Are We Raising Leaders or Followers

What is causing and helping to maintain the achievement gap?

There at least two things that we do know: frequently schools in low-income communities fail to teach children and parents are influential in children's academic progress. To expand on these knowns about failing schools; they often have the newest or the the worst teachers; books and teaching materials are scarce and in too many instances the physical plants of these school are in shambles---no heat in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, no working toilets. We have also been told that children who do well in school usually have parents who read to them regularly and are in school e.g. going to parent-teacher conferences and attending PTA meetings, yadda, yadda, yadda. The key piece however that seems to have been left out the public dialogue is how important parenting styles are to academic success. How you parent your child may trump what's happening in their schools.

First before I go any further, I am in no way saying that reforming public education is not a priority. Public schools should be places of learning that expect the best possible outcomes for all students. To advance that goal public schools have to provide children with teachers ready and willing to teach them, a safe environment and the tools that they need to learn be those books, computers or lab supplies. What seems more and more clear to me however is that how parents go about "developing" their children may be equally or more important to their academic and life success than the school that they attend.

The book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life by Annette Lareau is an interesting study about the parenting styles of middle class, working class and poor parents. In short-- middle class parents practice "concerted cultivation" which exposes children to an array of enrichment activities and strongly encourages speech and language development. In comparion, working class and poor parent are more apt to have a more hand's off approach known as "natural growth."

Concerted Cultivation
Middle class children, through their activities, learn how to interact with other adults (almost as equals), they learn the importance of discipline and teamwork (and competition) and how to deal with public scrutiny of their performance whether it's a soccer game or a piano recital. Parents also talk to the children in a way that builds their vocabularies and encourages reasoning skills. Rather than giving a child a directive, middle class parents often ask questions or provide the "because" of why something should be done. Perhaps most important, the middle class parent is willing to intervene on behalf of her child with the school or with any institution that has some bearing on her child's life. Middle class parents have no problem going over teachers' heads if they deem a grade unfair or paying for outside consultants to dispute a teacher/school assessment. Middle class children usually are articulate and by watching their parents they learn how to maneuver in the "system" to their benefit.

Natural Growth
According to Lareau (and other researchers) working class and poor parents are more apt to employ the "natural growth" style of parenting. Natural Growth is pretty much, "let a kid be a kid." Working class and poor parents, frequently consumed with how to keep a roof over their kids heads and food on the table, do not get involved in planning or overseeing their children's extracurricular activities. This means kids play outside with neighborhood friends or family members in an unscheduled, informal way. Working class and poor parents tend to use less word and give their children more directives. The net result is that generally working class and poor children do not have robust vocabularies and since they are always being told what to do without an explanantion they may have less developed critical thinking skills. Moreover, working class and poor parents are less likely to be an advocates for their children with the schools. Certainly it is not that these parents do not want the best for their children, it is that they often feel intimidated in the school environment and ill equipped (because their own education) to make education decisions for their children. In general they tend to let the school "professionals" make the decisions about their children's educational needs.

Although Lareau takes great pains not to suggest that the parenting styles of the middle class are superior to those of the poor and working class, she is forced to concede that the lessons and modes of speech and behavior that middle class children learn through "concerted cultivation" are more valued in our society. While some middle class kids can be bratty and whiny, overall they do well on standardized tests and know how to conduct themselves on job interviews and are comfortable socializing with people outside of their family. So while working class and poor children are generally more respectful of adults and have closer family ties, these characteristics are not as highly valued by society and will not help them to navigate societal institutions.

Poor and Middle Class Black Parents
Programs such as Harlem Children's Zone is taking a holistic approach to educating poor children which includes programs like "Baby College" that help their parents be better and more informed parents. The thinking is that many poor parents would implement strategies, such as daily reading, if they were aware of the importance of these activities. I think that the premise is correct and that we need to see more of these type of programs around the country.

However, the achievement gap would be less dramatic if we could say that only low-income Black children are affected, but that is not the reality. What more and more studies are showing is that although there is an increase in the number of middle class Black families (as represented by their incomes), their parenting styles still reflects their working class or poor roots. As a result, middle class Black children, despite their increased socio-economic standing are still not performing on par academically with their White and Asian peers. This means that middle class parents have to also be brought to the realization that they may need to re-consider their parenting style if they want their children to be competitive in this global economy. I think that the organizations that many middle class Black families belong to: fraternities and sororites; churches and civil rights organization need to really step up their involvement in the education and parenting discussion.

Black parenting styles that privilege following orders and being respectful have important historical rationales. There were times when a Black person's life and livelihood literally depended on whether or not they were deferential and compliant. Moreover given the poor treatment that Blacks received and still do receive at the hands of schools and other government institutions, there is no wonder that for some Blacks there is a lingering concern about dealing with them. All that being said, we have to all be willing to move forward, particularly as we prepare our children. We don't want our kids to be the whiny, disrespectful kids that we sometime see in the street, but neither do we want our kids to be consigned to the low-end of the career/life opportunity ladder because they are scared and ill-prepared to deal outside of their immediate community. We need to be preparing our children to lead and give orders, not just follow and keep their heads down.