The key, I believe, to student success in school is a stable, Mom and Dad family, along with consistent parental commitment/support to education. As dismal the statistics are in our country, as a whole, regarding the number of stable, two-parent families, all you have to do is look at the destruction of the family in the Black community to see that this is the “missing” element that holds black kids back educationally. This missing element also applies, in general, to all races and economic situations.
As to Hispanics, while the family is in much better condition than in the Black community, the commitment to education is not very consistent. If education is not a high priority within a given family - even in stable, two-parent families, that lack of commitment is also detrimental to kids succeeding in school.
**How much of a child's academic success is entirely due to the afterschooling that parents and children do in the home at the kitchen table and at the child's desk in the home? Where are the studies?
**Where are the studies that separate out what is learned in the classroom from that which is acquired at home?
** Is is possible that, for the most part, institutional schools are sending home a curriculum and the real work of teaching and learning is being done by the child and parent due to afterschooling in the home? Where are the studies?
Conclusion:
** These are important questions and to have the exact answer is important because we, as citizens, are spending TONS of money on government schools that may actually doing nothing at all!
** Typical government schools may very well retard the academic and social progress of children from functional homes. These children may do better if they spent less time in school and more time at home.
**If the real work of teaching and learning is happening in the home then the typical government school may be utterly and completely ineffective for children from dysfunctional families. These children may need a very different model of schooling. ( KIPP schools, by the way, seem to be helping these kids.)
Finally....It is my anecdotal observation that academically successful children, whether schooled at home or in an institution, spend **EXACTLY** the same amount of time studying at the kitchen table or child's desk in the HOME! My conclusion then is that the real work is being done by the children and the parents at home, and little learning happens in the classroom.