Essential Questions

Educators and policymakers throughout the nation are deeply concerned about the achievement gap between white students and their minority counterparts (which in fact falls more along class lines than race/ethnicity lines). In a paper to be presented at the Campaign for Educational Equity Symposium, three education researchers point to a paradigm change:

The achievement gap is present before children enter school. Thus, school interventions are necessarily compensatory – catch-up efforts to offset pre-existing inadequacy. An alternative, and more effective approach would be to prevent the achievement gap from emerging in such magnitude in the first place.

That means starting early, and empowering parents to provide the supportive learning environment of early childhood that enables children to thrive in school. The authors cite Nobel Laureate James Heckman's work on the economics of early learning:

"[S]kills beget skills, success breeds success, and the provision of positive experiences early in life is considerably less expensive and more effective than the cost and effectiveness of corrective intervention at a later age."

Success begins with parents. Informed, engage parents can provide the loving, supportive environment that begets skills, breeds success, and shapes a child's experiences in the education system.

For educators and policy makers, the essential question is: How do we inform, engage and empower parents from birth?

Parents have choice

School choice is important - and so is every other decision that parents make with regard to the education of their children. The real question is: Do parents value learning in all their choices, and not merely in their choice of schools?

Every cultural creation rests on assumptions about the way the world is and the way it ought to be. Web services are not exempt. A product or service embodies the assumptions of its creators. So it is vital to ask, "What does this cultural creation assume about the way the world is and should be?"

For Tumblon, answering the second half of the question helps to answer the first.

Responsible Relationships
We labor for the day when parents take primary responsibility for the nurture, character formation, health and education of their children. Then babysitters, hospitals and schools can play their appropriate supporting roles.

Valuation
We work for the day when character will be valued above intelligence, and great literature above mere literacy. We yearn for the day when we assess our economy by the good it does and not the goods it produces, and our students by the content of their character and not their grade point average.

Priorities
What we are calling for and acting for is a change in priorities: a society characterized by responsible, reciprocal relationships - in a word, justice - rather than its prosperity. For this is the only ground of lasting peace and prosperity.

In the first few weeks of a child's life outside the womb, his vision changes steadily as he develops the ability to follow an object with his eyes, focus at various differences, and distinguish colors. In a similar way, during the first few years of a child's life, the way in which he understands the world - the lenses through which he sees - are formed. Lesslie Newbigin describes it this way:

"Most of [our culture] we learn, or perhaps one might say absorb, during the first few years of life as we learn to talk, to read, and to share in the common story of our people. Normally we simply take it for granted. We are not conscious of it. Like the lenses of our spectacles, it is not something we look at, but something through which we look in order to see the world."

Crafting Lenses
Whether or not we are conscious of it, as parents, we play the primary role in shaping the lenses through which our children see the world. Children absorb from us a whole way of understanding reality. So parenting is the perfect time to pause and reflect on the way we see the world and what we want to communicate. How do I want my children to understand the world? What do I want them to know as most valuable? What stories do I want to control their vision of reality? What illusions that have plagued me can I help them avoid? Asking these questions will make you more aware of your lenses, and help you to intentionally shape your children's lenses so that they can see what is good, true and beautiful.

Is there a shortcut to having well-behaved children? No. It takes time, plain and simple. And that time is your time.

"I have a whole day to blow."
An excellent father once remarked to me about setting clear and appropriate expectations for his 18-month-old, "I have a whole day to blow." In truth, he was planning to invest that time, and he expected it to take time. He knew that his toddler would push his buttons and resist obeying him. So he planned his day around the expectation that his toddler would learn to obey, and he wouldn't give in to her antics. And it worked. His daughter has clear expectations: When Mommy and Daddy speak, she knows she won't get out of obeying by stalling, or throwing a tantrum, or trying to bargain.

The time investment
Building those expectations takes time: time each day, and time over months of consistency. It means planning enough "slack time" into each day so that your child can meet your age-appropriate expectations. For example, if you need to be at the doctor's office at 10:00, and it normally takes 15 minutes to get to the doctor, you could plan to leave at 9:45 if you didn't have children. However, if your three-year-old is responsible for putting on his own shoes and jacket when you leave the house, then you need to plan enough time for him to fulfill that responsibility. If you don't, there are two possible outcomes: you will be late for your appointment, or you will put his shoes and jacket on for him (and he will learn that he doesn't need to be responsible for those things). For a three-year-old, starting to put on shoes and jacket at 9:30 isn't unreasonable. If all goes well, he'll be done in 3 minutes and you'll be early for your appointment. If he has difficulty following directions, you have already planned the time to be patient and persistent with him so that he takes responsibility for the things that you expect him to do.

Time pays dividends
If you ask yourself, "How could I possibly plan that much slack time into my day?" you're only seeing the first 3 months. And in those months, you'll need to have the attitude my friend had: plan to spend the whole day on discipline. However, time invested early in setting clear, consistent and appropriate expectations pays enormous dividends. When your child has learned that you mean what you say, there will be time savings every day, not to mention the joy of a healthy parent-child relationship. The real question is not, "Can I afford to spend the time now?" but rather, "Can I afford not to spend the time now?"

In Whatever it Takes, Paul Tough quotes on Harlem mother, who asked,

"What I want to know is, why is it so hard for us to get information that will take us to the next level of society?"

What she was articulating is precisely the problem that Tumblon addresses: the most important information for parents of young children is least accessible - for sociological, educational and time reasons - from those who would most benefit from it. Sociologically, child development information has been written by and for people with high levels of education. Furthermore, the parents who would most benefit from it are often significantly pressed by work and family responsibilities.

What is "the information that will take us to the next level of society"? It is timely, high quality, actionable child development information. Understanding your child at each stage of development and how to provide appropriate support at each stage is critical for normal development, which shapes a child's love for learning, and predicts school achievement. That information is precisely what you find on tumblon's child overview page. We have made the language simple and accessible for parents without high levels of education. We have made it an "executive summary" so that in 5 minutes a parent can have a good sense of what is going on and what to do.

Parents play the most important role in society, shaping the character, competence, creativity and health of their families. We are coming alongside families with the information they need to make wise decisions in parenting. Parenting will never be easy; but now getting information shouldn't be the hard part.