Waiting for a Miracle: Why School Can't Solve Our Problems and How We Can. - book reviews

Black Issues in Higher Education, April 30, 1998 by Ronald B. McFadden

James Corner, M.D., adds his name to the dozens of recent books written about the effectiveness of American schools and matters of race, culture; and intelligence. Waiting for a Miracle: Why School Can't Solve Our Problems and How We Can is a treatise on the interconnectedness between sound child development and effective schooling, family, and community and societal networks. It also examines the historical impact of economic and social policies on the development of groups in America.

The major thesis of Waiting for a Miracle puts forth the notion that although schools can't solve the problems of America, those engaged in collaborations with teachers, administrators, and parents can begin the long and arduous process of breathing new life into American communities.

Comer eloquently reminds us of our failed collective memory and the shortsighted view that sufficient time and energy have been devoted to achieving a level playing field.

The Yale psychologist describes his work in New Haven as child focused. His program, referred to as the School Development Process, involves three teams that work together constantly: the school planning and management team,which includes teachers and administrators and addresses the needs of the entire school community; the parent team, consisting of parents and community workers; and the student and staff support team, consisting of counselors, mental health professionals, social workers, and nurses, and whose task was to help children acquire the proper behavior for learning in school.

Comer contends that a comprehensive school plan embodies both the social and academic achievement areas, and involves t staff development plan that is based on a no-fault principle utilizing consensus decision making and collaboration to achieve program outcomes.

He shatters the myth of the rugged individual and that most accomplishments in life are the result of individual efforts, Successful outcomes, he contends. are determined by a series of three concentric networks which influence and determine the quality of our lives. These include the biological, physical, and value laden characteristics acquired from family in the first network; the self identification, peer influencing and value laden influences acquired in the developmental stages of the second network, which often includes other schools, jobs and organizations; and the third network where polices and practices promulgated by political, business, and other leaders have the ability to externally impact the lives of individuals.

His chapter on priming the pump and blaming the victim, so aptly entitled "Rising Tides and Tied Boats", is an excellent analysis of how America has helped some of its citizens become active participants in the democratic capitalism and how it has kept others -- namely African Americans -- dependent, consumers, and outside the capitalist arena.

A major sub-thesis of Comer's work is that most Americans have benefitted from the industrial and technological revolutions that have improved the quality of life in this country over the list seventy-five years. Most Americans have been caught up in a rising tide of prosperity, while African Americans have been like ship wrecks tied to the bottom of the economic prosperity ocean.

Comer provides a brilliantly written historical analysis of America's efforts to broaden citizen participation in the capitalist process through land grant distribution schemes. He discusses the three economics stages of America's development, describing them as structured opportunities for Americans to attain wealth. Paying close attention to the lives of banker J.P. Morgan and merchants George Peabody and John Wannamaker, Comer describes how American economic policies and land distribution schemes, which were literally gifted to Americans (Northwest Territory, Louisiana Purchase) not only helped to build the American infrastructure, but facilitated the amassing of great fortunes in America.

In contrast, African Americans did not enjoy the benefits of federal government largesse and were subjected to what Comer calls the four shocks -- the disruption of economic and political culture, the effects of the middle passage, the imposition of Slavery as a way of life, and the experience of emancipation without safeguards and access to economic and political structures. So when policy makers or scholars pose the question, "What's wrong with Black people?," and contend that the playing field is "level," Comer retorts that they do not know the full history of America, and the belief that intelligence determines outcomes is a myth.

Comer's recounting of the deleterious effects of stereotyping the remnants of racism is superb. In truth, Waiting for a Miracle is a precisely written epic blueprint for the salvation of distressed African American communities.

Waiting for a Miracle is a compassionate history lesson and a rational appeal by one of the nation's most renowned psychologists with a proven track record for guiding schools into collaborations with communities. If Comer's words are to be heeded by educators, policy makers, and politicians, then the challenge of having African Americans reap the benefits of our rapidly changing society will require enormous human capital investment. A good society, contends Comer, is one that promotes desirable community, family, and child development.