The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a stalwart in the nation’s long fight for racial, social and economic equality, was in Chattanooga last week to continue that work. His message to that end at a meeting of AT&T officials and stockholders here is worth heeding. Vital as that message might be, his talk to a student assembly at Howard High School is equally important.
Mr. Jackson, in a meeting of The Times Free Press editorial board, candidly acknowledged the problems in attendance, academic success and graduation rates at Howard. He knows they are improving, he said, but he offered six rules that he believes can help enhance the pace of that progress.
The rules:
* Take your child to school.
* Meet your child’s teachers.
* Exchange phone numbers with your child’s teachers.
* Turn off the TV.
* Get a copy of your child’s report card.
n Take your child to church.
At first glance, the rules might seem overly simple, but that’s the beauty of them. They are workable, uncomplicated and need no major infrastructure to make them viable. All that is needed is parental interest and a will to improve a child’s performance in school.
Mr. Jackson correctly says the only way to make sure that a child gets to school on time every day is to take that child yourself. Sure, in some single-parent homes, the breadwinner has a work schedule that might conflict with a school’s start time, but that is an excuse not a reason for failing to personally escort your child to school, Mr. Jackson says.
If a parent can’t take the child, then the parent should arrange for a relative, a neighbor or someone else trustworthy to do so. It’s worth the effort. The correlation between regular school attendance and success in the classroom is undeniable.
It’s not enough to bring a child to the school’s door, Mr. Jackson adds. A parent should meet the teacher and then exchange phone numbers or e-mail addressees with a classroom or homeroom teacher. “It’s well known,” he says, “that a teacher teaches kids better when he or she knows the parent.” If that’s the case, it stands to reason that occasional or even regular conversations between a child’s teacher or teachers and parent or caregiver would do the same.
Exchanging phone numbers or e-mail addresses, especially if school-based numbers and addresses are available, is an easy way to accomplish that goal.
The admonition to turn off the TV is well-taken. Many kids, studies show, spend hours a day in front of a TV and/or playing computer games or similar activity. Clearly, a student can’t do homework or pursue study of any kind if he or she is watching TV or playing screen-based games. There is, Mr. Jackson says, a way to balance modest TV watching and game playing with school work. Parents should find that balance and, if they can’t do it alone, ask for help from teachers or other school officials.
The rule that parents obtain a copy of a child’s report card makes sense. Some students fail or refuse to take them home, and some parents and some parents do not know when to expect them. A report card is a window on a child’s performance and progress in school. Viewing a report card and acting on it when necessary could help break the chain of poor attendance and poor grades that lead to academic failure and high dropout rates.
Mr. Jackson’s last suggestion — to take a child to church regularly — might seem self-serving coming from a clergyman,, but it is not. He’s not advocating a specific church or belief system, he’s simply making the point that those who attend worship regularly tend to have a structure to their lives that can help make them better citizens and students.
Lest one think that Mr. Jackson, who discussed his six rules with the student body at Howard High tailored his speech to that group, it is clear he did not. The rules, he says, transcend race, income, social status and other factors that play a role in academic performance. He’s right.
All schools, students and parents could benefit from their application. Some of the Rev. Mr. Jackson’s campaigns and themes are, by nature, ones that have little change of immediate success. It will take time, for example, for his call to AT&T to expand minority hiring to bear fruit.
Equitable application of his six rules for students, on the other hand, can and should bring a significant return for individuals and to U.S. society as a whole without substantial expenditures of time or money. That’s a worthy goal.