So, I was in strong agreement with Derrick Z Jackson's OpEd in today's Boston Globe, "Bring in the Parents".
Last year, researchers at the Harvard School of Education said, “efforts to include family involvement in children’s learning and development at home have always been, at best, on the distant margins of educational policy.’’And, I suspect we may be in a bit of a downward spiral in that young men and, especially, young women who leave school before getting that high school diploma may have not had good parental coaching and perpetuate that with their own children.
This is true despite years of data — not to mention common sense — indicating that when parents reinforce high expectations, bug their kids about homework, take an interest in their school life and use family time for learning experiences, their children end up more engaged and more successful. “It’s no one big thing,’’ Heather Weiss, the director of the Harvard Family Research Project, told me. “It’s years of those little things from the parent that reinforce to the child that if you want to have a good life, this is what you must do.’’
On the other hand, we don't need a nanny state sticking its nose into every household across the fruited plain. We need to be creative about this, but we do need to take action to engage parents.
This is probably a long range program, and as Heather Weiss of the Harvard Family Research Project says, it is the little things. The other day my wife was in the Post Office and noted two immigrant mothers talking to their child. One was using English and the other what one would assume was the native tongue. The first mother was giving her child a small leg up in the competition to finish high school, go to college and move into the Middle Class.
Maybe local communities should be catching the ones who drop out of high school and placing them in alternate programs that include part time work and a focus on the basics of reading, writing and math, along with parenting skills.
We need to be doing research and experimentation. For sure, we have taken the current education paradigm about as far as it will go and now we need a new paradigm.
Regards — Cliff
11 comments:
AGREED that parental involvement in their childrens' education is of utmost importance, but at what point does the state have the obligation to step in when a parent is intractably indifferent to their childrens' growth and future?
And the "state" is complicit to some extent in the problem of education today. First, schools have got to depart from the production line education paradigm wherein, using Skinnerian psychology, one can measure what is dumping into the young brain, and then measure what comes out on demand, the more the latter equals the former, the better "educated" is the student. And frankly, that is pure, unadulterated BS. Possessing a vast array of information without the ability to employ it to better one's lot in life is a zero sum gain. What students need to have today is the ability to learn how to learn, how to think, and how to apply. Coupled with that, the learning content provided to students needs to be relevant to their particular situation. It needs to mean something to them other than rote memorization because it is good for the brain.
Perhaps a great step in the right direction would be the abolishment of the NEA and the perennially leftist Department of Education that promulgates policy that is more favorable to teachers than students.
Charter schools have long set the example of what can happen with the student and his/her future become what is the all-consuming importance of the day. And because of their nature, strict discipline and high expections from enforced responsibility are the norm...and if a parent or student don't like it......they can go "public."
In reply to ncrossland, after over 35 years teaching in a wide variety of socio-economic situations I have never yet met a parent who does not want the best for their children.
I have met many parents who do not know what they can do to help their children succeed in school and who are left powerless by an education system that dictates that children must pass tests to be educated.
It is because of parents' need to know how to help their children learn that I started my business Leading to Learning where I try to define the role parents can play in helping children learn how to learn - something that, for a variety of reasons, is rarely achieved in schools.
It is time for parents to be shown how to take back their power in supporting children's futures.
So how do you feel about helicopter parent's cliff?
Maybe some students (teenagers) are lazy, and can work the system knowing it is easier to pass with a low C then to actually fail a student. ahem... I think I would have been in this category. Believe me I'm frustrated like anyone else to see a student in middle school or high school go back and forth to school without even a back back.
OK, taking on all of these, last to frst, I am against "Helicopter Parents". My two year old granddaughter the other day, when her mother got too close while she was trying to climb on something, said, "I need my privacy." I agree with that for kids. But, they need support and direction. The first day of High School I came home without books, since they decided I needed a study hall, and I used it. My mother made clear that such was not acceptable, and from there on out I always came home with books. I think I was an upper "C" student since I didn't think I could actually get the "B" on a consistent basis.
Re Dr Porter, I am not sure I believe every parent wants the best for his or her child, but I am willing to accept that a big number can't define best and then don't know how to go about achieving it. As I said in the blog post, I think the current paradigm is exhausted.
As for Neal, with his time in school studying this problem, I agree kids need to learn how to think. And, Skinner worries me, but not as much as a judgemental government telling parents what to do.
As for Neal's comment about discipline, my own observation is via my wife, who was a substitute teacher in the Fairbanks, Alaska, area, including the North Pole High School, the DoDDS school on based at Eielson AFB and a Roman Catholic school in downtown Fairbanks. North Pole had the least discipline and the least learning. DoDDS and the Parochiol school both had good discipline and students learning. Those of us who have had kids in DoDDS schools know that they crank out a pretty good product. On the other hand, parental involvement is greater, from the quality of the parents education wise to the fact that if there is a discipline problem it is the parent who can get called. In Naples, Italy, it was a "military duty" for a parent to ride shotgun on the school bus on a rotating schedule—although one could get one's spouse as a substitute. By military duty I mean you were expected to be on the bus and coming in late to work or leaving early was acceptable.
Regards — Cliff
Sorry, I can't resist a rebuttal statement or two.
In re: Dr Porter's comments, I tend to resist the notion that parents don't know what to do with regard to their children's education. I think that is a cop out, a weak form of victimology.
MUCH of what parents can do is "pay attention," "care enough to make their childrens' learning and behavior a top priority." As an educator, and as a parent, I have years of experience with absentee parents. Little league where the parents NEVER showed up. School activities where getting a good seat was never a problem. It is as if we say to kids, "OK, it's YOUR job to learn and MY job to work and run the family." The problem is, in most cases, the kid doesn't know HOW to do HIS/HER job. In research after research, just paying attention to the student works magic. Attending the student with the thought in mind that the student is smart, has great potential, is enough to make the dream a reality. My grandfather spent hours and hours of his time teaching me about woodworking tools and processes. Without his tutoring, I would have been able to make a three legged stool with all different length legs. That is what we produce largely today in our secondary school system......and little more in our post secondary "educational" opportunities.
Another HUGE issue I have is with "getting good grades." This process speaks more to training trick animals than anything else. Who is ultimately the beneficiary of good grades? Well, who "started" the grading system? Why? I submit, grades are little more than a self-serving metric for the education system, and a bankrupt means of motivating the student. In my years teaching undergraduate courses requiring analysis and synthesis, I had many students who graduated from their HS with "top honors" and within a week of my class, were completely lost. Thus, I had to not only teach the course content, but rewire them so that they could learn. My overriding point to each of them over many semesters was, the grade means nothing when it comes to doing something.
Helicopter parents are, generally speaking, more about their own insecurities than genuine concern for the growth of their offspring. Life is full of challenges and failures and other bad stuff. All an airborne interventionist can do is stave off the eventual realization of life's inescapable traumas. Better than we aid and assist our children to learn from their experiences, which includes getting up, brushing off the tragedy, and moving forward as best as one can. One of the greatest lessons in living that seems NOT to be taught our children today is that in REAL life, bad things very often happen to good people.....just because.....and no other reason. And then you have a choice, overwhelm the bad thing, or let the bad thing overwhelm you.
In my research looking at how parents try to help children learn I found four types of 'parenting' style.
One, I called the 'carer'. These parents left the education of their children to the system either because they had no idea what the system was doing (immigrants from a different culture) or were not interested in what was happening (boarding school).
Next came Supporters, who totally supported the work of the schools and tried to duplicate it at home.
Then Developers, who wanted to develop their child's unique skills rather than just accept what the school was doing.
Lastly came Nurturers, who also had little to do with what was going on in school ( see Carers) but only because they saw their role a giving their children extra experiences ( skiing, book publishing etc.)
ALL parents cared about their child's education, but maybe not in the way that schools wanted them to care. Helicopter parents care too, they may have rejected the school system in favor of something else - and the more I learn about some educational systems the more I am inclined to agree with them.
Standardized testing and assessment, Pshaw! Indeed,and I used to think that education had something to do with learning.
I have a slightly different perspective to offer in response to some of the comments on this topic. My wife is a public school teacher in a very impoverished area of a Florida city. The demographics are such that well over 80% of the student population receives free breakfast and free lunch. (Interestingly, most of these students are wearing the latest Nike sneakers and carrying iphones ... even though they are prohibited on school grounds). She is in her third year teaching 1st grade. Previously she taught 8th grade at the adjacent school, but wanted an opportunity to reach her students at an earlier age.
I would like to offer a couple of facts followed by a couple of her perceptions. First the facts: So far this year, she has not had a single parent ask for a conference about their child. Of the conferences she initiated, only 3 have parents actually showed up. She has 3 students in her class that are motivated to learn (coincidentally, they are the children of the same 3 parents that attended conferences). Unfortunately, the remaining 18 students regularly disrupt the learning environment and significantly impede the learning progress of the 3 motivated students. County regulations severely limit the ability of the school staff (administrative or teaching) to prevent the disruptions. Never the less, she spends many evening hours every term attempting to contact each student's parents to try and get them engaged in their child's education.
Now for the perceptions: Most of the parents (I hesitate to say the parents of all 18 disruptive students) show no interest in becoming involved with helping their child succeed in school. She perceives their attitude to reflect a desire for the school system to simply serve as "day care". She also perceives most of these parents to be threatened by the possibility of their child becoming "smarter" or more "successful" than they are and consequently they seem to actively discourage their child's education.
The sad result is that there is very little the public school system can do to improve the situation given the legal restrictions placed upon educators. The "system" essentially forces normalization at the lowest common denominator. In the case of this particular school (and I suspect it is not the only example), that translates to an environment that is not conducive to learning. This is reflected in the dropout rates, standardized testing scores, and illiteracy rates obtained by many Florida schools.
In an attempt to "reform" the school system, the state of Florida is considering the passage of law instituting a “Pay for Performance” system. In theory, there would seem to be many positive aspects to this approach. However, in practice, such "help" from the "state" will exacerbate the problem by causing an exodus of the best teachers from the schools that need them the most. Teachers in poor performing schools would receive less pay and also be subject to potential termination for the failure of a school to achieve a specific level of performance.
The goal of the state to improve educational performance is laudable. Unfortunately, the root cause seems to be parental apathy and even worse, discouragement. No “reform” of the educational system can correct a societal problem. Until the parents of students like those in my wife's school become motivated to help their children be successful in school, the cycle of disruption and failure will not be broken. The real victims may be the student's who are motivated to learn but can't because of their peer's behaviors.
Anon's post reminded me of when we moved back to Florida, from Germany. We were in Clearwater, Florida for a year and my daughter, then about nine, found that she had had all the work the year before. She picked up some bad habits, including deliberately missing answers so as not to appear too brainy.
Then, the next school year, we moved to the Fort Walton Beach area in the Panhandle of Florida and she found herself a year behind and having to actually work to catch up.
One's fellow students—the infamous peer pressure—can have an impact.
The fact that Anon's wife sees the parents of some of her kids as actually being a detriment is not a good sign for the future. And, how do we make "Pay for Performance" work in areas of poor schools? Maybe give the teachers combat pay.
But, the big point I take away is that it is the parents who will make the difference. Parents are the first teachers and need to be teaching from day one. For example, the language (in terms of which language and quality of language) used around the house will impact how the child learns. The child does not have to ignore the parent's native tongue, but the child will prosper if he or she knows how to speak English and speak it correctly.
Reading to the child from an early period will be important. Counting counts. Home is school in those early years.
I say again, the current paradigm is exhausted.
Regards — Cliff
I sympathize with your wife. I can imagine little worse than working in a system that prevents you doing what you think is right for the kids in the class.
But don't blame the parents for a failed system - they did not create it. Also, don't blame them for opting out and ignoring schooling. Why should they get involved when even the active and committed teachers are limited in what they can do?
If you think that your wife lacks power how do you think parents feel? I agree, it is a societal problem. There seems to be a misconception about what constitutes an education. Passing tests does not lead to learning. How is passing tests going to help these kids? What kind of education do they need and want? Perhaps if they were asked they might have some answers.
Again, having worked in inner city schools in the UK and Canada, I can understand the level of despair and frustration that your wife must feel. All I can do is to wish her well and to hope that they system allows her to use her skills.
Dr Porter, thanks for coming back. I was a little surprised when you used the term "inner city" with regard to some schools in Canada. The UK, yes, but I never have thought of that about Canada.
Thanks
Regards — Cliff
Re inner city schools
I live in vancouver and we have 12 inner city schools - all in low economic areas, most with many immigrant families. There are also schools that are mainly First Nations and these tend go be inner city too.
But, the school I worked in when it had 550 students now only has 2170 students because families cannot afford to live in the city. Which is a shame.
Toronto has many inner city schools so I am told. When I was in the UK I worked in Kilburn N London.
I love inner city schools they are full of life and strength. But they have their problems!
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