Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Height and Earnings


Evidence shows that nutrition affects school performance indirectly for various reasons.  Children who are undernourished, meaning that they have a low height for their age,  tend to be enrolled in school later than well-nourished children generally are. One could simply argue that this is because they want their child to be one of the eldest in class rather then the youngest. Though another reason behind this decision is be because parents frequently deem shorter children to be younger. This case is more common then one would believe to be, however; majority of time bystanders would deem a shorter child or person to be a few years younger then their actually age. Most people would admit this to be true because they instantly see someone who is short as too tiny and small rather then their actual age. Children who are physically large enough to attend school are generally seen as too old for their class. The size, height, oh physical qualities of children do not determine their age or class at all times. Most stereotypes regarding physical appearance and age are often incorrect in fact. 


Parents believe they are doing their children justice by enrolling them into school late if they have not yet reached the specific growth mark they were hoping for. Though in reality, they should enroll their children when they are on track to because there has been evidence showing problems of intellectual impairment caused by nutritional deficits. "There is ample evidence showing that increased height, working both through physical capacity and through learning capacity and school performance, results in increased adult wages and productivity." Analysis have found that an increase in birth weight of one pound allows for the child to increase 7% of their lifetime earnings. There was also a study completed in Brazil finding that 1% of increased height can lead to a 2.4% increase in the earnings of an adult male. Clearly there seems to be a commonality amongst height and earnings, especially for men. The common judgement that height gains power seems to be deemed somewhat true in this case. 


Resource: http://www.unscn.org/files/Publications/Briefs_on_Nutrition/Brief2_EN.pdf

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