A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

                      ********************                       REMARKS PREPARED FOR                         RICHARD W. RILEY                    U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION                    ***************************                          NATIONAL PRESS CLUB                         WASHINGTON, D.C.                   Wednesday, September 14, 1994                   STRONG FAMILIES, STRONG SCHOOLS                  ******************************* 

In the last eleven years, ever since the National Commission on Excellence in Education released its report, "A Nation at Risk," an enormous amount of effort has been made to instill a new spirit of excellence in American education. This effort has taken many forms -- increasing graduation requirements, improving teacher competency and salaries, and updating curricula.

This is all to the good. As a nation, we have taken a strong step forward in teaching math and science. The number of young people taking the recommended core academic curriculum is up 30 percent. And, we have a blueprint for excellence in education in the Goals 2000 Act which was signed by the President last March. But it is my very strong belief that more sustained attention needs to be paid to that most vital of links -- the promise and potential of parents and other family members as the most important teachers of their children.

The American family is the rock on which a solid education can and must be built. I have seen examples all over this Nation where two-parent families, single parents, step-parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are providing strong family support for their children to learn.

The research report I am releasing today tells us, in no uncertain terms, that the essential building block for learning is how the American family uses its strength and power to support and encourage young people to meet the high expectations now being demanded of them in the classroom.

This report, then, is both a call to arms against ignorance and low expectations -- a challenge to adult America to reconnect with our children's education -- and a summary of concrete examples to inspire parents to be part of their children's education in new and important ways.

This is why I am announcing the formation of a broad-based partnership led by the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE) to encourage and support American families as they seek to prepare their children for the Information Age that is now upon us. This common effort -- with each partner contributing in its own best way -- includes such organizations as the National PTA, the National Alliance of Business, the U.S. Catholic Conference, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Over the last six months, I and/or members of my staff have met with 125 different parent, religious, education, community-based and business groups on this important issue. While each group has its own distinctive strength and purpose, we are all committed to going in the same direction. There is a deep desire for partnership -- to coalesce around this vital issue and support families.

America needs to put its house in order -- to lower the deficit -- to stop the violence and despair of drugs -- to make sure our children go to school safely every day -- to assure Americans who play by the rules that there ARE rules and moral standards that we live by as a Nation.

To my mind, there is no more important place to begin putting our house in order than by recognizing that our children's expectations about the future are rooted in the day-to-day family activities that help children learn and develop good character. America needs to give up its get-it-now, live-for-today mentality and start looking down the road to make sure that we give all of our children the America they deserve.

Thirty years of research tells us that the starting point of American education is parent expectations and parental involvement with their children's education. This consistent finding applies to every family regardless of the parents' station in life, their income or their educational background. As this report indicates, three factors over which parents exercise authority -- daily attendance in school, reading material and literature in the home, and the amount of television a young person watches -- are some of the strongest indicators we have that home life makes a difference when it comes to learning.

Other important research needs to be highlighted. A child who grows up reading for fun is a child who is on the road to success when it comes to learning. We know, for example, that children's success in school can be linked to reading to children and listening to them read.

Many years ago, the great American patriot Frederick Douglass was struck by the powerful recognition that to "teach a slave to read" was the "pathway from slavery to freedom." Listen to Douglass' powerful testimony: "I set out with high hope and fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read."

My friends, we need that same type of zeal in the here and now to help families have the same high hope and fixed purpose. All the data we have tells us that children can learn to read to high standards if we work with families.

For America to read together, then something has to give. I, for one, want to suggest that the teenager who is perpetually glued to the tube is well on the way to having a very dull mind and a very dull -- and perhaps risky -- future. Television is part of our culture and anyone who has children knows its power to mesmerize, captivate, excite .... and yes, teach as well. But I am concerned when report after report tells us that reading scores decline at all grade levels tested, when young people go into the "red zone" of danger and watch more than six hours of television on a weekday.

I believe that many parents feel overwhelmed by the all of the outside influences shaping the lives of their children. They feel that our popular culture, with its current emphasis on making fame a virtue and often for the strangest of reasons, undermines the values they want their children to have. They see so many of our young people growing up wild -- without any abiding sense of citizenship or sense that they have a stake in this country's future.

We need to get our priorities straight. Without a good education, a young person can grow up to be a tragic and unhappy figure. Ten years from now, imagine the problems and the inequity, indeed the crisis, as the six million additional children now flooding into our education system find themselves without the skills and knowledge they need to get ahead.

We've got to do better. As this report notes, there are several significant obstacles that interfere with parents in their efforts to improve their children's learning: the pressure of time, the unsettling disconnection between educators and families; the uncertainty that family members feel about how they can contribute; the inflexibility of the work schedule; the sheer drag of poverty; and language barriers. Let me speak directly to several of these concerns.

First of all -- time. I am known for telling parents and educators that the most important single change we need for American education is to find new ways to help parents slow down their lives. Many parents and other family members are stretched to the limit -- juggling jobs, putting food on the table, getting their children to safe after-school programs -- doing all they can to keep body and soul together.

But I believe that we are missing something far deeper in all this rushing around. We are letting our children grow up, at times, almost alone -- and disconnected. The education of American children -- their moral development, their sense of citizenship, and academic growth -- is done in fits and starts. This is not how families want to raise their children.

The effort that so many parents make to guide their children's lives repeatedly comes up against the rush of modern living. The mismatch in how major American institutions -- from schools to businesses -- carve out time in the day-to-day life of the American family is -- to my mind -- a serious impediment to how our young people are growing up. We ask families to twist and turn -- to go through every possible contortion to fit into the structure and time needs of schools or businesses or other institutions -- instead of the other way around. It is my very strong belief that we really must rethink what we are doing and how we use our time.

The best business leaders recognize that the early investment families make on behalf of their children leads to the promise of a skilled and educated workforce in the future. This is why the business leadership of America has been in the forefront of improving education for many years now. Some of these businesses are already developing new ways that America's "time" can be used to help families and the learning process.

We must see the value in job-sharing, flextime, and release time for families -- to give attention to the children. Schools at the plant site, day care in the office, parents working at home without stigma or financial loss -- whatever it takes -- we need to use all of our ingenuity to find new ways to connect families to their children in these hectic times.

I also urge educators to give special attention to the recent report of the National Commission on Time and Learning called "Prisoners of Time," which speaks directly to how "time" is being taken away from academics during the American school day. I will be the first to tell you that we will not be able to be first in anything -- math or science or any other subject for that matter - - if only 41 percent of the school day is given over to the core academic subjects.

Finally, I want to encourage every American family to stop and take stock, to take a "time inventory" of how the family is using its time --if they haven't already done so -- as we begin the new school year. This may be one way every family can find that extra time for learning. I want to suggest seven good practices that may be helpful to parents and family members.

First, take a time inventory, as I said, to find the extra time you need so the family can learn together. Commit yourself to learning something with your children. I think you will be rewarded and find happiness and joy in the shared effort.

Second, commit yourself to high standards and set high expectations for your children -- challenge them in every possible way to reach for their full potential.

Third, limit television viewing on a school night to a maximum of two hours even if that means that the remote control may have to disappear on occasion.

Fourth, read together. It is the starting point of all learning.

Fifth, make sure your children take the tough courses at school and schedule daily time to check homework.

Sixth, make sure your child goes to school every day and support community efforts to keep children safe and off the street late at night.

And seventh, set a good example and talk directly to your children, especially your teenagers, about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and the values you want your children to have. Such personal talks, however uncomfortable they make you feel, may save their lives.

This is homework in the true sense of the word. It is also preparation for life.

I want families all across America to know that we are all with you in this effort. The whole country is on your side. The President, Vice President and I will do all we can to promote these seven basic steps. You are not alone in your efforts to raise your children to follow the Golden Rule, to be good citizens and to learn the importance of what it means to be a proud American.

Now, I want to turn my attention to the unsettling reality that there is a disconnection between educators and parents that needs our attention. As I said in my "State of American Education" speech last February, too often parents and educators talk past one another. Many parents feel that their right to be involved in school policy -- to be full participants in the learning process -- is ignored, frustrated and sometimes even denied. They do not feel valued, and too often they find education jargon to be a putdown.

Kathryn Whitfill, the President of the National PTA, told a group of educators who were meeting at my office several weeks ago about how put off she felt walking into a school recently to be greeted by a sign that read, "Notice: Visitors Report to the Front Office." It was, to her mind, a cold, sterile greeting to any parent visiting the school, with all the warmth of an unexpected legal notice.

This sign, as she related to a room full of nodding heads, was one small but vivid symbol that parents were less than welcome. There was nothing inviting ... nothing that suggested that parents were, in fact, the true owners of the school.

But I also know that there are countless schools and educators who have reached out to families and have been rewarded with higher test scores, active PTA's, volunteers, tutors, mentors, strong parent/community/school partnerships and "Security Dads" walking the halls.

James Comer, who has done so much to set the agenda for good parental involvement -- Dorothy Rich of Megaskills -- Ernie Cortez, a MacArthur Fellow, who is making parent power work in Texas -- and Henry Levin, the leader of the Accelerated Schools initiative -- are just a few of the many educators who have seen the potential and promise of family involvement in education. All across this country, teachers are hungry for parents to connect up with them when it comes to educating their children.

This is why I urge educators everywhere to change those signs on the school door that give parents the cold shoulder. Listen with an open ear. Reach out to parents as partners. Be creative in using the new technology -- from voice mail, to homework hotlines, to CD-ROM programs that are educational and now on the market -- and even the old telephone -- to get parents more involved in the learning process.

Parents -- including those who have strong religious values -- must be at the table when it comes to public education. But they must also be willing to build bridges and not see public education as the enemy. I assure you that nothing will be gained by tearing down public education and making the public school classroom the Bosnia of America's competing factions. When a community is divided, the children always suffer. Good common sense should tell us that now is the time for quiet voices to be heard in the search for common ground.

It is my hope that families, religious and civic groups and schools can come together to create a moral climate that sustains a culture of learning. A culture of learning rooted in the great common tradition of basic American values of democracy, honesty, self-reliance, hard work, and respect for the civic responsibilities of all Americans to participate in our democracy.

We must save this generation of children -- we must not lose them. So I shall spend much of my efforts in the coming year working with everyone to promote this family involvement partnership for learning. I ask all Americans to please tune in -- to recognize that anything we do to connect with our children -- to give them a sense that their lives and their learning matter to us -- is good for our children and good for our country.

Together, we can start a fire of changing attitudes -- from "getting by" to "getting on with it" -- to once again giving first attention to the future of our children. It is our duty as parents, relatives, guardians and caring adults to get involved in our children's education. It is our patriotic duty as Americans who believe in this nation's future to make sure our children are shown a preference in our decisions.

This is the right way to go for America.

Thank you.