Tag Archives: education

Do the choices of well-educated parents affect the acheivement gap?

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It (almost) goes without saying that the choices of poorly educated children have a profound influence on the achievement gap. But do the choices of well-educated parents play any role in the achievement gap? Yes, they do.

Veritas RiffIn a recent podcast interview with Ruth Lopez Turley, Associate Professor of Sociology at Rice University, the Veritas Riff explored exactly that question. The seven minute interview is worthwhile and helpful. In addition, here are some important dynamics not covered in the interview.

  1. Prizing academic achievement above community flourishing is passed from parents to children. Children learn from the lived decisions of their parents what is most important to them.
  2. Parent networks really matter in diverse schools. My eldest daughter has attended two very racially and economically diverse schools. And I can say unequivocally that parent involvement (by educated, creative, entrepreneurial parents) created the tipping point in both schools toward a thriving learning environment for all.
  3. Cultural competence is learned by practice. Children (like mine) in diverse schools learn cultural competence by doing it on a daily basis. In addition to Caucasian, Latino and African American children, my daughter’s classmates from China, Mexico, Togo, Thailand, and Bolivia. Can it make some learning dynamics more challenging? Sure. Do the benefits outweigh the challenges? Without question.
  4. Schools are not the biggest factor in education. The choice of educated parents to invest in diverse skill has a profound impact on those schools. However, it must be noted that classroom education is only one dimension of education. The total learning environment of children matters immensely – the impact of home life and community cannot be overstated.
    1. Early home life matters most. Here’s the rub. If you have diverse schools – in which some children have had a language-rich, supportive home environment, whereas others have had a hostile or neglectful home environment, the achievement gap already exists the day they walk into preschool. All of the children will receive the benefits I’ve listed above, and those Dr. Turley highlights in her interview. But some will have greater capacity to receive – and therefore the gap will persist – as it has at my daughter’ schools. The inter-racial, inter-cultural intermingling must happen long before school begins.

 

Our Greatest Deficit: Early Education

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In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, the former chairman and CEO of Proctor & Gamble, John E. Pepper Jr. and James Zimmerman, the former chairman and CEO of Macy’s threw their weight squarely behind early childhood education, and President Obama’s push for universal pre-kindergarten.

National Deficit
They write, “Our greatest deficit in this country — the one that most threatens our future as a nation — is our education deficit, not our fiscal one.” They’re right, but in more ways than they articulate in the Op-Ed.

  1. Parenting. Parents are children’s first, and most powerful teachers. The education deficit doesn’t start in pre-school. It starts at home. Excellent pre-school is a very, very good thing. But if it is not paired with wise early parenting before age 3, it is remediation, not preparation.
  2. Formation. Education is not just the acquisition of skills that make one useful in the workforce. Education is the cultivation of desire, and the directing of love. Education in the home and in preschools and schools that fails to recognize this may point children at futile ends, like test scores, rather than worthy ends like the love of truth, goodness and beauty.

I’ll cast a vote for universal pre-kindergarten. And I say that it is worthy of tax funding above many other programs. However, I’ll also cast my vote for initiatives like the Baby College in Harlem, or the Baby Scholars in Grand Rapids, or Parents as Teachers in virtually every state. Together, early parent support and preschool can shift us from a national deficit to a national surplus of eager, talented, courageous, wise children.

 

NYC discovers that young children are remarkable learners

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Five years ago, my eldest daughter took a barrage of tests to qualify for the Gifted and Talented programs of the New York City public schools. Now, according to the New York Times educators have come to a remarkable realization: Young children are remarkable learners. When taught and coached, they do far better than without teaching and coaching.

Children Learn Constantly
If educational bureaucrats are hoping to find a measure of children that isn’t affected by their previous nurture, they’ll be looking for a long time. Of course some children have extraordinary innate abilities. I have met several of these children, and am in awe of what it would take to effectively challenge and engage these kids throughout their lives. However, even these children – and perhaps especially these children – are formed by their early environment. In an engaging and challenging environment (which some might call test prep), their young minds easily and eagerly learn what is far harder for us to learn later in life.

The Real Issue
The Gifted and Talented program in NYC is only partially about academic rigor. In many ways it is about social sorting. Gifted and Talented is a great proxy for early parental involvement. For even if a child has strong innate abilities, but an ambivalent or toxic home life, she isn’t likely to (1) have parents who sign her up to be evaluated (2) have the maturity and composure to complete the exams well, and (3) have the skills that other parents have intentionally cultivated in their children.

It really works this way. I was a NYC teacher. My daughter attended NYC public schools. The easiest way to see it is in who shows up. If you have two classrooms side by side, one gifted, and one general ed, the line of parents outside the door of the gifted classroom is probably twice or three times as long. They took the initiative to get them in, and they show perseverance in support.

The Real Question
If the Department of Education cracks this code, the real question is: How do you help all parents to foster a vibrant early learning environment? If you get that, then G&T testing will be a non-issue.

The power of universities

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Recently I read my nine-year-old a biography of John Stott. (In 2005, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.) Stott’s biographer, Julia Cameron, emphasized Stott’s life-long commitment to university students with these words:

[University] Students will soon become schoolteachers, doctors, lawyers, lecturers, writers, and journalists. Some will go on to serve in government. All these people influence the way others think. To change a nation, you have to begin in the universities. (p104)

This is true, and Dr. Stott placed wise and persevering effort on universities. But to truly change a nation, you have to begin in the family in the earliest years of life because those formative years are the most powerful predictor of whether a child will enter university. If you wait until university, the underclasses will always be underrepresented, and nations will not change. Indeed by waiting until university, the educational class system becomes even more entrenched.

Given the cultural power that universities (and especially elite universities) have, that is probably the point at which students must learn the inordinate cultural power of the family in the earliest years of life. If this is done, both the power of the university and the power of early formation in the family are employed for the common good.