Alfred Marshall stated in his Principles of Economics that “The greatest capital that you can invest in is human capital, and of that, the most important component is the mother.”

                This was supported by studies conducted by Lewis Terman, the creator of IQ Test. All 250,00 elementary and high school students were given IQ Test. Those who emerged in the 10 percent were given second set of test and those who scored 130 were given a third test. Of these, some 1,470 students scored from 140 to 200 and called group A. Those who took up to second test were called Group B and Group C for the who did not make it to the second.

Terman followed the records of the groups and found out that Group A were of more success stories as engineers, physicians, professors, writers and lawyers. Group C as postal workers, bookkeepers and most had no regular job.

Comparing the factors affecting the performance between ofAs and Cs and within the group.

The common denominator of the successful Aswas their family and home.

                Most of the parents of successful As were college or post graduate degrees and what was Surprising was that their homes were filled with books.

Another research by James Heckman on the brain growth as we aged and how the brain works to better intelligence. In his studies, poor parents were exposed to enriched environment  as early as eight weeks old tracked until eight years old. IQ can be boosted until 21 years old.

With Marshall’s statement and Terman’s and Heckman’s findings we may say that we can increase the performance of poor pupils and students by providing them with enriched and motivating home environment in as early as first 12 weeks of pregnancy of a mother when the brain is growing most rapidly.

                This means that we should invest more resources funds and effort in parent education on how the brain works and the first step is to include it into elementary and high school curriculum for when the pupils and students would become parents in right age.

By: FREDERICK Y. SIMBOL | Principal II | Lamao Elementary School | Lamao, Bataan