I have often said — normally out of frustration — that someday I am going to start a new national advocacy effort to get parents to talk to their children. The idea first occurred to me on a Washington, DC metro ride. I sat across from a parent with her little boy, who was no more than 5, and watched — first with curiosity, and then increasingly with concern — as the clearly inattentive parent ignored the questions of her bright, intuitive child who was peppering her with questions about his surroundings and how to say words he was clearly trying to read. She never answered, never focused, and as I watched with increasing horror and concern, the boy eventually stopped and looked dejected. I’ve seen this too many times to count.

I quipped, to my family, many of those times that I wanted to print and distribute small business size cards in the event of similar situations in the future, saying “Talk to your child - it will help him learn!”

Fifteen years later I’m still talking about it. Peg Tyre, meanwhile, has put words into action, and not just about the scientific value of words and engagement with children, but the value of knowing and influencing what it is education can be as your child moves into schooling at all levels.

In her incredibly brilliant and clearly written book, Tyre informs and leads us about how we can gauge and obtain “the good school” for our children. She reinforces a truism that is often lost in the intimidating world of schooling — that smart parents know how to get the best school for their kids — and oh, by the way we can all be smart!

It is her discussion on finding and choosing the best preschool that got me thinking about my fantasy of instructing parents who don’t speak to their kids. Peg reminds us of the research that connects speaking to learning in children. It’s astounding to think how different a child’s life can be if they have communication (communication that today is interrupted by technology, and crack-berries that reduces the talking and responsiveness of even the most attentive parents). She writes: “Your child’s first teacher is going to have to be one of those highly tolerant and relentlessly positive people who can be kind to your child on the days when it is sunny and your child is laughing and ready to learn, and on stormy days, too, when your young scholar is upset, overtired, and cranky.

More “Review: The Good School, How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve”

Everyone has a story about what was happening ten years ago, on that originally beautiful morning that soon turned into the nightmare we now know as September 11, 2001. I was watching live coverage of then President George W. Bush, who sat in a public school classroom in Florida, as he sought to mobilize people behind a consensus that our school crisis needed a major national initiative to ensure accountability for results at an unprecedented level.

After the tap on the shoulder from his chief of staff, the news people interrupted and the rest, as they say, is history. Weeks later, Bush would begin anew with the late Senator Edward Kennedy, House education chair John Boehner, house education ranking member George Miller and others as they forged a new consensus that money without strings, and without a requirement for student results, would no longer be the way our government conducted business.

As No Child Left Behind took hold over many contentious days and nights of negotiation, eventually, and in large part owing to the new found camaraderie that sprang out of the tragedy of 9/11, a new law was born.

Despite its many detractors and some flaws, NCLB then, as now, continues to shine sun on an outrage that should upset the American public at its core, on a regular basis. That outrage — that fewer than half of ALL of U.S. children are not proficient in basic, needed elements of education, and that children of color lag by another 30 percent — is something that we should approach not much differently than as if a foreign power was attacking us right here on our own soil.

In the aftermath of 9/11, we were reminded that generations of students lack a fundamental understanding of history. Evil acts aside, most Americans did not understand why anyone might find our country distasteful, why we are different, and how other nations and communities have not had the benefit of the freedoms that our founders fought to provide. From that day sprang important lessons that should be taught to generations of students across the country.

Today, while U.S. students continue to struggle in geography, civics, and American and international history, the events of 9/11 continue to offer students a chance to put history and world culture in context.

Two documents are critical to that context. The first, from a woman of much history in education herself, author and historian Diane Ravitch offered this just one year after the attacks: “U.S. public schools must reclaim their vital role preparing students to become informed citizens who will preserve and protect democracy.” She offered seven important lessons, from, “It’s OK to be patriotic” to the importance of students learning U.S. and world history. The second is from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and is their newly published, “Teaching about 9/11 in 2011: What Our Children Need to Know.”

“Those who do not know history are destined to repeat the past.” Today as we prepare for a weekend of commemorations and recollections over the loss of life, innocence and yes, some of our cherished freedom, we need to both learn and remember the values and the facts that make our country great, and yes, even superior.

That is a role for not only our families, but also all our institutions and most of all our schools. Without a solid proficiency in all core subjects, we cannot understand, nor fight against, the causes and results of 9/11.

It’s that time of year again – kids are heading back to school. For parents, this can be a reason to rejoice or panic.

Sure, you’re happy your child is going to begin another year of learning and growth. But, at the same time you may be worried about whether or not your child is in the right environment, if the teachers are properly preparing your child for the future or if there are better options available.

Well, the Center for Education Reform is available to help.

Parent Power provides the tools for parents to become empowered and make the best decisions possible for their child’s future. For instance, Education 101 provides a quick rundown on the buzzwords and breakthroughs in schooling and education reform, and what they really mean for you and your child.

Whether you have questions about charter schools, school choice, curriculum, evaluating your child’s school, digital learning, or even how to stay involved and informed with your child’s homework, the site will help you get the answers you need.

Parents have more power over their child’s education than ever before. You just may not realize it. Parent Power will help you navigate the system and take control over your child’s learning.

You can steal the plays, but that doesn’t mean you can execute the playbook.

This week in the New York Times, Houston Public Schools explained how its troubled schools were looking to improve by mimicking successful charter schools.

It’s great that HPS is acknowledging that charter schools are successful in educating low-income, urban kids. And it’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But, it’s shortsighted to think that by cherry-picking a few plays from the charter school playbook achievement is going to rise in regular public schools.

HPS teamed up with Harvard researcher Dr. Ronald Fryer to identify and implement five key ideas common to successful charters: “longer school days and years; more rigorous and selective hiring of principals and teachers; frequent quizzes whose results determine what needs to be retaught; what he calls ‘high-dosage tutoring’; and a ‘no excuses’ culture.”

This approach demonstrates the lack of understanding about what is truly happening in charter schools.

HPS can’t just pick and choose charter school elements and think that’ll change everything. Charter schools are an entire culture shift that cultivates innovation and provides freedom from burdensome regulations.

Giving more quizzes and making the school day longer isn’t going to have the systemic change that comes out of a true charter environment.

“If you see something good, why not try to replicate it?” said Terry Grier, Houston’s superintendent.

Sure. But instead of just trying to replicate charter schools, why not become one – don’t just steal the plays, steal the playbook.

Once upon a time, in this country, early in the last century hoards of Italians, (like me!), Irish, German, Jewish peoples and more descended on this land in search of something better. From the schools to the sweatshops, they took jobs that paid little and demanded much. Haste, greed and neglect soon became the norm in the American workforce. Labor unions stepped, to collectively support and advance the rights of people to work and be given adequate wages, benefits and a quality environment. It was great, when it was needed.

Today those same unions — in this case in education — no longer protect people who are being abused, neglected, forced to work 15-hour days with no break for food or bathroom. Because of enlightened leaders, workers and yes, labor’s past contributions, today we and our institutions are protected. Those protections however, may have swung too far past the original intentions. For when it comes to teachers unions, protections now are all about labor not product.

Consider the attack by the United Federation of Teachers of New York in successfully challenging a new state evaluation system that would allow schools, parents and the public to know for certain if the people teaching our kids actually is successful at it!

The national unions have been fighting efforts to allow parents to turnaround failing schools. They oppose California’s parent trigger law and have well-documented tools for members who succeeded in squashing a similar proposal in Connecticut. The unions not only oppose real performance evaluations and parent choice but even standards and testing, funding teachers to rally in Washington over efforts to hold schools accountable.

This is what labor unions have become?

Movies have been done, books written, and hundreds of thousands of blogs, tweets, and news articles on the same subject.

This Labor day — which most Americans simply use as a needed day off before the annual renewal of the post-summer work period and back to school season, let’s resolve to change the system that once was needed but is no more. All of our great labors day in and day out aside, our schools and public institutions need the right to put results and effort first.