Yesterday, I watched something remarkable occur

Yesterday, I watched something remarkable occur.

My son is in the third grade, and since the first grade I have fought tooth and nail with the school system to ensure that my son is provided all that the school has to offer. Because of my teaching experience and education I demand the best teacher and most highly qualified staff to assist in enriching my children's learning experience.

Throughout this experience I have drove the car and been the guiding force in my boys education. Of course we all know this is a woman's world. I mean woman run the economy, can unknowingly create wars, and are the reasons why health care wasn't free in the first place. With all this said of course we haven't turned to the men to solve this reoccurring problem of failing schools and unanswered questions. Most schools are a No Man's Land. I mean this literally. If your searching for a husband (meaning a man) then you will have a hard time finding one on the job if you are a teacher. Finding a man working at a school is like finding a $2.00 bill on the street, however you will have more luck finding one in a nail salon. The point is most school systems may have the men working as principals or serving on the Board of Education, but we all know who runs the schools, the teachers. Because most teachers are women we pretty much run the schools, too. However, for some odd reason, if you can believe it we still have not figured out why African Americans students, especially boys are continuing to score lower than African American students on standardized tests.

But yesterday, I watched something remarkable occur. My husband took over the steering wheel. This man has no teaching experience. Unlike my son's third grade teacher he has never been nominated as Teacher of the Year or held a teaching license in any state. He is educated and possesses a bachelor's degree in a field unrelated to education. I watched my husband instruct our child in a way that I have never seen demonstrated in all my years of teaching or being taught. He didn't talk our son to death, either. Most teachers like myself have a problem with allowing the students to lead the class. I think we feel like we have more control when we talk over the children and raise our voices louder when the principal walks in the room. My husband worked differently. He actually taught our son how to learn. He incorporated instructional strategies in his instruction like a veteran teacher. He repeated a lot of the questions he asked and did not tire out and attempt to answer his own questions like many of us teachers do when students stare blankly at us after being asked a question. He also asked him how does he know the answer was correct. Instead of just accepting that the child scored the correct answer he actually asked him how he figured the answer out to ensure that he had the correct answer.

Yesterday, was phenomenal. Just think if more fathers worked with their children the same way my husband worked with our son last night I think the closing of the achievement gap might just have a chance. I know sometimes (all the times) us women hate to admit when we are wrong, but I today I will give credit where it is due. I know James Brown was right when he sung "This is a Woman's World" (wink) but maybe we should play their song every now and then.