Some children are being “left behind,” but it isn’t schools leaving them there. And yet many educators, politicians and other people with good intentions continue to push schools to do more, sounding the alarm that American children are at a global disadvantage when it comes to education. I’m not sold on the solution — which is more schooling, not simply more rigorous academics. I’m not even sure I agree on what the problem is.

In a Sunday story by Howard Buck, Evergreen Public Schools Superintendent John Deeder said schools should do more. When asked what he would do if he could wave a magic wand and reform education, Deeder said, among other things, that the school day should go from six to seven hours and the school year should go from 180 to 210 days — going beyond many Asian countries’ 200 days. Teachers should work 240 days per year, Deeder says, with 30 of them dedicated to training and curriculum development. He would make full-day kindergarten mandatory and preschool available to all 3- and 4-year-olds in the state — a goal many administrators, lawmakers and Gov. Chris Gregoire share.

But putting more hours in a day, more days in a year and two or three more years of a child’s formative years in the hands of the government is not the way to get parents more involved. As Deeder told Buck and reiterated to me Monday, “We can’t legislate to people how to be parents, but I wish we could get across to them the correlation between their involvement and their kids’ success.”

Bingo.

Parent involvement in their children’s education is directly correlated to kids’ success. Research backs up this common sense, but for some reason it isn’t touching down in the right way with parents or educrats. If more parents were more involved, richer and more rigorous school time would be easier to achieve; it would be unnecessary for schools to take on almost-full-time parenting duties and cradle-to-grave schooling.

A child can succeed when the odds are against her. And schools need to do all they can to connect students to learning that prepares them for the outside world. But getting parents involved is where societal energy is desperately needed. Even if you add more years, more days and more hours to a school year, without supportive home environments and active parenting, kids will fall behind.

Blame those most responsible

What can schools do? Keep trying to engage students, for sure. Tests are good, too, so we can see if students are learning. But schools must also quit bearing the brunt when students fall short. It isn’t typically a school’s fault when a child fails. That blame goes to students themselves and their families.

Taking on more hours, days and years of a child’s upbringing not only sets up schools for more public floggings, it is at cross purposes with inspiring involved parenting. Like many welfare programs, when the government offers more help, some stop helping themselves.

I asked Deeder if he worried that taking on even more would backfire, creating a public that expects schools, rather than parents, to be kids’ primary educators. His answer: “Here’s where I come from on every decision I think about: What is best for kids? For everything you do there’s an unintended consequence.” More school time, he says, is better for kids. It would be better than the day care kids get now, he added. And if some people adopt the attitude I fear, he says that’s too bad.

Putting kids first is good policy, and I admire Deeder’s passion. But in the long run, kids will suffer in a system that usurps, rather than challenges, parental responsibilities.

We can’t legislate how to parent. But when it comes to academics, we should expect and can require more from parents. They are the ones leaving children behind. They hold the keys to student success.

Source: The Columbian, WA
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