I have often said — normally out of frustration — that someday I am going to start a new national advocacy effort to get parents to talk to their children. The idea first occurred to me on a Washington, DC metro ride. I sat across from a parent with her little boy, who was no more than 5, and watched — first with curiosity, and then increasingly with concern — as the clearly inattentive parent ignored the questions of her bright, intuitive child who was peppering her with questions about his surroundings and how to say words he was clearly trying to read. She never answered, never focused, and as I watched with increasing horror and concern, the boy eventually stopped and looked dejected. I’ve seen this too many times to count.
I quipped, to my family, many of those times that I wanted to print and distribute small business size cards in the event of similar situations in the future, saying “Talk to your child – it will help him learn!”
Fifteen years later I’m still talking about it. Peg Tyre, meanwhile, has put words into action, and not just about the scientific value of words and engagement with children, but the value of knowing and influencing what it is education can be as your child moves into schooling at all levels.
In her incredibly brilliant and clearly written book, Tyre informs and leads us about how we can gauge and obtain “the good school” for our children. She reinforces a truism that is often lost in the intimidating world of schooling — that smart parents know how to get the best school for their kids — and oh, by the way we can all be smart!
It is her discussion on finding and choosing the best preschool that got me thinking about my fantasy of instructing parents who don’t speak to their kids. Peg reminds us of the research that connects speaking to learning in children. It’s astounding to think how different a child’s life can be if they have communication (communication that today is interrupted by technology, and crack-berries that reduces the talking and responsiveness of even the most attentive parents). She writes: “Your child’s first teacher is going to have to be one of those highly tolerant and relentlessly positive people who can be kind to your child on the days when it is sunny and your child is laughing and ready to learn, and on stormy days, too, when your young scholar is upset, overtired, and cranky.
“The teacher or teachers in a good preschool classroom also need to talk a great deal and to talk very clearly.” A child’s cognitive development is highly dependent on the spoken word, according to the research, from the earliest years.
Indeed, one wonders if the increase in attention deficit might be partially owing to our own attention deficits and sporadic communication behaviors! Later in the book when she introduces the subject of exercise during the school day, it can’t be lost on readers that movement is essential to the focused mind. Good schools have days that incorporate both academic substance and physical time-outs.
Hardly a book about social issues, however, the real grist of The Good School starts with the best description for the lay person I’ve ever read about how and what test results really mean, which is a feat unto itself. It debunks the commonly held mythology surrounding how tests are developed, scored and what the results actually mean, from within the nation to international comparisons.
Peg undcovers the meaning behind state testing results as she instructs parents how to really know how schools are up to the task. From whether and how much class size should play a factor, to assessing quality of instruction, one needn’t know much about educational research to be a smart parent, if they know what to look for, what to ask. (hint: Good teachers trump just about every other factor most of us are led to believe matters).
We revisit — but not without a fresh and scientific perspective — how reading and math are taught, and what the differences mean for students, parents and schools. In the search for The Good School, parents must become educated enough to know how to assess whether your child’s reading program has sound/letter recognition or whether that big book with all the pictures and looking very professional might just be a little light on intelligence, heavy on looks. Teaching reading is rocket science, she concludes, and it’s a science that every parent has to appreciate to make sure it gets done right for their student.
Several parent stories give life to the issues surrounding materials and curriculum. We meet highly energized parents who were completely in the dark about why and how much their child was falling behind in school. We see well educated parents grapple with uninformed school pesonnel in Vermont; Scientists who trusted in their school’s ability be shocked by what they find lacking in basic math instruction in the most elite of public schools. Being good at math isn’t supposed to be fun, as many schools think it should be. It takes hard work, and that’s the difference between why even the best American schools lag behind those in less sophisticated countries.
We read ‘what works’ in all kinds of schools, and why no one kind of school is the right answer. With facts, data and stories you can relate to and multiple and balanced sources, Peg Tyre takes us to school — which you will thoroughly enjoy while there, and will hope to revisit when it’s over. Tyre implores us to be choosy. And, in the words of one couple she interviewed, “the lesson other people might want to learn is that there are rules and laws and that parents have significant rights to be engaged and have an impact.”
The Good School not only helps the uninformed understand the system better, but makes you a good citizen by teaching you what the fuss is all about and why so many want do make so much change so quickly. The psychologist of a mobile health unit in Milwaukee tells Tyre, “Why do I care about reading instruction? I’ll tell you why. I’ve seen children crying, threatening to hurt themselves and threatening to hurt others….they feel shame. They feel stupid. They know their life will never get better until they learn to read. Often parents are assuming the school will teach those children how to read. But when I go to the school, I talk to teachers who simply don’t know how to do it.
The Good School inspires you to act and understand, two things rare in even the best education tomes.
I’ve spent a career offering “How Tos” for citizens and parents in all walks of life. It’s no secret I’m a rabid fan of school choice and accountability as the only levers that will kick the education system into gear. Peg’s take on one form of choice — charter schools — is even with her view on all schools — you need to do your homework to find out if the right teachers are there, if the curriculum is robust, if the standards are in place, if there is time in the day for kids to be kids and if there is constant review and assessment by and for adults. “The good school” has great teachers (eg. masters of their craft and content area), great programs (with depth and scientific grounding) and is constantly assessing how it does. Can that happen in all schools? Well, it depends if the school has the leadership and the operational flexibility to make it happen. The fact is, most systems don’t hire the best and brightest because rules prevent that from happening and they don’t explore new materials and innovations because they take what they do from the hierarchy that creates the rules and sets up the programs without really knowing how to see whether they work or not.
Some parents we have met — and others you will meet in this book — have succeeded despite the obstacles. Their successes require time that many parents don’t have or can’t afford the wait to have their child be exposed to the good education in the good school. So how to be a smart parent often depends upon whether you have choices. That’s not what The Good school is about, and opponents of school choice would find this book no less worthy because of the reasons stated above. That said, Peg, like a growing cadre of journalists, recognizes that we live in an age of choosey people, questioning authority and relying on instant technologies to get them the answers so they can move on with their pursuits. And choice in myriad forms is here to stay.
The purpose of this book is key — to help you recognize that, just because the realtors or the neighbors or folklore says so, even your great school isn’t necessarily that good. So, do the work you need to do before you find your child is not surrounded by excellent teachers, getting a solid foundation, a well-rounded environment and an enthusiastic, energetic confidence in learning.
Oh, and don’t forget that talking with your child — and knowing how critical it is that he have such communication from the early years until graduation — is critical to his success.