Last week, I very briefly discussed Katherine Boo’s article in the New Yorker about the Nurse-Mother Partnership program. (The full article isn’t on line, but this interview with the author is.) This program sends impassioned nurses directly into the homes of poor mothers to show them the basics of parenting — how to read to their kids, how to feed them, how to play and engage them. The hope is that by giving these women the skills to be good mothers, their children will be able to escape the cycle of poverty.

The first time I discussed this program, I didn’t cheer loudly enough. This is a great program.

Look, you might as well tattoo “Parenting is important” on my ass, because I’ve sure said that a lot on my blog. Sure, we joke around in the mommy blogosphere about what bad mothers we are, but we all know better. This isn’t something any trained chimp can do. And we know that our efforts make a difference.

Jane Galt points out in my comments that early childhood development pretty much cements a person’s future. She writes these early-early intervention programs may offer more hope for alleviating poverty than jobs programs or Head Start.

Absolutely. My only nit-picky point is that you just can’t end poverty with good parenting classes alone. It’s really hard to be a good parent when you don’t have a job, when you have no future, when the man in your life is thumping you. You can teach the poor mothers to feed their kids good food, but until the moms have their heads clear of stress and worry, putting that information into action is hard. It takes enormous amounts of energy to go “boogety-boo” all day with the kids.

Not only do people have to know how to be good parents, but they have to be able to be good parents.

I am 100% behind the Nurse-Mother Partnership program described by Boo in the New Yorker. It just needs to be coupled with other programs that enable the mother to keep her mind on her baby.