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Goa have banned corporal punishment but what is the use of banning it when no action is taken to punish the teachers or to ensure such incidents don't occur?

Children are our future, the country's future...Corporal punishment has no place in a civilized society, period...