The issue of parental involvement is vexing for education reformers. Everybody knows that it matters, but nobody really knows how to encourage it. In a free society, how do schools, or governments, make sure that parents provide the love, attention, discipline, nurturing, and care that their kids need to succeed? The short answer is: they can't.
So it's with that context in mind that Secretary Duncan waded into the issue of parental involvement this week with a very thoughtful speech to the ?Mom Congress.? He didn't break any new policy ground?he and his team are as flummoxed as the rest of us in terms of what the federal government can do to promote parental engagement. But that didn't stop him from using his bully pulpit to remind all parents?including well-educated upper-middle-class ones?that we could all do better on this front:
Earlier this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a study that showed the problem of heavy media use and lax supervision is far more pervasive than many people imagine. The study's findings almost defy belief: The average tween and teen today spends nearly 12 hours a day using media. The figure is even higher for Black and Hispanic teenagers?and includes almost six hours of television every single day. By contrast, teens spend about 25 minutes a day reading a book.
One of my predecessors, Richard Riley, once said that the ?eight magic words [from children] that can solve all of our education problems are: ?Shut off the TV?I'm trying to read.? As you know, we don't often hear those magic words?and the days where families shared food and lessons learned at the dinner table are fading fast as well. Two out of three young people say they usually eat dinner with the television on during the meal.
This oversaturation of electronic media has been matched, step for step, by overly permissive parenting. Only about a third of the parents in the Kaiser study reported setting any rules on how much time their adolescents can spend watching TV, playing video games, and using their computer.
Children can naturally rebel against the limits parents set, whether it's removing sweets from the dinner table or insisting that children finish their schoolwork before playing video games. But it's a time-honored fact that the job of parents is to parent?to lovingly give a child direction and to set reasonable limits. Too many adults are abdicating that role.
My oldest child is only 2 and already I must admit that setting these limits is tough work. Here's hoping these comments?which could have just as easily come from Secretary William J. Bennett?get the airing they deserve.
(Photograph by dan paluska from Flickr.)
-Mike Petrilli
