What Do Good Parents and Good Schools Have in Common?
How to Exercise Authority
Of the 20 schools I visited last fall, two stand out. Any parent would know in the first five minutes of each visit what I knew: I want my child in school A, and I will fight like hell to keep my child out of school B. One was a place of education and one felt like a prison. To protect the innocents (the inmates and their supervisors) I will give these two schools fictitious names: The Learning Academy and BrandX.
In The Learning Academy all kids were on a mission, they seemed lit from within with the joy of learning. In two hours I saw no bored or unhappy student, and they were all engaged in challenging academic work. Each classroom exuded creativity—in every corner of every classroom.
In BrandX I saw three students in the hallway and one in the principal’s office “being disciplined.” The incidence of enthusiasm was so low I had to search for it and never found it. There was a debate at the doorway of one
