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The proper use of social science models
High school students in the Mexican state of Chihuahua are being made to care for screaming, hiccuping baby dolls that run on computer chips to try to bring down the state's soaring teenage pregnancy rate.
Here is the story. Thanks to jb for the pointer.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 22, 2007 at 12:08 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
in 5th grade we had to carry eggs around for a week and pretend they were babies. we failed the assignment if we were caught in the hall or in class without our egg and we failed if the egg was cracked or broken or lost at the end of the week.
Posted by: kablamo at Feb 22, 2007 2:15:06 PM
similarly, I always thought this was the most affective PSA I have ever seen.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T2EF3ggqxds
Posted by: JW at Feb 22, 2007 2:25:23 PM
I had to do this in high school for an entire weekend. I was graded on it.
If I didn't attend to the needs of the "baby" fast enough my grade was
lowered. Luckily, we were allowed to have partners so I outsourced the
majority of my "parenting" work to my female partner. Bar none, this was
the most infuriating homework assignment I have ever been given.
Posted by: James at Feb 22, 2007 2:38:32 PM
These approaches seem silly to me. For one, providing care for a baby isn't necesarily difficult. Perhaps the class would be more successful if the dolls were more difficult to care for than a real baby. But that would create an honesty issue, that might discredit the class altogether. After all, many kids have enough experience with younger siblings/relatives to know when they are being snowed. Second, this approach has been used in the US. Last I heard, the results were mixed, and the sometimes positive results (fewer pregnancies) were difficult to attribute to the doll approach.
Posted by: shecky at Feb 22, 2007 2:47:05 PM
Of course it's just propaganda, not education. The experience
provides all the downside of having a child, with none of the
upside. Hardly a suitable basis for deciding whether you want
to have a child or not.
Posted by: Radford Neal at Feb 22, 2007 3:19:01 PM
Yes, kind of reminds me of doing "Engaged Encounter" - a marriage prep workshop in the Catholic Church. The "lead" couples discuss marriage and make it sound awful 90% of the time. Perhaps this approach "works" for some who should not get married, who are not mature enough for the committment. They "put on the brakes" and save themselves, and society, much misery. But, the workshop was much less than it could be. Likewise this crying baby thing is a gimmick. It might "work" for some but it is a weak substitute for a healthy culture, a culture that insists that men respect women and shoulder their burden when it comes to family life.
Posted by: martin kennedy at Feb 22, 2007 4:31:09 PM
Apparently, there is some evidence that the U.S. programs
are not effective:
www.webmd.com/news/20000310/lifelike-doll-encourage-teen-pregnancies
Posted by: HT at Feb 22, 2007 10:40:09 PM
For one, providing care for a baby isn't necesarily difficult.
Umm, have you had kids?
Seriously, I can't imagine anyone who has lived through the first three months of a child's life making that claim (unless perhaps, they had the angel baby of the century and didn't realize it).
Posted by: Tom West at Feb 23, 2007 6:28:44 AM
I actually have a related story on my blog today about my brother's experience with similar dolls, and how easy it is for a kid to work the system. A little duct tape works wonders.
And as to the previous poster who talks about Catholic Engaged Encounter: My wife and I did the same thing. It was a very positive experience for us. Yes, they're there to talk about hurdles and obstacles in marriage, but the people we interacted with were uniformly positive about the whole thing. We talked with a bunch of people who'd been happily married for twenty or thirty years. I think you just got a bad set of leaders.
Posted by: Robbbbbb at Feb 23, 2007 1:41:17 PM
I agree with what most people have said; this kind of approach works only for some people. Some students had to do this at my high school. My friends were just annoyed with the whole assignment. In my opiniion, I think it's really ineffective. Students are very creative and find ways of 'beating the system' which makes the homework even more worthless. If a student were seriously thinking about having a baby, and took the assisgnment very seriously, it may work and show them how tough it could be. My advice, get a real babysitting job!
We also had to carry around those eggs; also ineffective. The teachers put a stamp on the bottom so you just can't boil another one, but my sister broke hers, drew the same stamp on the bottom, and got an A. Plus, what is carrying around an egg going to teach you about babies?
Posted by: Candra at Feb 26, 2007 11:53:48 PM
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Posted by: 謝文豪 at Apr 1, 2008 9:49:39 PM
