Fatimah Ali: Teaching our kids to succeed

THE U.S. no longer leads the world in secondary education, according to results from a recent survey.

Last month, UPI reported that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ranks the United States 18th out of 36 nations included in the study. And, I'm not at all surprised by that, or that South Korea currently has the world's best educational system, along with a 93 percent high-school graduation rate. In the U.S, only 75 percent of students receive their diplomas.

According to Dr. Sou Kim Abou and her sister, Jane Kim, a lawyer, authors of "Top of the Class: How Asian parents raise high achievers and how you can, too," much of a student's success depends on the messages they get at home. They say that much Asian culture, particularly in first-generation immigrant families, includes strict parenting and the strong push for children to make high-paying career choices early in their lives, and pursue the best education to get them there. (The down side is that although this approach has created a generation of engineers and doctors in Asian communities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the pressure for success has also prompted an uptick in suicides in Asian families.)

In our house, we routinely discuss why children should be grateful for the opportunity to study hard, and we hope our parental influence will prevail over the pressure from some peers whose ideas about success don't necessarily include college.

Even so, I'm the first to admit that college isn't necessarily for everyone (especially since it's so darn expensive), and some students are better suited for trade school or union apprenticeships. But I can't figure out what would prompt anyone to think they have a good shot at success with out at least having a high school diploma.

New D.A. Seth Williams says a major deterrent to Philadelphia's high crime stats is reducing the city's almost 50 percent high school dropout rate. And Mayor Nutter plans to open an office that will help more Philadelphians get a college degree.

But city students continue to drop out in discouraging numbers, which makes me wonder what happens in the classrooms to make students give up and leave. Are they bored, or just not goal-oriented enough to make the connection between school and their futures? Or are they simply on an unproductive track because they have different learning styles that school can't accommodate?

I've always encouraged my children to pursue something they love, be passionate about it and get the training for it. I've pushed them to tune into their talents from a very young age, according to their own learning patterns: hands-on, auditory or visual. The one-size-fits-all public-school system doesn't necessarily work for every student. Thus the failures.

A friend and I were commiserating that our teens weren't as enthusiastic about returning to school this week as we'd been. They wore long faces because their holiday party was over, and they face midterms.

But I'm selfishly ecstatic that they're back in school so I can return to my own routine with out the distraction of children at home. I want them to be fully engaged in their academics and have hobbies to benefit their personal development. This also gives me a break, which makes life a whole lot sweeter for everyone who lives with me.

At the national level, I applaud President Obama's push for higher education and his idea that children should attend school all year round to better prepare them to compete in the international economy. Although plenty of American kids would loathe missing their summer break, I'm constantly reminded that American schools lag behind those of other industrialized nations, and our kids have to work harder to compete. But helping our children attain our professional aspirations for them isn't always easy, and we have to seek innovative ways to identify their talents.

When he was a middle-school principal, local educator Salome Thomas-El, author of "The Immortality of Influence" and "I Choose to Stay," used chess-playing as a tool to engage children in learning - and their math skills went up.

The message was that unless we drastically step up our emphasis on matching learning style and skills assessment with potential vocations early in their lives, our children will continue to lag in the global competition.

Fatimah Ali is a media consultant and associate member of the editorial board.