Some wacky things to ponder

Here are five ideas that could have a positive impact on education. I have shared these with the local school superintendent, but no response yet. Will hear anything from your group? One: Work on the attitudes of our students about taking school seriously and helping them understand how critical it is for them to learn enough basic skills that they can succeed in some kind of post secondary education. I am not referring only to college, but to vocational training as well. Tom Friedman's book The World Is Flat is the simplest way to get the message to them that: "No skills means no decent paying job in the new global economy." Perhaps that message is getting out in the public schools, but I have not heard of it.

One way to get this word out would be to buy Friedman’s book for every high school and middle school principal in the JCPS system, with the instruction that the principal or his/her designated teacher would share it with the students in an assembly for each grade. An alternative approach would be for the principal to contact a number of professional organizations (chemical, engineering, computer, medical, environmental, etc.) to find speakers who could take the message to the students for no pay. Most students don't have any idea of how the work place has changed. In Louisville, for example, many of the industries where the parents and grandparents of many of these students worked don’t exist anymore, and they aren’t coming back. So, these students had better make the most of their educational opportunity, if they hope to have employment that will support a family.

The competition from abroad is tough. It is reported that there are more honor students in China than there are total students in our education system. You can bet all athletic coaches inform their teams about the strengths of their competition. Should we do less in education?

Two: One way, and perhaps the most important way to improve academic performance, is to change student’s attitudes by teaching them some principles that can guide them in their daily decision making. I am talking about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Teachers like Joe Gutmann at Central H. S., Bryce Hibbard at Moore M.S. and H.S., Sara Sutton at Iroquois H.S. and Robin Doty at Kammerer Middle School (all in Louisville) will give you their sense of the impact of the 7 Habits are having on their students. William McKinley Blackford IV works with students at Central who have truancy issues, and is certified to train the trainers in the 7 Habits. He can share much about the positive changes the 7 Habits are having on students across America and Canada. Over the past five years, either directly or indirectly, our organization (Youth Leadership Development Seminar, in Dan Hall's Office of Community Engagement at UofL) has reached some 6,000 students with the 7 Habits. Does it work for everyone? No, but it is working for many of them and will let those students know at least that there is a set of principles that most great civilizations and religions are founded on and how those principles can have a positive impact on their lives. The article in a recent Sunday Courier Journal about the pipeline to prison for too many of our young people, would lead you to conclude that there is a need to teach them principles and life skills. One way to do that is through the 7 Habits. I can't go into a classroom in JCPS and suggest to the students that they follow the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", because it is religion based. However, I can teach "Seek first to understand then to be understood" because it is secular wisdom found in the 7 Habits and elsewhere. Perhaps it’s something to think about.

Three: If you want to get the students engaged, motivated, turned on, find a way to get their parents involved. I know that several JCPS schools have 60-78% single parent families. I understand how impossible it is for a single mom to come home to several kids after working all day and have to fix dinner, help with homework, and do everything Moms do to hold a household together. That leaves neither time nor energy to get involved in their child's education. I know many do get involved, and I would bet that most would like to, but simply can't. So how can we support them in this activity? For a start, get them to PTA meetings. Serve dinner for the family several times during the school year. I know, there is no budget for that. When we launched the 7 Habits program five years ago at the Louisville Urban League, we were able to get University Hospital to fund the meal. When we launched the 7 Habits at Central, we fed the parents and students with funds I raised from a local company. I believe neighborhood businesses will help, as well as some larger corporations, because they appreciate the importance of improving our schools and strengthening Louisville’s workforce. Once the family comes to a PTA meeting, there needs to be child care for the pre-schoolers and a study space for the older students to do their homework, with supervision. Parents can then participate in the PTA meeting. It is essential after going to all this effort, that the PTA program is significant and helpful to the parents. Some one needs to speak there about the changing job market and the critical importance of their children getting the most of their educational experience, so the parents are prepared to help with motivating their kids to study. It would be great to have William Blackford speak to them about the 7 Habits, especially in schools where their kids are being taught this material.


Four: There is much concern in Frankfort about Kentucky having too many failing schools. Last fall at the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce summit on the state budget, I pointed out that many of the failing students in schools today are the children of parents who attended failing schools, and were perhaps failing students. It is very difficult for such a parent to know how to help her/his child. Because of their own experience in school, I suspect many of those parents don't get too excited about returning to a system that did not serve them well and may still appear to them as an intimidating place. One of JCPS’s teachers, Andrea Grindron, shared a great idea with me about how to encourage such a parent to come to a PTA meeting, and it is to hold an occasional meeting somewhere besides the school. There are, I suspect, a number of churches that would be willing to host a PTA meeting, and if its facility is equipped to do so, to host a dinner meeting. (Not pay for it) My church, Shively Christian, has a relationship with Hazelwood Elementary School, and we have had functions for the parents and kids at the church facility.

Five: JCPS may already have an individual assigned to promote and encourage parental involvement in their children’s education, particularly through the PTA organizations. But, if my suggestions above about making the PTA more parent friendly make any sense and may be worthy of pursuing, it will take an office with that assignment to reach out to parents and let them know they are crucial partners in their children’s education. This will require some creative thinking to bring in parents in large numbers, but the impact on student performance could be significant.

Re: Wacky Ideas? How About Earning $938 Million/Year for the Region?

Your ideas are not "Wacky". Where do you find a school administrator, who has the power, to find time and then sustain the effort?