Caring, nurturing adults key to children learning

By John Wendle

Special to The Vindicator

Recently, a column in The Vindicator mentioned John Wherry of The Parent Institute. Wherry suggested the need to get parents and volunteer mentors more involved in schools. Parenting and volunteerism have a place but are not going to solve the problem of raising and educating children. Just as with one’s health, the first thing required is a proper diagnosis; without it, treatments fail and often make matters worse.

I live in Youngstown and taught in the Youngstown schools three decades. Few things in my life that have made me sadder than the deterioration of the system that served this once proud community. But problems are not restricted to Youngstown or just to areas of poverty. Education is failing the nation and leaders have failed to diagnose the causes and, consequently, have prescribed remedies that only exacerbate problems.

Nearly 50 years ago college entrance test scores were highest and have fallen since. That’s a problem but not a diagnosis. By the 1980’s the remedy proposed for this non-diagnosed problem was ... testing. And with each year more testing was prescribed AND more class time devoted to test preparation. This overload of testing without real remedies to reverse the decline has contributed to deteriorating public confidence.

Underlying problem

Poor test scores, low graduation rates, under achievement, the lack of accountability are serious concerns. But they are just symptoms of an underlying problem. Since WWII the underlying problem has been the reduction of time that young people spend with effective, caring, responsible adults. In the home, in neighborhoods and communities, studies reveal kids lack the meaningful interaction with adults as they once did. Studies have shown that fathers have less than six minutes of meaningful conversation with a child per week and, to say the least, family life has experienced remarkable changes.

Also, neighborhoods and communities, long been in decline, ceased playing the prominent role they did generations ago. The time when a neighbor came out and gave “disciplinary instruction” to a neighborhood kid or played ball with a group of them, is long gone. When adults are in a room with a kid, relating with the TV or other devices is the norm, not with each other. Recently kids remain alone in their room interacting with electronic devices. Families seldom eat supper together and talk about their day. The product of this diminished association with effective adults has become THE serious problem with the schools. Though not restricted to poor neighborhoods, it certainly is severe in them.

Kids now get impressions of adulthood from TV, movies, etc. There’s not an adult alive who doesn’t recognize that movies, TV and the internet give very false impressions about real life. The life real people live is seldom portrayed. I’m no prude, I enjoy movies and TV and fully recognize that the mundane aspects of most lives would not entertain anyone. But I’m not an immature kid; I have learning and experience that provide perspective. But the “reality” many kids are developing clearly and all too often is not preparing them for successful lives in the real world. The “reality” they derive is failing them — and not just on tests.

In our society by law everyone is required to be in a school when they’re young. (The small percentage of children receiving home-schooling exists primarily because of education’s failures.) So, if we’re going to address the problem and prepare the nation’s children for successful adulthood that the family, the neighborhood, the church and the community no longer serves, it’s going to be in schools. However, most schools continue to be organized in a counter-productive “factory assembly line” approach to schooling. That produced fair results in the past but has ceased to work. An assembly line approach?

Remediation

When a chassis goes by, an auto worker is there to attach a part. Similarly when a student goes by (along with several dozen others in need of attention) a teacher is expected to attach a year of “learning” while having the student a mere 50 minutes a day for 180 days and, often, with many in need of remediation in basic skills. It still works in some places but not nearly to the extent needed. This assembly-line approach accounts for our dismal standing among industrialized nations. And in addition to falling test scores, students are failing to fall in love with learning.

Few fail to understand that accountability induces quality. But the present system is not designed for reasonable accountability. When the “assembly line” provides students with serious deficiencies, “test ground” failures are unreasonably attached. Thus, accountability in education has not been a productive factor. If not ignored, circumvented. The re-design suggested below addresses that problem.

The best redesign I’m familiar with goes along the lines of clustering a group of kids around a core of professionals and keeping them together for a significant number of years. This must begin earlier than kindergarten. A science teacher and composition teacher in a core could assign students to prepare an essay on how to solve a problem. Working together teachers are better than working alone.

Accountability

Also, if anyone in the core is not “pulling their load” they could be helped by the others or “advised” to change professions. Working for years with the same students puts them in a long-term relationship with adults who possess the education, experience and interest in their growth and welfare. And that long term responsibility for students addresses the accountability issue and provides opportunities for developing in them a life-long love of learning. In addition to teachers, the core of adults could, where appropriate, include professionals such as social workers and others as found necessary. The core would teach and plan together with the same cluster of kids for three or more years. After several years, if a student didn’t know her math, we’d certainly know who to hold accountable.

If the problem is that young people spend less quality time than is necessary with caring, responsible adults, this design would address it. It is not a new design. It is, in part, at least a century old. We are not the first people on earth to face the problem of raising children. Other societies have run into problems. Effective education for all children is more important than ever and must cease being a problem. This core I’m suggesting will be paid professionals, not volunteers. It has a cost. But the cost of not solving the problem will not be merely in dollars. It will be a cost in culture. And not just in Youngstown.

John Wendle spent 30 years in public school education, the last five years as math supervisor. He was president of the Montessori School of Mahoning Valley and the Youngstown Federation of Teachers.