In one public school district in the United States where texts for school use were purchased by children's families, school authorities were puzzled to discover that a number of Asian immigrant families purchased two copies of each textbook needed by the child. Investigation revealed that the family purchased the second copy for the mother to study in order to help her child do well in school. Here is a case in which the human capital of the parents, at least as measured traditionally by years of schooling, is low, but the social capital in the family available for the child's education is extremely high.

XREF: Relates to distinctions between human capital and social capital, and challenges standard metrics like years of schooling as proxies for educational support.

Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, loc. 146