"No Child Left Behind" Should Start At Home

By Lana Christian

The No Child Left Behind Act is a bipartisan trophy in the display case of educational reform. The theory behind it is admirable. The provisions for it have been well thought out. Federal funding is generous and uncommonly flexible. Outcomes measures and school accountability are all part of the master plan. Professional enrichment for teachers is built into the program. Accommodations for ESL students and students with disabilities are accounted for. Support for ancillary programs that foster a safe learning environment is present. Sounds perfect.

What’s missing from the equation?

Two things.

Sufficient staff—and parents.

None of the funding provides for hiring more teachers or teacher assistants to provide these extra services. If children are entitled to additional help through in-school tutoring, you need a warm body to be a tutor—or a pair educator—or simply an extra set of hands to extend a teacher’s effectiveness.

The second, more critical element that’s missing is parents. The only time the word "parents" is mentioned in the No Child Left Behind Act is when it discusses parental rights: to know a teacher’s qualifications, to have access to report cards, and to gain easily-understandable information about the act and its funding measures.

Parents should contribute a vital part of their children’s education.

But too many parents today are abandoning that responsibility—consciously or subconsciously. They know it’s the school’s job to teach their children academics. But some also feel it’s the school’s job to teach life skills, socialization skills, conflict management skills, and anything else their children need to navigate in the world. Excuse me, but that’s never been part of the three "R’s."

Yet I’ve seen plenty of parents park their children on a school doorstep and expect Johnny or Janey to emerge a well-educated, well-adjusted, mature person who can handle whatever life throws his or her way. If less than that happens, the parent sputters at how a teacher or school must be "inept" or "insensitive" if it can’t always control, motivate, or teach their child along with a roomful of other young’uns.

Parents have responsibilities beyond putting food on their children’s plates and dressing them in clean clothes. Parents are to be role models for how a child reacts to the world. That includes respecting adults and those in authority—like teachers.

The biblical injunction, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it," is directed first to PARENTS—and secondarily, to others who instruct children.

Absentee parents, parents with poor work or personal habits, and parents who are there physically but are too busy to give time and energy to their children are not training up their child. By not doing so, they default to schools and society for raising their children. Neither is well suited for that job (although the schools keep taking on more responsibility for attempting to teach "life skills").

Too many children think only of themselves and what’s in it for them in the moment—because that’s what they’ve seen modeled at home. That’s not only counterproductive to learning; it’s also counterproductive to becoming a useful part of society.

Parents, you must step up to the plate and take charge of your child’s learning. It doesn’t start at a parent-teacher conference—it starts at home. And while many parents feel like they wear a permanent chauffer’s hat while their kids are growing up, that’s not the focus of this discussion. Spend time helping your child over the hump of multiplication or organizing his thoughts for a book report. If you don’t know how to approach it, call the teacher and ask for help. Ask how you can support and further the teacher’s classroom efforts. The key is sustained effort over time—and being there. (That’s different from simply being in the same room.) You can do infinite good for your child one-on-one.

Maybe that means you give up some personal time. Maybe it means that Johnny’s in one sport instead of two. If you’re a single parent, it may mean reaching out for help from a neighbor, relative or someone else who will support you. If you have a special needs child, assess your physical limits and find ways to fill in the gaps without sacrificing "learning time" with your child. Then take another step—a hard one. Look inside yourself. Honestly ask yourself if your actions model what you want your child to be and do. It’s not about you; it’s about your child and what type of adult he or she will become.

When you’re much older, sick or unable to care for yourself, who do you want making decisions for you, caring for you, making laws for you? Someone who goofed up in school because you weren’t his compass and rudder? Or someone whom you’ve truly poured your life into?