The One Great Weakness in Educational Process

It was with great interest that I read your editorial (Oct. 17), “Schools and the Future,” describing the appalling California schools dropout rate.

Your editorial specifically touched on the book: “Chicano’s in California,” written by the Stanford historian, Albert M. Camarillo. Extracted from this book was the notion that California schools have proved helpful to Latinos but not to the extent they have proved helpful to other immigrant groups.

I have not read Camarillo’s book, therefore I can only comment on that one specific point mentioned in the editorial.

In my view, the entire editorial, including Camarillo’s feelings about the school system, leaves out one important--gigantic--factor.

It is the one great weakness in the overall learning process that has nothing to do with the California educational system at all, but which, if omitted, ultimately plays the major role in the educational downfall of the child even before he enters the educational system. That one great factor is the role of omission played by the parent.

I would wager that if one made serious inquiry into the family background of Prof. Camarillo and Assemblywoman Gloria Molina, one would discover that the parents of these two individuals were highly responsible people who had a strong work ethic, high values, as well as high ideals. I would imagine that they were the kind of parents who had great expectations for their children. I would imagine also that these parents did their work well by being supportive, instilling in their children a desire to learn and achieve. Hence we have the molding of an ambitious assemblywoman, and a Stanford historian.

The simple truth, admit it or not, is that life in the barrio, generally speaking, is not inhabited by a surplus of responsible, goal-oriented parents. I’m not suggesting that these people don’t love their children. They do. However, translating that love into productive channels just does not seem to happen too often.

As a former Los Angeles police detective for 27 years, I saw and talked to hundreds of mixed-up kids who ultimately became school dropouts. I always asked them the same question: “Why did you do it?” The response was nearly always the same: “My parents don’t care; they let me do what I want.” Other kids would put it a slightly different way: “I know my parents don’t love me because they let me do whatever I want.”

This assessment of a very simple and obvious point seems to have gotten lost by those who research this problem. The truth is these children have not been provided with any of the preparatory values needed to succeed, not only in school, but also in life.

If you enter the homes of many of these dropout children, (as I did) you find parents who are former gang members whose hands and arms reflect all the tattoo slogans of past gang involvement. They are people who have never read a book. They are people who remain ignorant, who, for the most part have not matured one iota since their 10th birthday. Granted these parents provide the basic roof and food, but not much more.

The question then is, why? The answer is also simple. Because the parents before them also failed to provide a worthwhile value system. It’s an unending cycle, one generation after another. What Camarillo, fails to point out, or at least the editorial fails to point out, is that other immigrants, those whose children succeed, did so, not because the school system selectively directed better training to these children; they succeeded because these parents were supportive. These immigrant parents were fully aware of the value of learning, and they were aware of the consequences that follow when you remain ignorant. I’m sure these parents taught their children to value an education, to respect teachers, and to prize school buildings instead of defacing them.

As a Chicano who grew up in the roughest streets of Lincoln Heights, I can look back and say thank God I had parents who were responsible, and who believed in positive discipline. It was they who made the difference. I took what the California educational system offers everyone--a chance to learn, a chance to succeed.

Advocates of any plan designed to keep children in school can throw all the money in the world at the problem. In the end, the problem of dropouts will persist for as long as you have parents who don’t give a damn.

AL BALDERNAMA

Los Angeles