Wanting the Best for Our Children

School Administrator, Jan, 1998 by Dorothy Rich

Is there anyone who doesn't want the best education for children? I can't find that person. But what is increasingly harder to find, even for education policymakers, is the answer to this: What is the best?

Is it, as headlines suggest, computers in every classroom? School choice? Vouchers? All of the above? None of the above? Even rational minds can go bonkers with the sundry prescriptions for public schooling delivered through today's multimedia.

The good news is that we already know the answer. It's in the heart of every adult and on the lips of lots of children. We just have to recognize it.

Values Widely Shared

When I ask adults about the best they want for children, answers from across the country sound like this: Self-confidence, responsibility, dependability, curiosity, eagerness to learn, independence, self-discipline, sensitivity to others, kindness, consideration, hard working. It makes no difference who we are or what city and state we live in. These are the true basics and we know them.

These are education values, found well outside the Rose Garden and the campaign trail. Moreover, they do not belong to any one configuration of the family. These answers come from families of all shapes and ages.

If we believe that these values are the best we can hope for, desire and expect for our children, what do we do to achieve them?

The easy answer is to say install more computers, grant more charter schools and reduce class sizes. While fine-tuning the classroom is a noble goal, it's far from an adequate answer.

Outside Influences

Time studies confirm what we know--that children up to the age of 18 spend most of their life outside of the classroom. We know this even when we obsess about what happens in school. The reality is this: The high expectations and values that we hold dear have to be taught the hard way, the old-fashioned way, by adults who care about children at home and in school.

Kids know what counts too. At the Home and School Institute, we ask children across the nation, of all ages through young adulthood, what's the best your parents can give you. The answer is not a certain brand of gym shoes. The answer is time.

The best thing that can happen in any school chosen by parents or forced on them is that when children walk into that school, they are treated as valued persons by adults who want and can teach the best.

The curriculum has to speak to both the head and the heart. We are not pouring knowledge into empty vessels. Kids come to school with heads full of media hype and, yet, lots of hopes and dreams.

In the current discussion about education reform, what I call "the inner engines of learning"--confidence, motivation, effort, responsibility, initiative, perseverance, caring, teamwork, common sense, problem solving and focus--have not yet received the attention they need. Some might ask if these qualities can be taught. I believe so. But they grow incrementally, and most importantly they grow through partnership between school and home.

Our MegaSkills [R] program, now in use in large school districts and small, integrates academics and character development so that the power and responsibility for learning transfers to the student for the classroom and beyond.

A Key Message

Children, including teen-agers, basically want to do right, to achieve, to feel meaning in their lives. The best thing in any classroom and any home is adults who put across the message to children: "Education is important, and you can do it. We are here to help. We will hold you to high standards. We will talk about them. We will convey strong values. We will practice the education we preach. We will, in short, give you the best."

The best news is that the best is truly within everyone's reach.

Dorothy Rich is the founder and president of the nonprofit Home and School Institute, 1500 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C. 20005. E-mail: HSIdra@erols.com. She is the author of Megaskills, [R] now in its third edition.