Education: It's the Parenting, stupid!

OK, that's a pretty harsh headline, but since the State of the Union address earlier this week, many people are calling into question "No Child Left Behind." The question is whether or not the legislation has rendered any decent results. Honestly, I don't know how effective it is, but I do know one thing that would vastly improve the academic performance of most of our children.

After teaching in the public school for a few years, I can tell you that wealth, race/ethnicity have little to do with the smarts of our kids. I taught in the inner-city and the one common trait of all the "good students" was that their parents were involved in their education. I continue to be amazed with the pressure that exists from the President all the way down to the teachers in the classroom. Whether it's "No Child Left behind" or a push for Magnet schools or performance reviews of teachers, the pressure is there to make our kids "smarter." Of course there are always some kids who will be unable to "make the grade" and there will also be other kids who have unfortunate situations where parental involvement is minimal who will defy the odds and be incredible students. But these are the exceptions. The general rule will be that the majority of students who excel will have positive involvement from parents or other loved ones. Of course this is not the only factor, but I've got to say that it is the largest and most overlooked factor when it comes to a child's education. And as long as we as a society continue to harp on how our public schools fail us and refuse to look inwardly on how we can help the children around us, the longer the problem will exist.