Schools May Have Problems, But They Often Begin at Home

Web-posted: Friday, November 15, 1996

he people who run the Evanston school system are reported to be scratching their heads over why their white students do so much better in the statewide tests that measure reading, math and other skills.

Overall, Evanston does very well. But there is a stark difference in the academic records of black and white students, the administrators say.

But why? They say they don't know.

Can they be that nearsighted? Is it possible that while dealing with this kind of problem, day in and day out, they don't understand it? Don't the administrators talk to the teachers or the students?

Or are they, as I suspect, taking pains to be politically correct and trying to avoid some shin-kicking controversy.

Well, my shins are callused and no longer sting when kicked. So I'll risk the scorn of the politically correct crowd and offer some suggestions as to what's behind this strange problem.

Let's start by looking at a few of the usual suspects:

The Evanston school system itself? No, the system can't be at fault. Evanston has always had an admirable school system. It's why many people bought homes to that close-in suburb, although fewer are now doing so for that reason.

The teachers? While it's easy to point fingers at teachers, in this case it isn't warranted. The teachers must be pretty good if they get such excellent results out of about half of the students--the half who are white. Are we to believe that they don't bother to try to teach the black students those things they teach the whites? If so, we'd have heard about it by now.

The physical facilities and other resources? Some of the physical plants are kind of old, but so what? Some of the oldest school buildings in America are at Harvard, which doesn't prevent the students there from getting enviable educations.

Spending? Evanston isn't tight-fisted. It spends more per pupil than many blue collar suburbs that get results just as good.

So what does that leave us?

The students, obviously. And a racist would say that the explanation is obvious: Black kids just aren't as smart as the white kids; it's some kind of genetic thing.

Which is nonsense. A black kid is as capable of learning as a white kid. Colin Powell and Jesse Jackson (Senior and Junior) didn't just recently start taking some wondrous smart pills.

Where does that leave us? We've just about run out of suspects. So I guess I should get to the point.

Let's try parents, family, home. These are words you seldom hear when the media's education experts, the administrators, and politicians talk about schooling. They prefer talking about new programs, new taxes, and more new programs and programs and programs. Mentioning parents is insensitive and politically incorrect.

Over the years, I've talked to countless teachers about the problem of kids who don't learn. And just about all of them say the same thing: They are sick and tired of being blamed for the failings of parents.

Some of it comes down to arithmetic: A teacher spends only five hours a day with a room filled with kids. And the teacher is limited on how much time and attention can be given to any one child.

In contrast, a parent has the kids most of the rest of the day--about 18 or 19 hours. Plus the 48 hours of the weekend, the holidays, and the two and a half months of summer vacation.

But as a frazzled teacher once told me: "If a kid is having problems, and you try to talk to the parents about it, some of them say: 'It's your job to teach them, not ours. You're the teacher.' They think they can put a child in our care a few hours a day and that's it. They don't have to take an interest, show interest, apply discipline, or provide an environment that encourages study and attendance. Just turning off the TV set or stereo would be a major contribution, but many won't do even that. The TV is a pacifier and a sitter.''

So why would any parents be that indifferent? Unless you've been hiding in a cave, you've heard about the splintered and dysfunctional black family--probably this country's biggest social problem.

Although much of Evanston looks like something out of an old Norman Rockwell cover for the Saturday Evening Post, that doesn't mean that many of its black families are immune to the social and financial problems found in the city.

The welfare dependency is there. So are homes without husbands, the drugs, higher crime rate and the tempting excitement of social life in a street gang.

It takes more than a teacher, no matter how dedicated, to make up for those gaps and blights on a childhood.

So what can be done? Well, step one is to stop pretending that you don't know what the problem is. The teachers know. Many of the students know. You don't have to be a social worker and hold an advanced degree in education to see the obvious.

And that not only applies to Evanston, but in Chicago and everywhere else that some groups of kids drift through schools without learning much and not caring.

Until the educators and politicians have the stomach to start demanding something from parents--and are given means to back up the demands with action--we're going to have generation after generation, slogging along in the same rut. We can't afford it. Today it is a problem. In a generation or two, it will be chaos.

© 1996 Chicago Tribune