Help, Not Involvement

I read the blog of the Wisconsin Education Association Council this morning, and it got me to thinking about something.

WEAC's blog covers a wide range of topics, and should be congratulated for it. Today, among other things, it discusssed the need for parental involvement in students' education.

There's no end of this discussion. I look at it a different way, though. You see: I don't want parental involvement.

Hang on a minute. Let me explain.

Parental "involvement" is one of those safe, politically-correct terms that we must all observe. To me, though, it evokes superficiality.

Parental involvement, to me, is the kind of thing where you spot adults selling hot dogs at the homecoming game, or putting a basket of apples and a tub of caramel in the teachers' lounge during American Education Week. Which, because teachers (and this one, too) love food, never goes unnoticed and unappreciated.

That's great for as far as it goes. But I don't want that, and quite honestly, the schools don't need that.

They need something else. They need parental help.

That word strikes much more closely to what kids need. And they need it at the moment when they're most vulnerable, when the problem has been finally analyzed, despite their efforts to disguise or dodge it.

I wanted parents there at the moment when I needed to say, to a 9th grader (or older, even): "My friend, you have the most basic problem of all. You can't read.

"You have to make a decision about your future now. You can exist without being able to read. You can live someplace on your own, if you'd like. You can get a job.

"But you won't be able to get a really good job, that pays really good money, and brings you the kind of self-respect I know you want--because we all want it.

"That's not all. It's about the way you look at the world. If you can read, there will always be hope. You can read about other people, who have overcome tremendous odds to be successful. You can read about people who are loved by all. You can read about the great things people have done, and do, everywhere.

"But if you can't, you will only hear about it. You will need to go someplace where people will tell you about it. And if you can't read, you will mingle mostly with others who can't, either.

"They will tell you that it doesn't matter, because that's the way they want to think, even though everything tells them otherwise. And you will adapt that same attitude, because that attitude needs company to keep existing.

"It's at that point that you will begin to see the world as a threatening and negative place, and that will affect everything you think, say and do. And it's there that you will lose out, because all kinds of opportunities will pass you by because you will not be able to fulfill your talents and capabilities.

"And people who cannot do that, who pass on the chances they have, can do nothing but regret them. We do not want you to have that kind of life, my friend.

"We want you to have a good, hopeful, promising, happy life. The best possible way to do that is to be able to learn things every day of it. And the best possible way to do that is to learn to read, and read well.

"Because those who read learn how to think on levels that those who don't read, can't. And thinking is the most human part of us, the part that separates us from the other animals and organisms. It's what makes you, you.

"The decision is yours. It's much more than a good or bad grade. Really, that isn't nearly as important as the decision you need to make for your life.

"It's more than money, too, though everybody needs money to survive. It's about how you think about yourself. We believe you'll feel better about yourself once you master this skill. And when that happens, the whole world's at your fingertips. The rest of it will take care of itself.

"So what do you say? We have work to do, but you'll be amazed at how fast this will go once you make up your mind. Because you have a mind, my friend, and there's plenty of good things in it."

At that moment, that young person's parents need to be in the room, agreeing completely with me. And then, because that young person might then be scared or intimidated or daunted at the challenge, some reassurance that we'll be there no matter what.

That's the help I needed. In some places, it was implied. In others, it wasn't. Either way, it's the most important decision a student can make. And teachers can't do that by themselves.

Mister Mark