Family Matters

Students everywhere are harder to reach and teach, their attention and motivation less reliable, their language and behavior more provocative.? This is largely because parents, suffering a widespread loss of confidence and competence, are increasingly anxious about their children?s success, yet increasingly unable to support and guide them?and increasingly assertive and adversarial vis a vis the school.? Examining these trends and their underlying causes, Evans calls for a combination of limits and leverage.? At the policy level, we must rethink our notions of accountability, accepting the reality that schools cannot overcome all the forces that affect children?s lives and learning.? At the schoolhouse, educators can improve their impact by clarifying and asserting purpose (core values) and conduct (norms for behavior), and by becoming more appropriately parental vis ? vis students and parents.? Evans outlines concrete ways to implement these measures, and closes with a reflection on ways to sustain hope and commitment in the face of unprecedented challenge.

"Too many Americans are eager to blame the media or teachers for their children's failure to learn. In Family Matters Rob Evans has the courage to tell the simple truth: parents in America are abdicating their responsibilities. They are not sending children to school who are ready to learn, and educators are being overwhelmed by the behavioral problems and emotional needs of under-parented children. In this persuasive and powerful book, Dr. Evans cuts through our national denial and offers both a hard-headed analysis of our parenting failures and realistic school-based solutions to these problems."

?Michael Thompson, coauthor, Raising Cain and Best Friends, Worst Enemies

"In a brave and winning combination of information, analysis, anecdotes, and personal observations, Rob Evans makes a forthright, powerful case for renewed and respectful school-family collaboration on behalf of children."

Theodore R. Sizer, Coalition of Essential Schools

Evans is a clinical and organizational psychologist, a former high school and preschool teacher, a former child and family therapist, and has consulted in hundreds of public and private schools throughout the U.S. He argues that the U.S. faces a crisis not in schooling, but rather in childrearing, the symptoms of which appear in schools. He examines the changing context of child development in the U.S., offers a diagnosis of students' school-readiness problems that manifest themselves at school, argues that these call for redefining American notions of school accountability, and proposes new ways for schools to cope and to help their families cope.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In this provocative book, Robert Evans takes a sharp look at the enormous changes occurring among children and parents and the dilemma these changes pose for schools.

Students everywhere are harder to reach and teach, their attention and motivation less reliable, their language and behavior more provocative. This is largely because parents, suffering a widespread loss of confidence and competence, are increasingly anxious about their children’s success, yet increasingly unable to support and guide them–and increasingly assertive and adversarial vis á vis the school. Examining these trends and their underlying causes, Evans calls for a combination of limits and leverage. At the policy level, we must rethink our notions of accountability, accepting the reality that schools cannot overcome all the forces that affect children’s lives and learning. At the schoolhouse, educators can improve their impact by clarifying and asserting purpose (core values) and conduct (norms for behavior), and by becoming more appropriately parental vis á vis students and parents. Evans outlines concrete ways to implement these measures, and closes with a reflection on ways to sustain hope and commitment in the face of unprecedented challenge.

LEARN HOW SCHOOLS CAN RESPOND TO THE UNPRECEDENTED CHANGES IN STUDENTS AND PARENTS

In Family Matters, Robert Evans addresses perhaps the toughest job for our schools today–coping with the enormous changes in students and their parents. This important book invites us to rethink school accountability and shows how schools can help themselves and their families improve the raising and schooling of children.

"Too many Americans are eager to blame the media or teachers for their children’s failure to learn. In Family Matters Rob Evans has the courage to tell the simple truth: parents in America are abdicating their responsibilities. They are not sending children to school who are ready to learn, and educators are being overwhelmed by the behavioral problems and emotional needs of under-parented children. In this persuasive and powerful book, Dr. Evans cuts through our national denial and offers both a hard-headed analysis of our parenting failures and realistic school-based solutions to these problems."

–Michael Thompson, coauthor, Raising Cain and Best Friends, Worst Enemies

"In a brave and winning combination of information, analysis, anecdotes, and personal observations, Rob Evans makes a forthright, powerful case for renewed and respectful school-family collaboration on behalf of children."

–Theodore R. Sizer, Coalition of Essential Schools

Robert Evans is a clinical and organizational psychologist and the executive director of The Human Relations Service in Wellesley, Massachusetts. A former high school and pre-school teacher, and a former child and family therapist, he has consulted in hundreds of public and private schools throughout the United States and internationally, working with teachers, administrators, and boards. His interests have focused on school change and resistance to it, on leadership, and on changes in families and their effect on schools. He is the author of many articles and the book The Human Side of School Change from Jossey-Bass. He lives near Boston with his wife, Paula. They have two grown sons.

Introduction.

About the Author.

Part One. The Changing Context of Child Development.

1. “Something’s Gone Way Wrong”.

2. The Building Blocks of Healthy Growth.

3. Back to Basics: A Parenting Primer.

4. Fast Forward: The Fragile Family.

5. Losing Connection.

6. Abandoning Authority.

7. Building Résumés.

8. The New Insecurity.

9. The New Individualism.

Part Two. Limits and Leverage: Real-Life Coping for Schools.

10. Rethinking Accountability.

11. What Makes Us, Us: Clarifying Purpose and Conduct.

12. Redefining the Home-School Partnership.

13. Resistance and Leadership: Building Faculty Will.

14. Parenting Parents: Building Faculty Skill.

15. Paradox, Realism, and Hope.

Appendix: Practical Parent Education.

Notes.

References.

Acknowledgments.

Index.