The educational gap and parental responsibility

A study of New Jersey's public schools published this week shows that an achievement gap persists between white and Asian students, and black and Hispanic students.  As expected, the gap is reflected in socio-economic differences as well, with students in disadvantaged communities lagging significantly in every marker of academic achievement.  Public schools in New Jersey's toniest neighborhoods help put the state at or near the top of national rankings at almost every level and in almost every category; yet it is also home to some of the poorest performing schools in the country.  Nationally, in some reports, black students lag four grades behind their white counterparts.  While administrators, teachers, and holders of the money purses are being lambasted for failing our children, parents are being let off the hook too easily.  There is no denying that children in poor communities are often stuck with overworked teachers, school buildings in disrepair, underfunded budgets, and surroundings overwhelmed with various social ills.  There are, however, many factors well within parents' control.

There is a pervasive attitude of 'victim-hood' and expectancy among many poor black folks that prevents them from acting in their own best interest.  Yes, many schools are bad. Yes, many inner schools have less technological resources than schools in wealthier communities.  Yes, wealthier parents have more educational choices for their children.  But to accept these circumstances as insurmountable, is to accept that every poor child is doomed at birth.  To overlook parental responsibility in the equation is to miss opportunities to be advocates for our children's academic success.  More than anything, to relegate full responsibility for our children's achievement to teachers, administrators and politicians is  not parenting.

Study and after study show that many of the situational characteristics of high performing students have to do with the actions and attitudes of parents: parent involvement, reading at home, and homework assistance.

Parent involvement has been shown to be one of the most important factors in determining the academic achievement of students, sometimes even more than school performance or the socio-economic  state of the community.  With that kind of indicator classrooms in poor performing schools should be packed wall-to-wall with parents every day.  Instead school districts nationwide are having to bribe and cajole parents to take an active role in educating their children.  Lawmakers in Detroit are considering jail time for parents who don't make it to at least one parent-teacher conference in a school year.

There is a clear correlation between being able to read and being able to achieve academically.  Reading is at the base upon which academic learning is built, and the earlier children develop the ability and appreciation for reading, the better it bodes for their long term performance. As shown in a 20-year study conducted by the University of Nevada and published in 2010, merely having books in a child's home increases his chances for academic achievement in the same proportion as having university-educated parents. Researcher Mariah Evans found that children of lesser-educated parents benefited most from having books in their homes.

There is a lot of debate about how much homework children should get, and how involved parents should be with the getting it done; but homework reinforces subject matter and lets parents know what there children are doing in school.  Making sure homework gets done has always been part of Parenting 101. Now we know it can help improve a child's academic prospect.

For these small investments of time and resources, parents can make a significant investment in their child's education - no matter their school, or socioeconomic circumstances.  Politicians, school administrators, and teachers are failing children. Parents don't have to fail them too.

I'm exhausted too

Yes, I too am exhausted of defending President Obama and the Democratic administration.  Like Velma Hart (who famously chastised the president at a town hall meeting in September) I am running out of patience waiting for campaign promises to be fulfilled, for financial maneuvers to benefit my family budget, and for some of the political party angst to dissipate.  I don't place all the blame for my exhaustion on the president though.  There is more than enough blame to go around.

The past two years have been a testament to how our governmental structure often gets in its own way.  If toeing party lines replaces serving the best interest of constituents as the priority of elected representatives there is nothing corrective inherent in the system.  The biggest flaw in our system of government and politics is that it relies on the good sense and conscience of humans - which we know for sure every one does not have in ample dose.  When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can state without impunity that his party's main objective over the next two years is to make sure President Obama is not re-elected you have to wonder if the people of Kentucky don't have pressing bread and butter issues Mr. McConnell should be putting above party politics.

The president is being lambasted in the media and by Democrats for his compromise on the 'Bush tax cuts'.  I don't know if he did the right thing, but I know it could not have been an easy one.  President Obama faced trying to maintain the tax cuts for embattled middle income Americans like me, while making the highest income earners pay their due.  He had to do this with the vacillating support of his own party and against uncompromising opposition.  He doesn't bend and the tax breaks expire for middle-income workers, many of those who can least afford it will feel the economic pinch - which will result in his losing much of his political base.  He bends to Republicans who want to keep the pockets of the wealthy lined, then he is accused of being weak and ineffective, thus frustrating his party and losing face.  I'm glad I wasn't the one that had to make that decision.

The constituents that created the groundswell that catapulted President Obama into office seemed to collectively step back after his swearing-in and start waiting for a miracle.  Of course with no miracles forthcoming disappointment was inevitable. The Republican communications machinery has manipulated that widespread disappointment with effectiveness and alacrity worthy of academic study.  The ability and willingness of the American populace to be manipulated has been the most tiring thing for me. At every opportunity to show ourselves true social leaders of the Free World - health care, immigration, education - we allow ourselves to be whipped into a frenetic tornado of non-issues, non-facts, and nonsense.

Sense and reason are not breaking through, and the market place is devoid of equal counter to ulterior dissent and acrimonious drivel. President Obama, the Democrats and their communications staffs seem to be willing to let the American people decipher for themselves fact from fiction, and to give them the benefit of the doubt - just because.  They have lacked a consistent and effective message; all the more tragic because candidate Obama won election largely on message.  The connection with the people that was his ace going into office has been amputated.  If he has  a plan, if his plans are being thwarted by his own party or the opposition, if he doesn't have the stomach for the fight or he does, we don't know.

We have an ill-informed electorate, politicians who put party above people, a castrated president and a system that doesn't self-correct. We should all be tired.

Show your privates, pay your taxes and stop whining

Lately I've felt like a haughty onlooker watching someone else's child throwing a nasty temper tantrum, and waiting for the scolding or whack to the butt from a responsible parent.  Who is going to tell these spoiled children that they can't have everything they want just as soon as they want it; that difficulties are inevitable and with patience it all passes; that we can't clamor for something then whine when we get it?

No one seems to disagree that the economy is cyclical.  No one seems to disagree that these cycles start years before they are evident, or that turnarounds are usually almost over by the time they are felt.  Yet reason seems to have been shoved through the window, forced out by whining and blame.  A president in office for less than two years has been vilified for problems he could not have created; his efforts to address those problems met only with impatience and criticism.  The fickle and overindulged attitudes of many have made them fodder for the moneyed who's latest business is to stir political turmoil.

Those who say they are "taxed enough already," conveniently ignore the fact that government is non-profit.  Taxes pay for public infrastructure and social services.  It may be that many who decry taxes and support tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are those who can afford to pay for their own 'social services.'  They don't require unemployment benefits, Medicare, or food stamps; they don't use public libraries or send their children to public schools.  They have no interest in the services government provides with our tax dollars.

Since September 11, 2001 Americans have demanded to feel secure against terrorist attacks.  Politicians have been penalized at the ballot for not appearing fervent enough in pursuing ways to protect the country's residents, even as air travelers bitch and moan about long security lines and other inconveniences. The Transportation Security Administration's latest security implementations - full body scan machines and the alternate pat downs - have been lambasted as intrusive.  Where would you hide an explosive device?  Drug smugglers use every body orifice to transport drugs.  Why wouldn't potential bombers avail themselves of the same hiding places? 

Come on children. Open your eyes to the big picture, recognize who is pulling your strings and why, and quit all the bitching and moaning.