"Tip and the Gipper"

Chris Mathews, yes that Chris Mathews of MSNBC and "trickle up the leg" fame wrote a book, "Tip and the Gipper". Mr. Mathews was a prominent member of the Speaker Tip O'Neil's staff, He apparently had full access to most of the manoeuvrings between the Speaker and President Reagan. Mr. Mathews and I bat from opposite sides of plate. I expected another nasty rant with name calling and disparaging remarks of the kind typical of progressives discussing their opposition. His story telling has very little of that. I must say, at the expense of maybe annoying him, it was fair and balanced.

Pre-K Does Not Last

   Every where you look these days someone or some agency wants to implement formal schooling before kindergarten. The idea is the earlier one starts educating children the better educated they will be. Head Start claims this. It is clear that the achievement we expect does not gush forth from our present K-12 structure.

We react to poor achievement by improving the physical infrastructure of our schools, requiring better education and pay for the teachers, devising new curriculum's like Common Core and so on. We have been on this track for decades and refuse to believe the evidence.  None of this works! Achievement does not soar with any of this.

It is perfectly clear that what works is the parent's expectations. (http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=parental-expectations-for-their-childrens-academic-attainment)  If parents instill in their children that they are to behave and learn, achievement soars. The parent must persevere and stay on the case for it to work, but parental influence does work.

The problem is how do politicians and school administrators point their finger at the parent when their beloved child fails and expect to survive the next election. They don't and won't.

We need to change the cultural where it is expected that the parents will guide their children and when the children do not do well, everyone knows and blames, maybe shames, the parent. We must be judgmental and point to the parents when children fail at school. That may cause heart burn in your circle but if you want our kids to excel in their future you can't sit on the side lines.

Pre-K and Head Start sound good but have little or no lasting effect. By the third grade those who did and did not participate in early ed have the same achievement. (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/early_years/2012/12/head_start_advantages_mostly_gone_by_third_grade_study_finds.html) We keep looking for a "fix" without pain, without making tough judgements and without blaming those responsible. Like everything else where we refuse to come to grips with the real root causes, the problems persists..