Most fundamentally, school systems need to put higher quality teachers in poor schools under conditions in which they can actually teach and not just… - Robert D. Putnam

By contrast, almost all our richer kids said that (with some qualifications) they do trust other people. That comparison reflects not paranoia on the part of poor kids, but the malevolent social realities within which they live and the fact that people and institutions have so often failed them.

Upper-class parents enable their kids to form weak ties by exposing them more often to organized activities, professionals, and other adults. Working-class children, on the other hand, are more likely to interact regularly only with kin and neighborhood children, which limits their formation of valuable weak ties.

investment in poor kids raises the rate of growth for everyone, at the same time leveling the playing field in favor of poor kids.