WASHINGTON — Dorothy Rich has rescued me again. A recent column recounting an interview with Secretary of Education Rod Paige angered a number of teachers who thought Paige and I were accusing them of not caring about their students — at least not believing in their students’ ability to learn.
Of course they believe their children can learn, several told me; it’s just that getting them to learn under the circumstances can be difficult beyond belief. The complicating circumstances can include anything from low pay (translated as lack of respect) for teachers, out-of-whack pupil-teacher ratios and the imposition of too many non-teaching tasks to the distractions of violent neighborhoods, an unchecked culture of anti-intellectualism and the daunting consequences of poor parenting practices.
Frankly, I thought that’s what the Secretary and I were saying: that teachers often find themselves setting low standards for their students because they think some of them, though not born stupid, have too many problems to overcome.
Rich, president of the Washington-based Home and School Institute, helped me to see that what I thought I said was not necessarily what many teachers thought they heard. They thought they heard another put-down in a dismaying string of put-downs, and they were tired of it.
"What gets overlooked," she told me, "is that education is a very human enterprise. To a greater degree than most people realize, successful education depends on how teachers and parents feel about one another. Yes, we understand that we have to meet the needs of children in order to make our schools work. But we also have to help parents and teachers meet each other’s needs as adults."
So while Paige and I were recalling the old days when teachers cared enough to set high standards, she said, we were really remembering a time when teacher-parent partnership was taken for granted. The way we talked about it put too much focus on the school as an institution — and too little on the partnership.
Edubabble? Far from it. Rich reminded me of how her MegaSkills approach has helped thousands of poorly educated parents boost their children’s readiness for school learning. A gifted educator herself, Rich years ago developed courses to teach parents how to instill in children the attitudes necessary for learning — confidence, motivation, perseverance, problem-solving, focus.
Some parents might actually be able to help their children with their math problems or science experiments, she said at the time, but all parents can help their children develop the necessary attitudes. Her contribution was to teach them how to do it: planting flowers in stray plots or window boxes to teach that things don’t happen overnight or by themselves; limiting TV viewing to so many hours a week, thus teaching how to make difficult choices, how to set priorities and, incidentally, how to add fractions of hours.
"It’s time now," she said, "to extend the MegaSkill idea to parents and teachers."
For instance, she said, parents often lack confidence in their competency as parents — even when it comes to such things as choosing which programs or which schools to put their children in. But they may also be dissatisfied with the choices made for them. The only way they see of showing their concern is to complain and protest when things go wrong.
Rich’s MegaSkills approach (yes, there’s a book in the works) is less about teaching particular bits of knowledge than about instilling right attitudes. In one exercise, she’ll have adults think about times when they were able to overcome their fears. Or she’ll ask them to spend time thinking about what they can do now that used to give them trouble, or concentrate for a while on what they are good at, or would like to do better.
The point, she insists, is that subject knowledge and teaching technique are necessary; they are not sufficient. What matters are confident and effective teachers and eager students. She thinks she can help deliver both.
William Raspberry can be reached at The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071-9200 or willrasp@washpost.com.
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