This Yale Psychiatrist Knows How to Shut Down the School to Prison Pipeline: So Why is He Ignored?
“You know the purpose of the school is not just to raise test scores, or to give children academic learning. The purpose of the school is to give children an experience that will help them grow and develop in ways that they can be successful, in school and as successful adults..” ~Dr. James P. Comer
For children of color living in poverty in the United States, public schools nowadays have become something that sometimes feels like prison, with authoritarian rules, punishments and obsessive concern with obedience. Such an environment does not motivate children to succeed in school, and too often sets them up for future failure.
It’s probably one of the best kept secrets of modern education reform, that innovative whole school interventions designed to help poor and minority children thrive (both socially and academically) were successfully developed decades ago, but have not been widely implemented (or publicized).
One of America’s leading educational pioneers is psychiatrist Dr. James P. Comer. His Child Development Program, started at Yale University in 1968, was one of the first school reform projects to successfully transform the culture and social dynamics of poor inner city public schools, dramatically raising test scores in the process.
For over 40 years, Dr. Comer’s program has shown that in order to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed academically, teachers first have to help students thrive socially and developmentally. High standards are also important, but the process must begin with developing trust and building strong human relationships.
What Dr. Comer has demonstrated, is that the academic success of children (especially This Yale Psychiatrist Knows How to Shut Down the School to Prison Pipeline: So Why is He Ignored? | Creative by Nature:
