Cuddle Your Kid!

Nicholas Kristof published this article in his Op-Ed column in the New York Times yesterday. The article addresses a key social problem in our society: the cycle of poverty. Kristof uses a recent study of rats at McGill university to further support his claim that attentive parenting at a young age can increase test scores, and willingness to learn. He establishes his voice as a rhetor first with logos, using the experiment conducted by Michael Meaney, a neurologist at McGill. After analyzing the experiment and pointing out that rats who were nurtured by their mothers were able to complete mazes faster, live longer, and were more social and curious, he asks the question if this conclusion can be applied to humans, specifically, when addressing poverty. Kristof uses pathos to describe how hard being an impoverish single mother can be, and how the mothers stress transfers to the child, who, in theory, will behave the same way when he/she decides to have children. He continues using pathos by relating this theory to the upcoming presidential election, and uses the argument as a possible solution to the poverty rate in America. By founding new parenting programs, Kristof suspects that the number of american citizens in poverty will drastically decrease because of the results of the rat experiment. He closes with an example of a girl named Kewauna, who began high school with a C average and an arrest, and how participating in one of the programs helped her achieve all A's her senior, get into college, and receive an A+ in biology. Kristof uses Kewauna as a metaphor to our society, showing that there is always room for improvement as long as you work hard enough for it.