Does kindergarten lead to crime?

[Calliegirl]

If you live in N.H. isn't it great to know that one of your legislators has spent 16 years studying this subject and has decided that kindergarten leads to crime. Apparently cities that have kindergarten have a higher crime rate than cities that don't. And it only took him 16 years to make that correlation. I think he would have been more productive if he had sat in the corner and drooled on himself for 16 years. Who are the idiots that elect these people.

Kindergarten — that bastion of macaroni crafts, crayon-eating and life lessons in sharing — is actually a major driver of crime, at least according to data collected by New Hampshire state legislator Bob Kingsbury.

Kingsbury (R-Laconia), 86, recently claimed that analyses he’s been carrying out since 1996 show that communities in his state that have kindergarten programs have up to 400% more crime than localities whose classrooms are free of finger-painting 5-year-olds. Pointing to his hometown of Laconia, the largest of 10 communities in Belknap County, the legislator noted that it has the only kindergarten program in the county and the most crime, including most or all of the county's rapes, robberies, assaults and murders...

http://news.yahoo.com/does-kinderga...ct-checking-n-h--legislator-s--research-.html

 

[beancounter]

If you live in N.H. isn't it great to know that one of your legislators has spent 16 years studying this subject and has decided that kindergarten leads to crime. Apparently cities that have kindergarten have a higher crime rate than cities that don't. And it only took him 16 years to make that correlation. I think he would have been more productive if he had sat in the corner and drooled on himself for 16 years. Who are the idiots that elect these people.



http://news.yahoo.com/does-kinderga...ct-checking-n-h--legislator-s--research-.html

It all political. There are many towns in NH that don't want to pay for a kindergarten, so this study helps them justify not doing it.

 

[Calliegirl]

I know that's what they are trying to use it for now, but for the past 16 years?

 

[Freesia]

That guy needs to retire, I think.

 

[beancounter]

I know that's what they are trying to use it for now, but for the past 16 years?

To make sure the study covers a sufficient time to get enough sample data?

 

[Josh James xVx]

Correlation =/= causation.

 

[das_nut]

If the same lawmaker spent 16 years studying the problem and concluded that kindergarten reduced crime, would we be so quick to dismiss his ideas?

Dismissing research (or accepting it) just because we don't like the conclusion is a flaw in reasoning.

(Now, dismissing his research because he appears not to have controlled for other variables is correct - but only as long as we also dismiss research that does agree with us if it also doesn't control for other variables.)

 

[Amy SF]

Confession: I went to kindergarten, and I've done a bit of shoplifting.
*cue "breakin' the law, breakin' the lawwwwwwwwwwww"*

Same here.

 

[Forster]

The good ole American way... make the "facts" fit your agenda.

 

[mlp]

I went to kindergarten. It explains a lot.

 

[SuicideBlonde]

Poor kids get hooked on phonics and ruin their lives.

 

[AeryFairy]

Correlation =/= causation.

I think I need this tattooed on me somewhere, to save me the breath used in saying it every other day.

 

[das_nut]

My kindergarten rocked. We had those cardboard bricks. Oh, and a balcony. And we had naptime and a snack.

Looking back, I must say I can't think of anything wrong with my life at that point. It was pretty awesome. I even had a bike! Dang, if I was only young, stupid and innocent again.