Discussion 5

Read the issue brief from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation entitled “Education Matters for Health” 2009, located in the Reading and Study folder for Module/Week 5. Discuss the following points in your thread.

 There appears to be a dose-response relationship between educational attainment and health—the more you get, the better it is. Why this is true is not clearly understood, though several reasonable hypotheses have been proposed. Describe the 3 interrelated pathways presented as explanations for this relationship in this brief. Which do you feel is the strongest? Why? According to data presented in the brief, “the United States is the only industrialized nation where young people currently are less likely than members of their parents’ generation to be high-school graduates.” What evidence is given to support this statement? Why do you think this situation exists? What will it take to correct it?

As would be expected, parents’ educational attainment is linked to their children’s health and even their educational attainment. These linkages, in turn, influence the health and educational attainment of their children’s children, as well, perpetuating an endless intergenerational cycle of high (or low) educational attainment and its associated better (or poorer) health. How does this fit with the biblical understanding of multigenerational influence (Exodus 34:6–7)? In what ways can the Church help interrupt the vicious cycle beginning with low educational attainment? Pray that God will use you to be a positive influence on your children in this area or on others whom God will bring across your path.