In his book “Good to Great,” author Jim Collins quotes the late Admiral James Stockdale who said when you are in a tough situation you must “confront the brutal facts.”

Stockdale knew of what he spoke. During the Vietnam War, he was the highest ranking officer held prisoner in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison. He said it wasn’t the optimists who made it out; they died of lonely hearts by placing their hopes on certain dates for release — i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The ones who made it out, he said, were the ones that never lost faith that in the end they would prevail and leave the prison.

Stockdale spent seven years in the Hanoi Hilton. He took extreme measures at times to fight back by not being used by his captors. Once, knowing that the North Vietnamese wanted to film him for a propaganda video, he beat himself in the face with a stool to keep from being filmed.

You’re probably wondering where I am going with all of this and I don’t blame you. The set up is kind of extreme. Before I go any further, I want to advise the reader that I personally believe that all children can learn. I believe that teachers with whom I am familiar also believe that as well. However, as unfortunate as it is, some children will be left behind. And it won’t be because teachers or schools failed them.

Education in the United States has become an industry based upon statistics, and we all know about statistics. Mark Twain famously said about statistics “lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

One can look at a set of numbers and see many things in them.

We strive for 100 percent success in education with our students. 'Tis a noble goal, indeed, but we may die of broken hearts before accepting that such a goal is unachievable. I personally hope that 100 percent of people can get along and that there would be no crime and that no one would ever get hurt by another person. However, if I confront the brutal facts, I realize that I would be foolishly optimistic.

Goals are necessary for success. In manufacturing, goals are set for production with zero percent error rates. A great goal, but just ask Toyota how that is working. Children are not products that can be cast in molds and produced assembly line style for the same outcomes.

In the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Education conducted a longitudinal study to measure the academic progress of more than 20,000 children from kindergarten through fifth grade. Children were chosen from a cross section of the country. Statistical data such as test scores were measured and demographic information was collected on each child.

Economist Steven Levitt cites eight factors that were correlated in the study to matter in a child’s academic performance and eight that did not have a bearing at all.

The factors that mattered are:

• The child has highly educated parents;

• The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status;

• The child’s mother was 30 or older at the time of her first child’s birth;

• The child had low birth weight;

• The child’s parents speak English in the home;

• The child is adopted;

• The child’s parents are involved in the PTA; and

• The child has many books in his home.



Eight factors that didn’t matter:

• The child’s family is intact;

• The child’s parents recently moved into a better neighborhood;

• The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten;

• The child attended Head Start;

• The child’s parents regularly take him to museums;

• The child is regularly spanked;

• The child frequently watches television; and

• The child’s parents read to him nearly every day.



According to the results of the study, the brutal facts state that success of a child matters not so much on what parents do, but what parents are. In essence, it becomes generational in improving a child’s success.

Just as in the automotive industry, each generation of automobiles get better having learned from the past, each generation of child improves. That I know is an over-generalization, but let me give an example.

In my family, my grandparents finished the eighth grade. My mother graduated high school and had a year of legal secretarial training and my father spent a career in the U.S. Navy. My sister had two years of college and is a loan officer and I have two master’s degrees and am writing my dissertation.

According to the study, it matters who parents are in terms of both socioeconomic backgrounds as well as hardworking, honest, thoughtful, loving and curious about the world.

So, what does all this mean when it comes to public education? Learning is generational, as is academic achievement. It means that teachers will do what they always do, embrace a child and encourage that child as much as possible in the learning process. It also means that the environment for learning at school must be one that is conducive to learning and provides options for those who learn differently.

Students who reach high school and are constant disruptions to their classmates should be suspended, and if the actions continue and the student is incorrigible, expulsion should follow. Expulsion statistics be damned. It is almost constitutional.

You have the right to express yourself as long as it does not infringe upon another person’s rights. Online learning for those who do not do well in a class setting is yet another option and tends to work fairly well.

The brutal facts are, not everyone will be as successful as we would wish them to be. As in any endeavor, there are variables beyond the control of the classroom. That being said, those that I work with in the education profession are firmly committed to giving their all to help all students succeed. The idea of living by the numbers in education foster the potential of educational “Enrons” where funding is concerned.

— Tim McDonald can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu