Rediscovering the obvious

When a kid's life at home is chaotic, the school can provide order and direction. Early in the last century urban schools and settlement houses did just that for poor and immigrant children. Schools in middle class neighborhoods traditionally haven't had to do that because students came to them with a degree of purposefulness and direction. But as school populations change, old lessons need to be re-learned. Joanne Jacobs, in "Nagging for Success" reviews a study of inner-city schools that work.

.... In Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism, David Whitman finds that ... [t]o give disadvantaged students a shot at college and mainstream success ... schools must teach “not just how to think but how to act according to what are commonly termed traditional middle-class values.”

Whitman looks at six secondary schools that are teaching both academic skills and work habits to low-income minority students.....

What unites the schools above all, though, is “a paternalistic ethos supporting a common school culture that prizes academic achievement.”

Whitman uses the term “paternalism” for a reason. Many of the students at these schools are being raised by single mothers (or grandmothers) who provide unconditional love at home. Maternalism they’ve already got. At the “new paternalistic” schools, authoritative, caring adults demand good behavior as a condition for approval, adopting the traditional father’s role. Paternalistic schools explicitly teach students how to walk in the halls, sit upright in class, listen to speakers, ask questions, take notes, collaborate with classmates, and study for tests. They also teach students to shake hands, tuck in their shirts, and speak courteously using standard English. Street slang is banned. In some cases, the schools support values that parents hold themselves but have trouble enforcing on their own. In other cases, Whitman writes, new paternalistic schools “tend to displace a piece of parents’ traditional role in transmitting values, serving at times in loco parentis.” ....

...The middle schools on Whitman’s list teach basic skills so that students are ready to tackle college-prep classes in high school. But staying on the college track can be tough for students who attend disorderly, do-your-own-thing high schools. ....[more]

Nagging for Success by Joanne Jacobs, City Journal 20 November 2008