Birth Order

Here is the link to then full article by Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor:

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/08/11/jobs-and-birth-order/?ncid=AOLCOMMjobsDYNLprim0001&icid=main|htmlws-sb|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fjobs.aol.com%2Farticles%2F2009%2F08%2F11%2Fjobs-and-birth-order%2F%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMjobsDYNLprim0001

Some highlights:

A look at pay stubs will tell you that not everyone has the same earning power

“Blame it on social class, education -- even luck, but according to Dalton Conley, New York University professor of sociology and public policy, inequality begins at home. In his book 'The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why,' Conley says that 75 percent of the income inequality between individuals in the United States occurs between siblings in the same families. He points to the diverse fortunes of Bill and Roger Clinton, and Jimmy and Billy Carter as examples.

“A child's position in the family impacts his personality, his behavior, his learning and ultimately his earning power," states Michael Grose, author of 'Why First-Born Rule the World and Last-borns Want to Change It.' "Most people have an intuitive knowledge that birth order somehow has an impact on development, but they underestimate how far-reaching and just how significant that impact really is."

Conley concedes that birth order is significant in shaping individual success, but only for children of large families -- four or more siblings -- and in families where finances and parental time are constrained. (In wealthy families, like the Bushes and Kennedys, it has less effect.)

First-Borns:

More conscientious, ambitious and aggressive than their younger siblings, first-borns are over-represented at Harvard and Yale as well as disciplines requiring higher education such as medicine, engineering or law. Every astronaut to go into space has been either the oldest child in his or her family or the eldest boy. And throughout history -- even when large families were the norm -- more than half of all Nobel Prize winners and U.S. presidents have been first-born.

Middles:

Middle children are more easy going and peer-oriented. Since they can get lost in the shuffle of their own families, they learn to build bridges to other sources of support and therefore tend to have excellent people skills. Bill Gates was a middle child.

Youngest:

The youngest child tends to be the most creative and can be very charming -- even manipulative. Because they often they often identify with the underdog, they tend to champion egalitarian causes. (Youngest siblings were the earliest backers of the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment.)

Only Children:

Only children have similar characteristics to first-borns and are frequently burdened with high parental expectations. Research shows they are more confident, articulate and likely to use their imagination than other children. They also expect a lot from others, hate criticism, can be inflexible and are likely to be perfectionists.


Where are you in the pecking order? Do you agree with the above? I am the youngest I am not sure I agree with the assessment.. My sister is more creative than I am. And I don’t think I have ever been described as either manipulative or charming. And I am more of a peacemaker than my middle child brother. Where do you land on the sibling scale?

TRIVIA:

YESTERDAY’S WHO AM I?

Yesterday’s Who Am i was a woman that was arrested in the Abraham Lincoln assassination and hanged as a conspirator. Her name was Mary Surratt. You can read her biography here:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/surrattm.html

TODAY’S BRAIN STUMPER.

Not testing your Google skills today, instead I am going to test your vocabulary. We are doing anagrams today. I am going to give you a set of letters and the person that emails me with the most words made from those letters wins the day.

Here are the letters: LIECNT