The Sweetest Sound
By David A. Watson, Ph.D.
N.B: I wrote while on the school board for
Pearland ISD
I
stepped off the big yellow bus last Friday morning not knowing quite what to
expect from the Keeble Early Childhood/Pre-Kindergarten Center in the Aldine Independent
School District. I was there with a group from the Texas
Association of School Boards to observe and learn how this economically
disadvantaged, largely Hispanic district has steered itself onto a path toward
academic excellence, something that as recently as a few years ago many said
they could not do. We were greeted
warmly and funneled toward a bright and welcoming space filled with rows of
small chairs, where we grabbed the obligatory coffee and cookies and settled
ourselves for some sort of program.
Curiously, in the front of the room sat several harps; some large, some
small, and one very elegantly adorned with copious gold filigree. I’m not sure what I thought I might
encounter, but I knew it wasn’t this. If
Aldine’s approach to bilingual early childhood education included classical
musicianship, then the day looked intriguing indeed. More about this momentarily. Let me spend the next few paragraphs
exploring some factors that impact educational success.
It
has long been recognized that education begins in the home. A new report from the National Center
for Educational Statistics indicates that poverty, lack of one or both parents,
and use of a primary language in the home other than English are all important
risk factors for pre-school aged children.
In such environments they are less likely to be read to, a deficiency
strongly correlated with decreased academic achievement. Data from the National Assessment of
Educational Progress demonstrate that both parental involvement and academic
achievement decline as the poverty rate increases. Parent involvement at all grade levels is
important, yet the data show that it drops precipitously as children grow
older. Among sixth through eighth
graders, more than a quarter now care for themselves before or after school;
the way in which this time is spent can have a major impact on learning. By ninth grade, some 17 % of parents have no
involvement at all with the schools, nearly 50 % no longer attend
parent-teacher conferences, and only about one-quarter continue to volunteer in
schools.
Is
there, then, a single best answer for how to improve achievement? Perhaps not.
The reality for many low income families is that work is the reason they
are not more involved with their children.
Creative solutions can make a difference, as they do in the Aldine
schools. Courses for parents, such as
English as a second language and basic computer skills, are offered to parents
in the evenings and on Saturdays in exchange for volunteer hours in the
schools. True empowerment, as I saw
first-hand, means helping people to help themselves. It means that young Hispanic parents can
learn English at the same time as their children do, increasing opportunity for
two generations at once. Dr. Rodriguez,
principal of Keeble, told us that parental involvement is vital to the success
they enjoy. She leverages every
possibility for learning against whatever resources she can corral; one great
example is a music teacher who also happens to be a classically trained
harpist.
As
I finished my goodies, in trouped a line of very young and very proper little
ladies, all dressed alike, and all with their hair in curls and ribbons. One tiny gentleman was included, grinning
from ear to ear, and outfitted in coat and tie to match the otherwise
all-female entourage. They gracefully
seated themselves at the harps, with some at the half-sized versions. Their teacher readied herself to play the
beautiful gilded instrument, and slowly counted: one…two…three. The next few minutes were filled with quite
possibly the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.
Teacher and pupils were meticulously coaxing from the harps the first
Christmas song any of us had heard this season, “Silent Night.” It was for me the true meaning of
Christmas. I was happy in the knowledge
that a small knot of children representing a demographic we as a society
largely ignore and often have already given up on by age four or five could be
(and very obviously had been) taught to play beautiful music. Tears of joy snuck into the corners of my
eyes; the moment was sublime, timeless, and unforgettable. My wish this holiday season is that you too
will find your own “sweetest sound”, perhaps made by Cub Scouts caroling at a
nursing home, or maybe by a sixth grade band playing proudly, if somewhat
laboriously, for beaming family members.
Merry Christmas all!