Dennis Prager interviewed David Brooks today about his new book.
Dennis: “What’s the best childhood?”
David: “An orderly childhood and firmly attached. You don’t have to be a super mom and dad to raise a decent kid. You’ve got to listen to your kid and give them an orderly predictable environment. You can take a kid at 18-months of age and see how he attaches to mom and predict with 77% accuracy who’s going to graduate from high school. If the kid has a two-way predictable relationship with mom, than that kid is going to go off to school and know how to build relationships with teachers and go through life knowing how to build relationships. If kids didn’t have that two-way relationship with mom early on, they can be seven and they are likely to have two-thirds the number of friends. If it is a really disorganized relationship with mom, they’re likely to be really promiscuous in teenage years.”
“If a kid has a really bad childhood but gets a mentor and establishes a good relationship, you can overcome that early deficit.”
