No-Account Parents:
Not Really the Problem?
Q. You
hear a lot from educators about irresponsible parents, who aren't preparing
their small children very well for school, not giving them breakfast, not
making them get to bed on time, letting them watch all kinds of TV, not
enforcing rules about homework, not showing up for open houses and
parent-teacher conferences, and basically spending their time at the casino and
the racetrack, chugging down the alcohol, while their children languish in
school. Now, how true is this? Or is this stereotype just some kind of an
excuse cooked up by the educators to cover their own failings?
It does appear to be an excuse,
although of course there are plenty of examples of parental and family
dysfunction contributing to school underachievement and failure. However, you
have to consider the fact that "learning disabilities" are found all along the
income scale.
Kids with parents who are
college-educated, free of addictions, and doing everything right are having
trouble reading alongside kids from the poorest families whose parents are out
of control. There has to be an explanation for this that goes beyond the home.
And there is: the proper focus should be on the school - and how reading
instruction is being delivered. That's the real culprit, not parents, for the
most part.
Consider a grade school in the
United Kingdom, Kobi Nazrul. Two-thirds of the children are from families so
poor that they receive free or subsidized lunches at school. Most have weak or
nonexistent English ability when they start school. Ninety percent of them are
Bangladeshi, a relatively recent immigrant group which is notorious for intergenerational
conflict and seriously messed up kids.
Yet Kobi Nazrul has no non-readers.
None. This was confirmed by standardized tests. No child was excepted from the
testing for any reason. Kobi Nazrul's reading scores are consistently among the
top 100 in England, out of 20,000 schools. Even at age 11, they maintain their
advantage. This is no flash-in-the-pan -- scores have been consistent for
almost 10 years.
The reason for this success: that
school teaches English with systematic, intensive, explicit phonics
instruction. The school's impressive success with a tough student group has
caused a bit of a hubbub in England, to the point where the government has now
chucked its longstanding preference for Whole Language reading techniques in
favor of tried-and-true phonics.
If only the United States would do
the same!
Observers point out one more thing
about schools like this one: when children do well in school, parents whose
lives are a mess suddenly have hope. This has a reciprocal effect; it begins a positive
cycle that can help the whole family avoid the trap of demoralization, and lift
them up and out of the habits of poverty, into the middle class.
Homework: Here's
a report on Kobi Nazrul: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/specials/ofsted_annual_98/274948.stm
By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • Show 'n' Tell
For Parents 107 • © 2006
