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PutParents
Back
Into Education!
by
Ronald S. Toth
One vital element- if implemented- would revolutionize
students' scholastic performance.
H
IGH SCHOOLS
grad–
uate functional illiter–
ates? Young people
sca rcely able to read a da ily
newspaper or write an
understandable letter?
What is happening in
o ur
schools?
One recent exam graph ically
illustrated the problem. Students
placed the Sinai Dcsert in Vietnam.
Others said former Canadian Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau was a
hockey player from Montreal. l s it
any wonder parents and educators
are concerned about the standards
and quality of the education of the
young?
Sorne of the findings of a U .S.
study entitled
A Nation At Risk:
The lmperative for Education
Reform
are shocking:
• About 13 percent of all 17-
year-olds, and perhaps 40 percent
of minority youths are functionally
i11 ilerate.
• Matched against 2 1 other coun–
tries, U.S. students never ranked
first in 19 academic tests and
ranked last seven times among
industrial nations.
• Average scores of high school
students on standard ach ievement
tests are lower today than befare
1957- the year Sputnik set off a
flurry of U.S. ed ucational re–
forms.
The report warns of «a rising
October 1984
tide of mediocrity that threatens
our very future as a nation and as a
people."
What a paradox! We live in an
age of a vi rtual knowledge explo–
sion. More scientists are alive today
than in any time in human history.
Colleges, universities are foun d
around the globe. Nations spend
enormous sums on education. Yet
the educational standards and
achievements of students have on
average declined. A survey of West
European executives revealed uni–
versities aren't adequately prepar–
ing students for the new innova–
tions in industry.
The Missing lngredient
Many reformers within the United
States advocate restoring "good
ol d-fashioned discipline" in
schools. They say we must start
teaching the basics once again.
Sorne say teachers are improperly
motivated and need higher wages.
In all these solutions, one ingre–
dient is missing. The reports almost
never
mentían the vital parental
role in education.
As U.S. Secretary of Education
T errel Bell keenly observed: " The
decline [in U.S. schools] in part
reRects
changes in the home
[em–
phasis ours]. We have more fami–
lies with two working parents and
larger numbers of single-parent
families."
Because of the growing number of
two working parents and the large
numbers of single-parent families,
parents seldom are involved in their
chi ldren's education. For sorne, the
first contact with their child's educa–
tion is when a problem arises. Only
when a child says, "Mom,
1
just
don't understand ..." do sorne par–
ents take noticc of a child's progress
in school.
Teachers complain about general
parental apathy. In a
Wall Street
Journal
article, Víctor
R .
Fuchs
wrote: "There can be little doubt
that the investments parents make
in their children and the values
they instill in them are a major
determinance of how the children
will fa re in school."
Not all students ride upon thc
"rising tide of mediocrity." Stu–
dents of reccnt Asían background
in particular compete successfully
in U.S. and Canadian schools. Mr.
Fuchs continues in his article: "The
success of children of Asían back–
ground in U.S. public schools pro–
vides vivid testimony that study,
hard work, respect for teachers and
heavy parental involvement in the
educational progress of children
sti ll pay off."
Parents who are active!y involved
in their children's education engen–
der positive results. One country
that sets a good example in this is
J apan. The Japanese mother is
involved in her children's educa–
tion. A
Psychology Today
articlc
quotes George De Vos, a Universi–
ty of California, Berkeley anthro-
3 1