February 5, 2001
EDITORIAL:
Parental support can lift schools
___One important--actually vital--group of people seems to be missing from the state and national debate on education: Parents.
___Parents are the key to education, no matter what happens in the classroom. Yet no one is talking about how to enable parents themselves to help their children improve their education.
___Of course, many other topics flood the debates.
___Educational choice is a key focus of discussion. Options range from vouchers to charter schools to magnet schools. "Choice" is a big word for Americans these days, and choice in education is an appropriate component of the discussion. (Advocates of religious liberty question the wisdom of state funding for church-sponsored schools, but that is a debate in and of itself.)
___Testing and accountability also are important components of the debate. On one level, they are linked to educational choice, since testing could provide criteria for determining if children in under-performing schools should have the option of learning elsewhere. However, they also can provide the instruments for rewarding exceptional schools, flagging needs for improvement and isolating schools, departments and teachers that could benefit from specific help, such as training, mentoring or implementation of new programs.
___Funding, of course, is a crucial point of discussion. Like the proverbial blood from a turnip, society cannot expect to get more out of our educational system than we are willing to put in. Teachers should be compensated for what they are--monumentally important professionals. They are molding the future today, and they should be paid accordingly. Likewise, our schools must have the funds to operate the full range of programs necessary for educating competent, alert, well-rounded individuals. This is a complicated topic, and simple solutions will not be achieved easily. But it is worth close scrutiny and broad consensus.
___Still, no matter the outcome of the debate, school choice, accountability and funding by themselves will not address the No. 1 educational challenge facing America's schools today. Unless parents are involved in teaching their children, our educational system will not succeed. Moreover, where parents are involved in education, schools of all kinds can and will succeed in producing high-achieving students.
___This is important for Texas Baptists to discuss because we can make a difference for the better.
___Christian Women's Job Corps, a program of Woman's Missionary Union, provides a model for how this works. By providing jobs-skills training, emotional mentoring and spiritual guidance, CWJC is lifting thousands of women from welfare to the work force and along the way guiding them to faith. Both components of the program--physical and spiritual--are profoundly changing these women and their families.
___We need a form of Christian Parents' Education Corps--involving men as well as women--for our schools. Of course, we would need to take care lest we trample on the separation of church and state, but that challenge could be overcome. What if an army of volunteers helped our schools do what they cannot do--teach parents how to help their children learn? Perhaps the first steps could come in offering English as a Second Language to parents who can't help their children because they don't understand English. Maybe it could involve mentoring to help parents understand the basics of education and learn how important their involvement--from listening to reading assignments, to review for quizzes, to attendance at extra-curricular functions--is to their children. It could include motivation, encouragement, support and perhaps even mediation.
___Of course, not all parents will take advantage of help or even receive encouragement. But volunteers could offer to help children whose parents won't help them, by participating in reading and tutoring programs before, after or even during school.
___Jesus said we serve him by helping "the least of these" of society. We can follow his example and testify to his love within us-- not to mention strengthen the future of our state and nation--as we do our part to help our schools educate children.
___ Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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