word gap

I’m in the process of making up an incomplete I have in a bioethics class from Spring of first year.  It was not my finest season (it’s comical to think that I had a brand new infertility diagnosis, a broken shoulder, and Hepatitis A), and I slacked off where I could (not to say that I wouldn’t have otherwise).  So this week I have been listening to the lectures back-to-back, and I feel like I’m finally starting to get a handle on the Categorical Imperative…well, at least the most basic definition and maybe an interpretation.

In the middle of a discussion of Rawls’ Original Position, we briefly examined the effects of social position, and my professor mentioned (paraphrased): “By two years of age, children of college-educated parents have heard over two million more words than children whose parents did not attend college.”  That is staggering.  I couldn’t find the exact source, but here and here are interesting articles on the topic.

Although I doubt they’re helping with her “verbal fluency skills,” Ari’s been listening to some of these lectures with me.  I can’t help but wonder by how much the long-winded Kant and Mill boost her word count.