Stakes in education are visible: the students

For kids to succeed in school, adults must ratchet up commitment

FANNIE FLONO
November 24, 2006

On my desk is a thank-you card from Wilhelmenia Wilcox's fifth grade class at Devonshire Elementary School. A BIG thank-you card, with outsized, home-made red and pink and yellow paper flowers adorning the front.

I visited the class a few weeks ago to help the students celebrate their writing work. I told them they could teach us professional writers at the Observer a thing or two about engaging the reader. And I was serious.

Every now and then, I open up the card they gave me as I left, and read the names: Ladeja, David, Chenang, Karla, Elijah, Ronald, Perla, Ismael, Jasmine, Kendy, Jaton, Shelton, Stefan, Lawrence, Darrien, Jakari, Daquan. Remembering them makes me smile -- and gives me hope.

In Ms. Wilcox's fifth grade class are the stakes. Those students are what I jab my finger in folks' eyes about a lot. (That's what I've heard some say my columns sometimes feel like.)

As I sat in their little-people chairs and listened to them read their work, sing about geography (yes, geography) and perform their play about the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, I knew I'd be poking my finger some more. The kids in Ms. Wilcox's class -- a United Nations of races and ethnicities, and a rainbow of colors -- are worth championing and advocating for.

It's not simply that these kids demolish stereotypes about students in public schools. They do, of course. In Ms. Wilcox's class, the students easily impress with their knowledge and skill and enthusiasm for learning.

Ms. Wilcox does too, with her inventiveness, creativity and ability to get her children to reach for high levels of performance and meet the goal. The naysayers about public schools and the abilities of some children would learn a lot from Ms. Wilcox and her students.

Their failure is ours

But there's also this: David and Daquan, Jasmine and Jakari are our future. If they fail, we all lose.The loss could be in tax dollars. The evidence is clear: Students who fail in school are more likely to do drugs, get involved in crime and wind up on welfare. They are more likely to abuse their families and themselves, and to require tax-supported services to deal with the consequences of those actions.

But the big loss is in their potential. These children can be a future governor, astronaut, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, committed teacher.

But it takes adults who recognize now what the stakes are, and act on that knowledge.

Some people do. I met them last Saturday at the ending session for the Charlotte Advocates for Education's Parent Leadership Network training.

The Charlotte Advocates for Education, an independent, local education advocacy group, started the Parent Leadership Network last year to help parents work effectively with educators to improve schools. So far, 60 or so parents have gone through the training, said Margaret Carnes, CAE Managing Director.

Parent leaders inspire

I was asked to give the 22 participants some words of encouragement as they passed a milestone in learning how to be effective parent leaders and how to get others to join them. But it was they who inspired me.

I was moved by the fire-in-the-belly determination they all seemed to have about helping schools live up to the goal of providing all children in this community with a good education. Some of them no longer have children in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Their kids have graduated. Yet they were as committed as those who still have kids in CMS. All were passionate about what they could achieve, armed with the knowledge they attained through this "boot camp" training.

That knowledge includes not only information on how schools operate and a primer on deciphering and evaluating school test data, but also insights into building relationships with educators and with other parents.

In my remarks, I told those parents about Ms. Wilcox's fifth grade class. I told them they could make a difference in the lives of students like them. I told them they already are.

But I didn't really have to tell them anything. They clearly understand what's at stake. They've already made the commitment more must make to ensure that David and Daquan, Jasmine and Jakari get what they need to succeed. So has Ms. Wilcox.

Your turn.

Fannie Flono