David Brooks and his band of little conservative boys now scrambling to scrounge up some uplifting stories? Give me a break!
I'm glad most of the readers see through this. They really think we're like the rest of the deplorable base, who can be less like lemmings to jump into the ocean. Sorry, buddy, I'm afraid it's not going to work as smoothly as Your High Holy Smugness envisions it to be.
I wish the New York Times would just give up with this giving-the-other-side-a-voice exercise, because frankly, their voices are, for the most part, useless, and adds fuel to the fire, if anything.
There is nothing middle of the road or independent about their thinking. We can discuss and argue, agree to disagree, of course and have a so called civilized conversation. But really, with what happened last week and going forward, you really think your palliative blather about "community action" will provide that opiate? Wow! David, I have to salute your chutzpah.
16
Let's join hands with David Brooks and sing Kumbaya whilst his Republicans say "your on your own" and Donald Trump calls us all "losers".
15
If it hasn't been mentioned elsewhere, what Brooks describes is essentially a version of a simple approach any community can take for problems large and small and it's called Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD).
It's easy: Get a bunch of people from a community in a room for a few hours (ideally with a facilitator with familiarity with this process) and do this:
1. Brainstorm problems in the community, large and small, no discussion or judgement and just list/number on big sheets of paper on the wall(s).
2. Brainstorm all the assets in the community: Skills, resources, people who can do different things, and list all those as well.
3. Take a break for snacks and informal discussion.
4. Match up the assets with the problems they might solve, that could be used to develop a program to address the problem.
It's powerful because it isn't about politics, or changing any laws (at least initially), or waiting to get money from the government(s) (which could come later), it's simply a structured way to come up with solutions using who and what's on hand. In our community, this created a mentoring program, a shuttle service, and some other ideas. Some worked and some didn't. But the process was as powerful as the outcomes as it brought all kinds of people together and empowered them to solve problems using their skills, resources, and ingenuity.
You can find some info here and elsewhere online:
https://resources.depaul.edu/abcd-institute/Pages/default.aspx
10
Democracy is melting down in a staggering way...and in waltzes David Brooks with more "good news"?!
Seriously, the New York Times should reevaluate the strength of their editorial/op-ed bench.
27
As I read this piece in the print edition, I realized I had not seen the magic word. I reread it. No magic word. I went on line and did a word search. I found the magic word in a picture caption (which of course did not appear in print). The magic word is "teacher." If the Spartanburg program is as clueless as this column, it's not much good to anyone, much less children.
15
Mr. Brooks, even the Titanic had beautiful furniture. The President of the United States is calling the free press the enemy of the people, mocks sexual assault victims, goes on constant rallies, has lied thousands of documented times, ignores scientific consensus, has built a cult of personality, is entrenching minority rule over the majority for decades to come, endorses white nationalism, calls for police brutality, attacks our allies while worshiping dictators and strongmen, dismisses climate change, threatens nuclear war, is a proven tax fraud by your own employer, employs racist language, calls Democrats treasonous and evil, still has not divested of his businesses, won partially due to Russian interference, he's attacked the intelligence community, mocked women, disabled people, started an unnecessary trade war, attacked the LGBT community, stoked even more religious anger, without evidence claims millions of illegal voters, and on and on and on. Are you serious with this nonsense? This is a five alarm fire, and you're admiring the wood trim.
104
You're hiding, David, time to come out and address the rot that has infested your alleged party, the GOP.
10
I guess I should accept the fact that you will always see a silver lining in every cloud, and that in your months of doing whatever it was you were doing you were immersing yourself in the REAL AMERIKA. Well, I beg to differ. Maybe on 7 November 2018 we can honestly say that a REALLY GOOD THING IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA.
7
Mr. Brooks, The Cincinnati Public Schools Preschool units, more than 100 of them throughout the District, are ranked by the state of Ohio as 5 Star Units.That is the state's highest ranking. Your article gives the impression, actually state's that in Cincinnati "private programs were performing better than the public ones". That is not true. Nor was it the premise of the Preschool Promise public and private partnership!
The Preschool Promise public and private partnership was a tax levy by the District with community support and advocacy. The district levy had a portion earmarked for both public and private preschools, a historic effort by the District and community.
The levy was to improve the quality and number of private providers, expand choice available for diverse needs, eliminate preschool deserts, increase the number of both public and private PK seats and raise the compensation for private not public preschool instructors. We are proud of the partnership, the leadership role of the District the played, and the generosity of our taxpayers. Most of all we are proud of the quality ranking attained by our staff, families and children.
16
It certainly is nice to be nice — not terribly effective but, nonetheless, nice.
6
I notice that we have, in the comments, any number of attempts to (a) dismiss the content of the column because the columnist is disliked; (b) use the opportunity to effectively ignore the content while chastising the writer for other perceived failures or transgressions, and/or; (c) to set up a "bank shot" with the intent of "sinking" some disliked political or philosophical position.
As Eldridge might ask, would you prefer to be part of the solution, or part of the problem?
Seriously, folks, with all due respect, grow up. Discernment is an important ability.
9
I am very familiar with the Collective Impact (CI) model, including being a co-author of a scholarly examination of its benefits and limitations (Nonprofit Quarterly Review, January, 2017). CI methods have been somewhat successful in creating comprehensive community initiatives which do good work at the local level. This is not surprising because CI is essentially a clever branding and skillful marketing of decades of previous multi-sector community collaboration as something new. CI’s simplistic framework was introduced in 2011 without acknowledging the work of others or some of the most important elements of what was learned over 40 years about community-based change. More importantly, contrary to David Brooks' claim CI is "exciting and potentially revolutionary” and where "our national renewal will come from,” there is overwhelming evidence even the best outcomes of local community efforts can rarely go to scale. This is because the U.S. does not have a viable public sector with the resources, policies, and programs to make this happen. The severe damaging of public sector’s viability has gone on since the so-called Reagan Revolution. Why? Because privatized can be monetized.
21
"Trust is built and the social fabric is repaired when people form local relationships around shared tasks."
Wise words. It's very important to remember that as important as government is, it does not have to the center of our lives to live well. In fact, it can often be an obstacle when it tries to do too much.
There is no substitute for individuals just choosing to do good on their own.
5
Dear DAVID BROOKS,
Thank you so much for the good news and your choice of topic!
3
This is kind of like saying Hitler was good for Germany because it brought the world together.
6
Huh. It takes a village.
Whodda thunk?
15
Yes David - restoring our social fabric after YOUR party, and YOUR president and GOP cheerleaders, apologists and sycophants like YOU have spent 40 years diligently destroying it.
11
More, please. Thanks.
This is a valuable and useful movement, but it would be so much stronger if it was complemented by very positive government actions along the same path. Imagine if there was universal health care for all, a decent minimum wage, support for labor unions and worker engagement in businesses, a positive immigration and refugee policy that, among other things, gave Dreamers a path towards citizenship, much more support for public education, action on the long term environmental issues, civil dialogue, respect, and compromise, etc. AND community problem solving. If both were happening, I would be a lot more positive about restoring our social fabric, pride in our country, and our long term future.
10
You are your ilk have destroyed the federal governments ability to make citizens lives better so volunteer.
9
Oh David, David, David. Yes, "it takes a village to raise a child" and to do a lot of other good things. We know, we know. But when Hillary Clinton proposed such an idea some years ago Conservatives when absolutely ape-poop bonkers, interpreting it as a dangerous attack on the nuclear family and parent's rights to control their child's upbringing, and even an implicit endorsement of mothers returning to work instead of being housewives! And, it was labeled Communist propaganda! "The town doesn't raise a child, village, or what have you!” screamed Rush Limbaugh in 2009. “That was just code word for the parents don't really matter!” Watch out, David. The Righties are watching you and they don't like what they see. You may be wearing sheepskin, but you are clearly a Commie wolf out to destroy America.
19
Great idea, good basic principles, and apparently very adaptable, in a world where adaption is hard. That's what societies are supposed to do. I'm surprised anyone remembers.
4
Some thoughts...
This sounds alot like Hillary's "It Take a Village"....
But when are we going to really make a difference and provide the necessary funding for schools...I still see drives to acquire school supplies, and hear how teachers have to buy their own.
Most Chamber of Commerce groups support Republicans, how does this help in raising education funding, or in better salaries for middle class families so parents have the time to devote to school age children... or for pre-school or after school programs.
We need to tax the wealthy class...more proportionally.
13
Imagine that; collective social action is doing good. No invisible hand, no survival of the fittest, just individuals putting community over self.
11
Fabulous, David! Notions of community-based human development are vitally needed and profoundly promising.
And research-based journalism is a great gift to readers. I can't get too much of it.
I lament that collective impact probably tends to depend on families staying in a locality: having roots, keeping roots (across childhood and into adulthood). But America is increasingly a metro nation where fewer families can claim a whole generation in one place, let alone several generations.
And many families can't stay together through even one generation, to benefit from collective resourcefulness across one life.
2
Mr. Brooks is trying so hard to not talk about Trump and the GOP congress. He can not find anything positive to say. So, he is continually looking elsewhere. Some, could call this hopeful and romantic. But, most of us see it for what it is. An attempt to diminish the obvious damage Trump/GOP are doing to our country and to the long term efficacy of the GOP party.
8
Sadly Republicans often work to stymie or outright destroy any progress on change that these people work to implement. And they take pride and joy in doing so.
It's been a winning tactic for generations of conservatives now - decry how horrific the government/current boogeyman is, get elected, once elected they proceed to make problems worse and harder to resolve.
Since the year 2000 America has had 4 presidents - Clinton, Bush II, Obama and now Trump. Republicans have held both the upper and lower chambers of the house of reps and the presidency twice - under Bush and now Trump.
Each time they had this much power, conservatives enacted policies that helped the rich while hurting the poor, and when called out on it they made Democrats look bad for standing up for middle and working class Americans.
Conservatism now is simply about whatever makes people angry without factoring in the future. Yet the laws of nature dictate that nothing escapes gravity forever, and eventually this current juggernaut of lies, money and power will fall. How it shakes the country when it lands is the real question.
5
David. If indeed, 70 communities are involved in this effort, and if Milwaukee is not on that list, do make it at least 71. Add to the program reported below, more than 1000 people attending a three day workshop on the impact of childhood trauma in the last month. Something's happening, so cross fingers and let's get to work.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2018/10/09/table-spa...
3
I found the article is heavy on the approach but rather light on the results of this approach. Discussion is not equal to improvement. Cincinnati is not very good example, because it was not a community per say, but rather the government program that allocated the public money to private pre-K. Moreover, I am not convince that moving money from public pre-K to private ones, instead of using this money to improve public pre-K is such a great idea.
2
What to do if you live in Texas, where time again voters fall for the distraction of lower taxes that are actually designed to preserve the wealth of special interests instead of coming together to bring everyone in a community along.
If you're looking for a caring place to live, research where the Lone Star state ranks in delivering basic needs. There may be pockets of movements like StriveTogether but if so, they are rare
4
This is a fine idea. However, back in the days when there were school nurses (and I am a nurse) they knew a lot about the kids. They knew social issues, health issues, if the kids had breakfast regularly, if they had lunch money. If they had boots and a winter coat. They knew the parents. The kids could check in regularly with the school nurse and could talk to them about issues. (I know this as I substituted occasionally)
Now schools have pretty much eliminated that safely net. It is a shame.
91
How can you argue with something so warm and fuzzy?
The effort in Spartanburg is one of 70 in the nation. It is, in my mind, akin to a random act of kindness. Nice, as far as it goes, which isn't very far.
A one-off such as the effort in Spartanburg is nice, but is represents no societal commitment to the children, e.g., institutionalization of these services for ALL children. It demands no disruption of the basic structure of how we educate and care for children (as would an equitable school funding mechanisms, for example, or even more fundamentally, guaranteed maternity leave or subsidized child care).
What about health care reforms for children that make sure *their parents* also get the care they need?
Yep, a random act of kindness is fine, but a sustained, responsible, and predictable investment in the well-being of our children would be even better.
9
>>>"A one-off such as the effort in Spartanburg is nice, but is represents no societal commitment to the children, e.g., institutionalization of these services for ALL children."
Umm . . . think globally, act locally?
Definitely, do NOT hold your breath waiting for larger-scale solutions for problems that are best addressed in your community.
1
I apologize for this being off topic, Mr Brooks, but given recent events, I beg you: declare yourself a Democrat until your GOP returns to America. There are many reasonable Republicans that respect and will follow you. There is nothing more important than this right now. (Well, climate change is more important, but this just makes my point.).
304
@Dagwood: Actually, the real answer is for reasonable republicans to flip to becoming Independent voters who will ultimately flip center leaning democrats to do the same and create a true 3rd party that will keep both the right honest and the left sane.
9
As usual of late, Mr Brooks is ignoring crucial trends in America and going off an some nice, but at this moment in our history, not really that important.
He finds just too difficult to abandon his base, i. e., that of of the GOP.
5
Sounds a lot like Hillary Clinton's village.
71
Scattered bits of good news about community efforts ,that is not good enough Mr. Brooks. We need good news at the National level about education,healthcare for all and best E.P.A. protections.
President should keep not only his base but all the people in mind and work towards unity and harmony.
5
>>>"Scattered bits of good news about community efforts, that is not good enough Mr. Brooks. We need good news at the National level . . ."
Sounds like an excuse to me.
1
I do believe in these powerful local initiatives which support children. The community of Reggio Emilia discovered the power of such a focus post WWII, when their community was in a shambles. They chose to focus on establishing a wholistic environment to help their children - the Reggio Emilia Approach -- which has become a model for the world. I have also seen how one school within a system, using the same approach, generated the same community action and became one of six turn around schools in the province of Ontario, after only two years. And I bet that these systemic strategies go across the horrendous political divides in the US at the moment. Who doesn't want the best for their kids.
6
So maybe it really does take a village.
11
@Lake Woebegoner
This compulsory stay-at-home parent prescription deeply troubles me. I am a widow with two children. My children (now 15 and 24) were 3 and 13 when my husband died. I am a college professor (with somewhat flexible but still typically 50 hour work weeks). My children are successful and well adjusted, and I raised them on my own. What about families like ours? I suspect your response would be that we should just live in poverty and accept our status as second class citizens, that our children destined (or deserve) to fail because they were so unlucky as to lose a parent at an early age. What about the children whose parents never married or divorced? Would you condemn them all because they don't (and by the way very few ever have) lived the life of 1950s era TV families. The compulsory state-at-home parent prescription is not realistic, nor is it sustainable for the vast majority of families. Let's seek solutions that can actually work in the REAL world.
12
As this is A Really Good Thing, Mr Brooks, would you not endorse this as a federally-sponsored nationwide policy and practice? If not, why not?
6
In order to live up to its democratic goals, the US must provide high quality PUBLIC education to the entire populus. Privatization only erodes this end! Another GOP scam!
5
Too bad Mr. Brooks will never read any of these Comments or learn anything from them. Too bad he does not have the integrity to promote moderation, tolerance & community sharing on a forum such as the WSJ or Fox News. I suspect that is because Mr. Brooks does not enjoy being a bully, a screamer, a liar. He would need to be all those things (and worse) in order for any fan of Rupert Murdoch’s “news” outlets to take his ideas seriously.
5
Working for the Republican Party, Mr. Brooks has spent his career destroying communities. He’s favored tax cuts for the wealthy over community investment, he was a cheerleader for “the war on drugs,” leading to the incarceration of a generation of black men, he advocated for the invasion of Iraq, leaving us several trillion dollars poorer.
How rich that he now “discovers” the value of communities.
8
After long time, I am reading something positive and uplifting. The citizens in America are in great anxiety and depressed. We live in United States , a divided nations a deeply polarized country where politics is tribal and most of the politicians are crook, greedy and dishonest. These crook politicians are always against spending money for education. Most of the GOP congress members, secretary of education and also the president want to dismantle the education department. Our politicians are ruining our country and 96% of the incumbents win. That is the national tragedy.
3
Great story - everybody working together towards a common goal. Not so unusual in decades past. But as soon as the Zombies realize it rhymes with “community organizer” those engaged in it will be pilloried and scorned for attacking family values, the Constitution, Christianity and our God-given freedoms. Just press that button and watch.
6
David Brooks wrote:
"Frankly, I don’t need studies about outcomes to believe that these collective impact approaches are exciting and potentially revolutionary. "
You had a useful commentary until the line cited above. If you don't have studies, then you don't have data. Without data, there is no proof that an approach is working...then you are just left with emotion. The idea that something just gotta be right is what is causing our problems.
9
I agree this is a great approach. It sounds alot like the point Hillary Clinton was making when she said "It takes a village. Maybe it will be more accepted coming from David Brooks.
7
This sounds a lot like "It takes a village" thinking.
9
Yes, David, this is a “really good thing”. And because it is completely antithetical to several key policies of the Republican Party — racism, patriarchy, government is bad, spending money on poor people is bad, empathy is bad, science is bad — I eagerly and confidently await your imminent resignation from that actively-evil organization.
7
But let's make sure to heap mockery on any "community organizer" that might run for President. What a joke that person would be! Not possible for such a touchy-feely liberal idealogue to succeed. As every Republican knows, only miltarists, CEOs and former reality TV stars should apply for that job!
10
Mr. Brooks... I'm sorry, but you're really just SUCH a disappointment in these chaotic and sad days for our democracy. Namby-pampby "feel-good" approaches will not move us past the disaster in which we're now living.
6
This approach is typical of good community planning coordinated by urban planners, and has been for decades. It too is usually effective regarding positive outcomes as well as community cohesion and commitment, when resourced properly and supported from above, like the city manager and city council. Just ask any planner, or read the hundreds of published studies, or learn directly from hundreds of communities where it has been done. It is good to see that these types of approaches, bread and butter to urban planners since the 1970s, are coming to the fore in other areas as well. Good work, Spartanburg, SAM and StriveTogether.
4
What about all those children in tents in Texas, will they also benefit from this program?
99
@Jacquie
Your comment is an example of the perfect being the enemy of the perfectly satisfactory. The logic seems to be as long as there is injustice it is wrong to make a start a making things better.
NYC is about 220 times the size of Spartanburg. You need hundreds of committees, working as community boards, (remember how that worked out?) and coordination between and among them as kids move from home to shelter or new home, and then more coordination with all the various support agencies, and bureaucrats to do this coordination at all levels. Not even talking money here. IEP mandated services don’t even happen in New York.
3
Hi David,
Do you mean “really good” like the gentrification of New Orleans that you promoted many years ago? The gentrification that promoted the development of white capital and destruction of black lives and New Orleans culture? What happened to the 100,000 people who were forced to leave New Orleans. Why don’t you revisit that and tell us how it all turned out? That will give some great perspective on your observations of “happenings” in America!
John
5
In other words, it does take a village to educate a child!
9
What a sick joke it is to see bastions of bourgeois capitalism churning out so many desperate, half-hearted attempts, to unify a country torn apart by the anachronistic relics of the printing press itself.
“The Greatest Story Ever Told” is the fruit of the poisonous tree. That’s the moral of the American story.
The conflict between black and white has existed for much longer than our ‘modernity’ would lead us to believe. There’s a big difference between a canon and a cannon.
1
Brooks uses the word ‘collective’ five times, so cheers to the young Left for moving the needle on the discussion.
3
I hate to say this, but nothing good is happening in America currently. Little bits here and there are not enough.
68
@Geoff S.
Yes. In many ways a typical Brooks' column. Always trying to put a happy face on things as the nation and the planet come apart at the seams. When climate change floods coastal areas, there will be David Brooks talking about the benefits of experiencing marine life up close and personal.
6
@Geoff S. Little bits connect to make movements--a woman who would not sit in the back of the bus, kids marching to stop a war in Vietnam, one courageous woman who spoke out about molestation, passengers who would not let a hijacked plane hit Washington. It takes courage to be in the forefront of any kind of change, including change for the better. Have the courage of youth or the wisdom of experience to RISE.
Sad to say Geoff that if you really believe this then it is more a statement about you than what is really happening in our country. Most crimes and murders are trending down. More and more kids are graduating from high school and going to college. People are helping others and programs like the one in this column are really happening. It's easy to become pessimistic and feel a sense of hopelessness, but don't go there. See the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty. Hope and good energy are contagious.
What we need is a government that actually cares about the general population and wants to improve the lives of the majority. This requires:-
- properly funded education for ALL children. Part of this is paying enough to attract good teachers
- healthcare for ALL so that no one is unable to see a doctor because of financial concerns
- a living minimum wage
- a tax system that helps the lower income people and ensures that the well off pay their fair share and give something back to society for their good luck
Anything less, as well meaning as it may be, is denying our collective responsibility.
5
"I don’t need studies about outcomes to believe that these collective impact approaches are exciting and potentially revolutionary." Maybe you don't but the government entities and private groups who fund them do. Nothing gets done without money. You know that. And money won't come unless results are demonstrable.
3
I have skipped Mr. Brooks for a long time. He is out of touch, but to be fair, I thought I would give him another whirl. However, he is even more out of touch, today, than he was yesterday or the day before the day before.
No doubt, everyone in the world is not diabolical, and those that are, we don't even know who they are, let alone their names. Mr. Brooks, though, is playing softball, when the rest of the world is cutting each other's throat.
This is one of those times where some people feel the need to put their heads in the sand rather than tell it as it is. Frankly, they really don't even know how bad it is because they really don't want to do that. They would prefer to put out pap that some how made some kind of sense, like every cloud has a silver lining. I don't know about you but, with climate change and all, I haven't really seen that lately.
Mr. Brooks needs to dedicate himself, or rededicated himself to discovering the truth about things, and then comment on him with a touch of added insight.
4
Here’s a wild idea: right now we’re spending $750 per child, per day, 7 days a week, $20,000 per month, to keep thousands of children imprisoned in ‘internment camps,’ for the ‘crime’ of being the offspring of immigrants pleading for asylum in the U.S.
We could take that money and do an awful lot of good. Fund education programs like the one profiled here, for example. In fact, $750 a day, $20,000 a month, sends three kids to Harvard - full boat tuition, room, board and incidental expenses.
But no. Our government spends our tax dollars, defying the will of the majority of Americans, out of sheer spite and to pander to the ruling minority’s lowest common denominator, know-nothing ‘base.’
And I wonder whether anyone noticed... the program under discussion is in Spartanburg — a Heart o’ Dixie town that has blossomed as a result of BMW’s enormous investment in a production facility for autos made on the ‘X’ platform - hundreds of thousands of them for export year in, year out. But don’t look now, Fearless Leader is doing his best to undermine our country’s trade with BMW and other foreign-owned auto manufacturers; again out of sheer, self-destructive spite and to pander to his ‘base.’
“Base” is certainly an accurate, descriptive term.
8
This is a very rich piece. I worked in the field of international development. We have been applying the same model in different countries around the world, we called it SCALE+ (System-wide collaboration for Livelihood and environment. check: http://scaleplus.fhi360.org/ ). Based on my experience, the added value of the process, is really in helping communities build their ability to work together, strengthen relationships and alliances that are necessary to solve complex problems that affect the community as a whole.
2
Always nice to hear about and read about communities acting like communities.
3
"But children don’t leave behind their emotions, their diet, their traumas,"
Some of them suffer the trauma of sexual abuse, as do some of the parents. In order for those kids to be helped, someone has to believe them enough to get the perp out of their lives.
Will that job become much harder now after Kavanaugh?
5
“You do enough intrinsically good things and lives will be improved in ways you can never plan or predict. This is where our national renewal will come from.”
And it will be named Gaiamerica.
But our Congress does not care. In fact they oppose.
8
@Terry McKenna:
True, Terry, but they aren't all that relevant at a local level.
For the most part, we can safely, and successfully, ignore them.
1
Gee, I guess it DOES take a village.
And what is conspicuously absent? The Profit Motive - the holy grail that conservatives tell us can solve everything.
8
Gosh Mr. Brooks! Super! I wonder what the "collective impact" of a Supreme Court that's sure to help legalize rolling back all sorts of laws about affirmative action, free and appropriate education (FAPE) and IDEA will have? Or that will help hasten the demise of public education in favor of for-profit schools, as you, even in this article, gush over at the PK level? Betsy DeVos: "If it's what I think it is, I love it!"
Way to go Spartanburg. But education is just one more reason we have to vote the Republicans out. Immediately.
9
So studies suggested that private preschools were working better than public ones. Could that be because -- oh, I don't know -- the kinds of people who can afford private preschool already have more resources at home? No, of course not -- Brooks praises the solution of simply funneling money to more private preschools.
There is no social program that conservatives can't find a way to dismantle, all in the name of helping people.
Those thousand points of light manage, with glaring frequency, to "point" their way into a rich person's pocket.
12
There was a book entitled "It Takes a Village" but since we didn't much like the messenger, it took Mr. Brooks a few decades to come to a similar conclusion. A system of coordination of the "whole child", perhaps even a managed system of a broader community that serves our public holistically might help rather than the TV fundraisers for our discombobulated systems of charities. I wonder if anyone pays the dental bills that cause a child's stress?
9
Collective Impact is not a program, it is a framework that utilizes a systems approach to solving a complex social issue. It involves a profound shift in thinking, from focusing on individual solutions to deeply embedded complex problems, to bringing all partners together to align their work (using metrics to track progress) towards achieving a common agenda. It's a framework that's being utilized by cities, non-profits, corporations, community members, etc. to achieve social change. We are using the collective impact framework here at the university where I work to address huge challenges regarding student well-being.
2
“collective impact” You mean socialism, right? It’s only a matter of time before conservatives slander it as such.
All the pieces done collectively by the broad community you admire, trumplicans are actively and collectively decimating those pieces - education, healthcare, living wage, clean livable environment, and basic humanity and empathy for the disadvantaged - all at once?
StriveTogether is anathema to trump and his ilk. He’d milk StriveTogether for himself just as Republicans do for their wealthy ilk by using our government at their ‘disposal.’
“students were not coming prepared for kindergarten” Right, let’s get Ms. Ross involved with that too - she’ll fix that.
6
This is a great example of a community addressing its most pressing needs. But it will be a cold day in you know where before current Republicans EVER embrace anything with the word 'collective' associated with it. In fact, they will do the opposite - they will use all power to undermine such community oriented collective responses to problems. The right can't abide by such authentic grassroots action because the results more often than not refute their national messaging and they have already proven more than willing to undermine local efforts to shape the community. The right loathes anything that uses factual data to shape policy because their entire platform requires debasing data and the professionals who gather and analyse it. This is a real world solution and the right lives in a fantasy world. I wish more Republicans could step out of the rhetorical shackles they have placed on themselves and support community based efforts of this sort. I don't see it happening anytime in the near future.
4
Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Unlike some of the commentators, I do not believe the issue here is whether intact, two-parent families are better than alternative approaches to the traditional family structure. The issue is whether, considering two-parent families are on the wane, we are willing to support and inspire young minds to achieve their potential. We all can see the best of meeting that challenge in the photograph accompanying the column. That young teacher should get a 50% raise funded by reversing the Trump administration's run-up of the budget for more bombs, more planes and more guns. As Mr. Brooks tacitly points out, bringing about needed funding and getting our hands dirty with the work needed to support our children is on us--each and every one of us--to include getting ourselves to the polls and voting out those whose capacity to look out into the future is so severely challenged.
I moved to this country some 25 years ago from Switzerland. We in Switzerland do not have community organization, volunteering, and charitable organizations as we do here in America. I admired this in America.
You might expect a "But" - and yes here it is. But I came to recognize that charity is in fact a veritable capitalistic organization that redistributes money based on the preferences of a charitable networks founder; encouraged by tax free donations. That is in fact not per-se an unwanted aspect. However I think the best way to organize "charity", community development, education is through democratic instituions (that is government) properly funded by tax dollars with funds allocated fairly through tax dollars recognizing the preferences of the voters.
Why we as a society outsource the most important aspect of education to charitable organization seems at best implausible or in fact reckless.
23
This may be possible in Switzerland but US government institutions are inefficient at best and dysfunctional at worst. One's dollar has a far greater impact when given to a legitimate, state-licensed, non-profit than through a government agency.
4
It may take a village, but all villages function better for children when populated mainly by intact two parent families.
5
So, making children dependent on the kindness of strangers is the solution?
7
We are all, always, ultimately, dependent upon the (collectively self-interested) kindness of strangers.
We call it "civilization."
3
@Douglas no we are not. We are dependent on laws and program Managements, as Michael Lewis says. These have nothing to do with kindness, and are not strangers either.
1
Sometimes the best SAM happens before birth. For me I was a kid and more impressive I knew I was a kid. Even though my country treated me as an adult by putting me on the frontlines. I got scared enough to crawl back into childhood. She was my age. I was her ticket out of town. I didn't know whose child it was. I had doubts. Doubt is no way to start a family the SAM family planning counselor expliained to us. Roe Vs. Wade was a good send. We both went on to lead siccessful lives. She with the next guy up. Took me about a decade to recover. The recovery process included education, training, career and family planning. And, a very good marraige, wonderful family and career. Thanks SAM.
4
This is terrific, but we need a functional federal government as well. Towns and cities can't do everything themselves. Understand Brooks desire to share at least some good news, since we're in such dark times. Thanks very much.
4
First, it is interesting that the article only highlights ONE success story of the program, and it is the privatization of education. Any results on Health?
Second, you are talking about a very small town, or a small city. How does that translate to more dense urban centers?
3
You may have touched the issue on its head. I am not sure, but this town sounds like it could be quite homogenous and relatively small. That situation makes such programs easier to implement as there is really no ‘other’ that may benefit at another’s expense. In large cities, such as NYC, there will always be a group that cries ‘foul’ for such programs as it causes them to lose some benefit to redistribution. Not to pick on them exclusively, but we see it with the Chinese-American community today as admissions re-distribution causes them to have lower chances of getting into Ivy Leagues. Their problem is quite different, however, since they take care of their kids’ futures out of any other group and are seeing the changes as spitting in the face of their hard work and sacrifice. Anyway, this fix sounds good, but probably not feasible in large cities with hundreds or thousands of disparate groups with their own agendas.
1
After the abysmal news lately it's good to read about people doing good things for the community they live in. However, I would have been happier to read that, upon finding that children were not coming into kindergarten prepared by the local pre-k programs ,SAM participants visited the successful pre-k programs available and identified the reasons ( best practices ) to REPLICATE in the public schools pre-k's already in existence. Monies spent on "private" programs could have been better allocated in the public schools and shared among all entering pre-k rather than the select few that private programs cater to. A strong and vibrant public school program guarantees a better educated nation .
6
We had a system for solving problems and protecting ourselves - it was called democratic government. Then the Republicans assisted by the Russkies executed a coup, and suddenly we became another autocratic state. This is what happened, dear granddaughter, and that is why there are streets over-run with homeless and deranged, no public services, no public transportation, no national parks, and our food supplly has become unstable, especially since all the bees died off.
9
@Grace Thorsen
Well said--
2
As much as we would like it to be different, the only significant predictor of a child's academic success is the socio-economic status of the parents. Of course there are outliers, those few children who do much better or worse than predicted. We should never confuse the exception with the norm.
What is it about the wealthy that makes their children accel? Some part is resources (money) and another part is values and expectations.
Every year Boston magazine rates school systems. The ranking closely mirrors the per-capita income of the school district.
4
I will support private programs as long as they are run by private donations, not using public finds impoverishing our public school system.
6
First, we need a national politics that values all our citizens. One that makes it imperative that public schools -- and public health -- are our highest priorities.
Instead, we have Donald and his politics of division. He is a mean person, making fun of people he doesn't like and those who don't agree with him. As long as the world is them and us, we don't have to worry about them.
It's nice to read a good story. How much better it would be if we had a president who cares.
3
This community-based approach to teaching and caring for kids sounds great David. But one sentence in your piece struck me and what's interesting is that you don't address this fraught issue in greater depth: money was taken away from public schools in Cincinnati to enhance the budgets of charter kindergartens that were performing at a higher level. This does not make sense to me, unless, of course, one is interested in gutting public schools and teachers' unions. So, while your piece seems exciting on the surface I have a strong suspicion that you are hiding from us the charter school versus public school funding policy question.
12
The obstacle to the process of collective problem solving are beliefs and structures of market driven strategies that do the opposite of the process for making collective sense out of problematic social situations: they look at the wrong data (e.g. test scores); they focus on deficits; they look for silver bullet solutions; decision making is top down; and fire school personnel who don't perform.
Hard work and decency that gets results. That's more good news than I have had in a while.
Good thoughtful article.
Thank you for not writing about the Supreme Court nomination.
1
Careful Brooks, you are sounding like a'community organizer'. The bane of your party's ascendant vision beginning with Palin.
6
Perhaps we need more community organizers.
7
The residue the the Obama era still lives on, remember, he was tagged a" horrible" community organizer. Unfortunately these good people have to struggle to function under the oppressive iron fist of the Republican Party which believes in one for one and all for none, every man for himself, dog eat dog, and pure luck as a social development program.
4
So, it takes a village?
7
Isn't this called "It Takes A Village?"
7
@coop1980
That's only what it would be called if Hillary Clinton didn't say it first.
1
I hate to break the news to you Mr. Brooks but there is a word for all this working together stuff, it's called liberalism.
12
With all the ills facing our society; A tainted Supreme court, a tainted Republican party, a tainted Presidency, a tainted FBI, illiteracy, crime, gun nuts, job-killing tariffs, religious demagoguery, greed among the 1%, global warming ignorance, the dumbing down of the country, the list goes on and on of a Republican party hell-bent on destroying our country, Mr. Brooks continues to write columns that are dream-like, happy-go-lucky, cherry-picking pieces of small-town communities attempting to fix problems that a healthy functioning government should be tackling.
10
David Brooks it sure sounds like raising a child takes a Village.
7
Yes, it takes a village.
4
Children are being separated from their parents at our southern border.
That's a really bad thing happening in America.
4
As respectfully as I can muster, Mr. Brooks continues to fiddle while Rome burns
7
Brooks lives in a fantasy world. While he awaits for the 1000 points of light to save us in these benighted times, He will continue voting Republican just like thos other well intentioned fools: Collins and Flake.
8
Good piece - but the insight's not new. You might recall the old African proverb quoted by Hillary Clinton: "It takes a village."
5
The wave of innovation and social change is coming from the South?
“Well, I never...”
They'll be the most well-adjusted kids in Gilead. Hooray?
1
whistling in the dark...
1
Or as Hillary Clinton once wrote, "It takes a village."
8
Yes communities working together at the local level can accomplish a lot but this needs to be an addition to and not a substitute for equally necessary initiatives at the state and national level. The US is the only developed western country without a parental leave program, without universal health care and without a large per child cash benefit paid regardless of parental work status - to list just some of the missing state and national social infrastructure. The worry I have about Mr. Brooks extolling local level initiatives is whether he promotes these as an excuse not to pursue state and national initiatives, rather than as a necessary and parallel compliment.
4
Another fine example is Milwaukee's Harbor District (www.harbordistrict.org), bringing together businesses, industries, environmentalists and residents to create a healthy, vibrant and optimistic focus of the city from what had been a nearly dead industrial wasteland.
1
Huzzah! Lord Brooks has another idea about how to fix things without making the rich pay their fair share!
In this scheme one group of charitable rich people fund a planning process that finds that underfunded public pre-K programs perform more poorly than private ones that can pick and choose which children they take, while another group of rich people reaps the profits from directing even more public funds towards the private programs.
This is pawned off on us as some sort virtuous exercise of civic-minded coming together. But as a model it is nonsense because the voluntary generosity of the rich will never match the real costs of solving the real problems at scale while their determination to maximize profits knows no such limits.
Here is a radical idea: tax the rich the way we did in the Eisenhower administration and properly fund public education from pre-k to PhD so that teachers don’t have to work three jobs. If civic planning of the sort described here is worthwhile, secure its funding through taxes so it isn’t at the mercy of the constantly shifting fancies of rich philanthropists.
10
This is the 99% realizing that state and national government is owned by the 1% and doesn't care about what happens to some kid in Spartanburg or Cincinnati. If anyone is going to care it is going to have to be the "local elites" along with the firemen, cops, teachers, judges etc. who are vested in the community.
3
Nowhere did I see the word "parent" or "parents" in the entire piece. Now David, did you have outside people tracking your diet and dental and everything else? I doubt it. You probably had two parents who were responsible people and you and your wife (?) I presume are responsible parents as well. I personally do not believe that organizations such as mentioned can take the place of parents; the influence of parents for good or bad is just too great.
1
How can one's heart not break for these kids as so-called adults rob them of their future by being rapacious and greedy for power and, tragically, absolutely incapable of confronting the truth of their rapaciousness and greed.
Maybe in some perfect world the truth will set you free but, in this world, it seems the truth will forever be repressed whenever it may stoke fears about the ugliness of our nature. How then can 'really good things' ever triumph over 'really bad things'?
1
A very good idea. But there is absolutely nothing new about it. This, in the form of "Community Action Agencies," was the core idea of the 1960's "War on Poverty," but it did not only focus upon education, if focused upon local people, especially the poor, having a way to influence, and even control, most of what goes on in their neighborhoods. Some black women in Mississippi took it seriously. Obviously the establishment couldn't stand for that. And, of course, the Republican Party hated it and Reagan finally killed it. But it was only part of a long tradition of Community Based management and development. Similar efforts have had phenomenal success in dealing with local, community conflict, especially about environmental issues. The most amazing thing to me is that this community based stuff shows up from time to time as a completely new idea.
5
Every progressive thing that we do in Austin, Texas within our local community is STRIPPED away by our cruel and unusual state legislature (who, like our President, doesn't like "data"). The Texas GOP pretends to hate big government until their own cities do anything new and different...that, (god forbid) would improve life for the environment and its citizens. If a city bans fracking, the legislature makes it impossible for cities to ban fracking. If a city bans plastic bags, the legislature makes it illegal/unenforceable for cities to ban plastic bags. Communities can only thrive if they are given the space and freedom to do so.
274
@RP
Texan Republicans, like Republicans just about everywhere, love "limited government" UNTIL those limitations reach into their wallets an kit bag of power.
2
@RP You very aptly described modern American conservatism. Lots of noise about local control....until it goes against right-wing ideology.
5
@RP Same thing here. Plastic bags-a right! Forget how expensive to clean-up. Such over-reach is ridiculous.
4
I seem to remember Hillary Clinton being ridiculed for writing "it takes a village". Isn't that what we are talking about here. We need to get our heads out of Washington and out our hearts into our communities.
3
"collective impact approaches are exciting and potentially revolutionary. "
Oops, Mr. Brooks just triggered the 42% that hate anything "collective".
3
As much as people fear it, big data and statistical analysis is a potential way out of the complex problems wrought by globalization, rising inequality and climate change. It's clear that politics, as in expensive PR campaigns to elect photogenic "brands" who spout one-dimensional ideologies, won't do it. We need to move beyond politics to a solution-based bureaucracy with highly trained scientists parsing data and proposing solutions - identifying causes, creating programs, allocating money - which can be voted on by informed populations, followed up by reports on results, re-analysis and more referendums. Politics divides, and no party in existence has the ability to grasp, let alone deal with, these issues within the ideological frameworks in which parties operate. We need to evolve.
This important article reminds me to take another look at Dar William’s book, “What I Learned in a Thousand Towns: A Traveling Musician’s Guide to Rebuilding America’s Communities.” Williams shows that everywhere, in a host of small places all over this country, the urge to rebuild is alive and well. When that urge, that longing to fix things is coupled with a systems approach, then you are talking about new creative power!
Brooks has advocated much of his career for the elimination of the "wasteful" "nanny state" "resources" that can be brought to bear to assist children who are having trouble, and for a society that reserves opportunity to the already-advantaged. Where does he think the "resources" he celebrates come from? Magic fairy dust? These resources exist because a broader community chooses to tax itself in order to have the resources available to lift up the community, i.e., exactly what Brooks has unremittingly opposed.
10
Good of David Brooks to point out good things happening in America; let’s all hope for more. It is apparent that while Trump wants Americans to turn inward to create “fortress America”, many Americans are working at the community level to counter that mind-set. I suspect that those at the community level doing many progressive things are likely looking outside of America for ideas and examples. While Brooks sees a potential revolution in the collective impact approaches in the US, this approach is actually just the way things are in the Scandinavian countries as well as France, Germany, Canada and many other countries.
7
Parents are essential partners in efforts like this, and room at the table where decisions are made will always add value. In California, a brilliant local educator began what became a national movement to involve parents, to bring them deeply into their children's school lives, to coach them on the leadership skills that would improve their effectiveness. Formerly marginalized parents become role models for other parents and partners with teachers.
"Building working relationships across a community is an intrinsically good thing. You do enough intrinsically good things and lives will be improved in ways you can never plan or predict. This is where our national renewal will come from."
David Brooks. I could not agree more. Thank you.
2
This article point to the effect of positive leadership, one that focuses on the benefits to the individuals, but more so to the community of which these children are its future. Imagine a national leadership devoted to these programs and organizations.
It's as simple as it is frustrating, but it's the only way for us to work ourselves out of this morass and back to the desire of, believe it or not, all Americans.
The changes are happening; we just don't see it because we can't pull ourselves away from the train wreck our national politics have become.
This program sounds great and I’d love to hear more stories about “civic architecture” reported outside of the gee whiz of open reporters. In fact, the NYT could even devote a section to this kind of pursuit. I believe strongly that civic architecture (or social infrastructure as it’s also been reported as) is being neglected for shiny big narratives. And not just metaphorical, but literal architecture is also being neglected for top down narratives.
Still, I can’t help but notice the crop of Flake Sasse conservatives that come out of the wooodwork during R times to preach civility and notice how good things are going. Were are you during the Obama years?
1
Any time you can get a community to work together, it's positive, and a model for others. At the moment, as a nation, we're drowning in negativity. If we can cooperate at the local level for the benefit of children, it's a start.
Finally! Good news and positive action to affect change where change is needed. Our country is not so much broken as distracted. This is a wondrous new direction. What is not working is being addressed by a community with a desire to improve lives. I’m going to be praying that this new heart of individual involvement will spread like wildfire. This is how transformation happens. How our country can be united and healed. People count - one by one, one on one.
Thank you for bringing this to light. And it is that, a light.
Glory be!
David Brooks has discovered it takes a village to raise a child.
4
So, it does take a village?
5
@EW: We are designed to live in villages, and when you remove the village, it places too much of a burden on the family. When you replace loyalty to your tribe with loyalty to your nation, it leads to nationalism.
I see it as a stacked protocol: family, village, nation. When you remove the piece in the middle, the family and the nation become dysfunctional.
2
Someone once said “It takes a village.”
5
If we all pull on the slingshot together, David says, we little Davids can take down even the most Goliath of problems. I’m really getting tired of this conservative bedtime Bible story.
6
So it does take a village.
3
Kinda like: "It takes a village ..."
3
David, it sounds like you are saying: "It takes a village"
Sounds like a book title.
3
Better to light a candle then curse the darkness I guess. But there is a blazing inferno right behind you David that you ignore and thus enable. Turn around and enlighten yourself by working for justice and equality.
4
I live in France. Here, my dual French/American citizen child is educated in the public system. It is free and the teachers are outstanding. They take into account that he is dyslexic, and there is actually a specific protocol in place to help him excel as much as someone without dyslexia. He is given free music lessons at a high level with a loaned instrument that costs me zero euros in a beautiful, high-performing conservatory.
His healthcare is almost completely free.
He is thriving and his education is at level if not higher than the Kavanaugh-like prep school that I attended as a child.
Last time I checked, France was steeped in capitalism and not cut off from the world.
Oh, but they take care of their own. And they don’t have an outrageous deficit, though I won’t claim it is perfect.
This is possible in America. And it doesn’t require breadlines and death panels or whatever else idiots think social programs foist on a country who employs these things.
417
@Jane L
FYI: There is no free. France and other socialist democracies are struggling financially to pay the bills of all those wall to wall entitlement programs. It's a Ponzi scheme. No way do most of the French pay their fair share, and like in America more than half pays next to nothing. As we saw in 2008, when the economy crashes and the upper middle and upper incomers are hit hard, dysfunctional bloated numbers of government employees and useless bureaucrats get trimmed, and non-functioning fraudulent programs collapse. When the economy bounces back, so do the non-functioning people and government giveaway programs. What will the takers do when there are no more makers?
@Jane L: If France is “steeped in Capitalism”, How about Trumpland AKA the not so great USA?
1
@Jane L: Way to go! In quite basic ways which are not healthy for us, Americans' quality of life suffers relative to Europe.
A culture reflects a society's values. Everyone should immerse in a foreign culture, the earlier the better, and see what you are missing.
2
All of this comes down to one thing as David's write-up attests. It demands that you pull yourself away from your self-absorption. It requires you get involved in your community. Do it for yourself. Do it for your children and their future. Engage in selfless acts that aid their future; one you may not live within because it will be their time, not yours. Like Moses at the edge of the promised land you may not get there but you can at least see it and set the way for all those who will end up living there. That is the task for all us adults living today isn't it? Carving the path for that future. And it's a glorious task if we but do it. So let's get to it, shall we? Get involved.
John~
American Net'Zen
1
Brooks loves “localism” and individuals taking control of their lives. But how is localism coordinated on a national level without becoming an ineffectual patchwork? How is it funded without privatizing it?
How far is Brooks willing to go with localism? Would he extend it to education on a broad scale? To healthcare? Would he be willing to have local communities oversee and control local corporations and business? Sounds like socialism.
Brooks loves the term “social fabric,” but what he won’t talk about is how his cohort of conservatives have spent decades constructing a Machiavellian master plan to rip the social fabric to shreds. Brooks is either extremely naïve or is a tool of the Right whose purpose is to distract from what is happening in this country by talking up little success stories – efforts that are acts of desperation because the oligarchs and conservatives have gutted communities in the first place.
8
Mr. Brooks, I long for the day when I read your renouncement of the Republican Party and all the divisive tactics you've identified . I long for the day when your plan for national renewal really takes off and elects responsible governors who value Medicaid funds for their citizens, representatives who remember their campaign promises , eschewing the corporate lobbyists knocking on their door.
3
When your government gives up on you, you have to work within your community. Now, the big question: Can government stay out of the way or will they need to claim this success as their own? "Possibly the greatest success since George Washington, yada yada yada."
This is nice and all, but I wonder what kind of a world Brooks lives in. Our institutions are failing us, we have a destructive, ignorant nut case in the White House, and Kavanaugh virtually guarantees that the legal environment of our politics will revert back to the 1930s. Given the insane polarization the GOP has fomented, it is a sure recipe for civil war.
7
Dream on, David. Not going to even dignify this column by reading it. You do every sexual assault survivor in this country a disservice by writing a column like this only days after one of the great tragedies in this country’s history, the partisan confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh followed by Donald Trump’s diatribe against the women he has savaged by calling them liars. Only a man could write this column.
3
If Betsy DeVos were to sink a ship, David Brooks would write an article praising the backbone of those people who managed to survive. Yes, it's wonderful, but what about Betsy DeVos?
6
I hope they have have read some W E Deming. Maybe start with The New Economics.
1
The one specific example Brooks gives is diverting public-school funds to private schools? Sorry, makes me suspicious.
8
I have to hand it to David Brooks for trying to find a really good thing happening in America, when the shadow of doom has been cast upon our country after the recent debacle of Brett Kavanaugh, and the actions of the Republican Senate and this president.
And while all the things that he's noted here in this article about community resolve and commitment are all truly commendable, nothing takes away from the fact that we are currently confronted with one of the most racist, conservative and volatile administrations in the recent history of this nation.
And no matter how well prepared these fine kindergarden students are in Spartanburg, S.C., their chances for any kind of success in this society are slim unless they can hang their blackness outside the door....You call this 'winning'?
5
In other words, it takes a village. :)
See also Friends of the Children (https://friendsofthechildren.org/), a program that's run for 25 years in a growing number of cities.
4
Community Problem Solving!
These are Americans at their finest.
I've often said, Hand a "community problem" to 5 PTA presidents and lock them in a conference room for 5 hours. They will have the solutions outlined, required money appropriated, and project fully staffed before 3pm when they have to pick up their kids from school!
Mr. Brooks,
So now you're saying that it takes a village? What ever happened to I made this? I'm so confused.
4
All while our country is being ruled by an unbalanced dictator, and a Congress who strategically supports him with their long held disdain for representative democracy, and now the third piece, SCOTUS, has lost any credibility.
3
You could almost say, “it takes a village.” Now where have I heard that before?
4
the awakening of local politics is one of the weird side effects of the trump era
3
It takes a village. Community organizers who bundle together multifarious programs and tell local people how to use them. How dare you pretend you just discovered these basic truths. How dare you imply they are hidden facts, buried in the nonpartisan data you've uncovered. There is a word for people who know these truths and have consistently acted on them since the 1930s, the 1960s: Democrats. As in, the Democratic Party. We pioneered social science in service of equal opportunity and the betterment of all. Republicans fought us every inch of the way. Give us a break with your breathless wide-eyed "revelations." We have known these things for coming on a century. We are much much more than "identity politics" and always have been -- do your homework.
4
There are some wonderful people, doing great things for others in America. Unfortunately, they are not setting the moral tone for your country. How's that working for you?
4
it seems a bit like extolling the virtues of family recycling to combat climate change . . . good . . . important . . . virtuous. . . but completely out of scale and out of touch with the damage done by coal-burning power plants and our poisoned-policy-belching president.
3
If public isn't working, then turn to private. If the federal government is being dismantled, go local. And here we are in South Carolina solving problems, with a photo but not a word about race. You write well, and enjoy thinking, so I won't give up, yet.
2
David Brooks' column today is another description is a more elaborate version of "it takes a village to raise s child". That idea was of course mocked by Republicans because of who the messenger was. Sad.
5
David is now using this column to avert his eyes. Perhaps it's the only way he can avoid responsibility for setting the stage for Trumpism. It's an appalling display of self-forgiveness.
3
Sounds like "it takes a village to me."
4
It is really too bad that America isn't just one big united community seeking to form a more perfect union like all these smaller communities are attempting. Wait.... what?
3
Ain’t this “SAM” business just what a public school system would do if it hadn’t been cannibalized by segregationist private schools and charters? Now we have to throw in another layer of bureaucracy to monitor the disparate tracks kids move thru in our segregated education systems. Which is crazy when you think that the presumed reason that charters and private schools exist in the first place is their superiority. Why the need for monitoring?
3
It's great that these programs exist, and we should hope for more of them. But we should do more than hope — we should have structural governmental support for them, so they truly will spread. Government is supposed to work to benefit people, and not the kind of "people" that corporations are now supposed to be.
But if someone were to introduce a bill to develop and pay for collective impact structures like StriveTogether, your party would shoot it down in an instant. "'Collective?' Just another socialist left-wing attempt to let the government take over our lives!" Mr. Brooks, how can you continue to be a member of the party that is determined to sabotage all programs that actually address human needs?
4
A conservative all-in for collectivism provided the collective has no power to collect taxes ... nor to legislate, regulate, adjudicate, or be held directly accountable by voters. Otherwise, such admirable resource coordination efforts as these might be mistaken simply for attributes of good government. Can't have that. What Brooks is for is toothless government, called by barbarous acronym or uplifting neologism, so as not to use the G-word.
2
Thank you for shining a light on something positive happening in the US. "Think globally, act locally" seems to be the most effective way our country is going to address its challenges.
7
Sounds like it’s a wonderful program.
Maybe David Brooks could persuade the Koch brothers to underwrite the spread of such programs as opposed to their current practice of underwriting the elections of politicians who are committed to cutting the funding of anything resembling investments in the education, health or welfare of the masses.
I doubt the Koch brothers would be receptive to the idea, however. They have found they can obtain a higher ROI by buying politicians.
19
"Sometimes social policies are distorted by the tyranny of randomized controlled experiments..."
Sometimes? When? Example, please.
Hardly a tyranny. Scientific thought and methodology have been carelessly pushed away by many conservatives.
Example: Lack of funding and restrictions on the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to study gun violence. Legislation prohibits CDC studies of how gunmen acquire their weapons or whether restrictions on access would lower crime rates. Will individual communities tackle this problem with the NRA looming in the shadows?
Longitudinal approaches and point in time randomized trials of an intervention are NOT mutually exclusive. No one who truly understands both the value and limitations of any one scientific study and the numerous contributing factors - both known and unknown - will advocate sweeping policy changes based on a single result. The "tyranny" is in refusing to undertake scientific studies of important problems to protect the interests of one of more special interest groups.
But do not dismiss the ability of well designed studies to provide valuable knowledge and directions for further study and policy change. Do not close your mind to any approach - old or new - that has potential to provide helpful insights for achieving better lives for all.
9
@Gary H
Brooks can be tyrannical in his anti intellectualism in sounding "reasonable".
RCTs have been instrumental in advancing vast parts of science through their ability to test causal theories.
They have the potential to replace "right wing ideology" with their assumptions about rationality and choice.
Not all communities are equal. We all don't go to Georgetown Prep and have our pathway greased into Yale and then the Supreme Court.
We don't all start in life at the same starting point. Conservatives gloss over the extent of inequality, the impact of inherited wealth and the resistance of the moneyed classes to change.
RCTs provide insights into pathways for change strategies.
If you want to discuss TYRANNY David, talk about Citizens United and secret and hidden money in congress.
Michael The Retired Army Officer and Vietnam Veteran
13
@Gary H: There's nothing at all wrong with extreme specialization. The problems arise when you try to apply it to a complex system without considering the other influences. It provides exacting information about a single vector, in a system that can be influenced by many other things. It is a useful tool for understanding life, but it is not the only one.
1
@Gary H: The conservative leaders understand all too well the power of scientific thought, and I'm willing to wager they believe it. They push it aside when it interferes with their agenda, and they confuse the issues to get people to support them. Their money and power are more important to them than the the truth, or people's health and well being. I offer the tobacco lobby as exhibit A, and Monsanto/glyphosate as exhibit B.
3
I applaud Spartanburg's decision to choose collaboration over competition in seeking new pathways into their future. I hope it catches-on in places like Kansas City Metro Area. The city and suburbs need a shared vision that might - just might - change the lives of those who live in the shadows and not the bright light of opportunity to live fully.
What makes this difficult is that it is so difficult to rise above the dysfunction of our leaders of families, cities, states and the nation.
3
‘But children don’t leave behind their emotions, their diet, their traumas, their safety fears, their dental problems and so on when they get to school. If you’re going to help kids, you have to help the whole kid all at once.’
So why do so-called conservatives continually demonize ‘failing’ schools and teachers’ unions for America’s educational failures while, at the same time, fighting any initiatives that would improve diet, safety, home life and medical and dental care for it’s children?
19
@PM
And why do so-called family values conservative religious Republicans never let their foot off the gas when attacking or denying equal rights to girls and women over the last 40 years?
3
No social policy or social program or social spending will make up for having a mother and father in a functional home, period. People who don't see this, or don't want to see this, are rearranging furniture on the Titanic.
2
@Gerald You need to deal with the reality that functional homes have been disrupted by a number of outside forces, for example,
families where parents must work multiple jobs just to keep their families fed and housed
families who have a parent debilitated by illness that could be treated but are not because of the costs of medical care
jailing people for minor offenses breaks up families. and effectively cuts off a source of income.
overuse of bail requirements keep people in jail for extended periods for minor non violent offenses
families that have been disrupted by violence
families separated by things like military service
6
@Gerald yes, we get that. but what if the child doesn't have that? do we just scrap him?
3
In our very small rural Vermont town in the late 70's, we had no preschool. A very diverse group of us got together - builders, businesspeople, educators, parents, architects, town elders - and pooled our individual skills to design, build and fund a pre-school building project privately. The town eventually funded the pre-school program once we demonstrated success, and we continued to raise money to keep going with fundraisers. The school still stands and operates a very successful program today thanks to the kind of spirit and tactics Mr. brooks mentions in his article.
6
@Alex MacDonald
Thank you, you prove my point. This spirit is neither new nor revolutionary. I'll give Mr. Brooks 'exciting.' It's always exciting when a problem is identified and solved in a community.
2
@Alex MacDonald
We need to hear more wonderful stories like yours!!
1
@JM
I forgot to paint a picture of the political landscape at the time. Many of us pushing this pre-school initiative were newcomers to town - so-called" flatlanders."
Our desire for a school was met with skepticism and some push back which was consistent with the antagonism between the two groups. I think the project bridged this gap and brought together enough elders and locals with small children who saw the potential benefits of a pre-school, and who worked effectively together to make it happen.
Imagine how well this could work in healthcare. It would require a sense of "co-opetition" among stakeholders whose current focus is competition.
1
This is another example of how to keep poor communities in their place and dependent on rich donors to help out on their terms.
This is the next "movement" as everyone can see through the charter school experiment.
Simply put - we would not need this if public schools were properly funded and invested in by their community along with healthy social services.
Those who believe in true democracy should see right through this and vote for candidates that support education, health care, child care etc.
16
@Jennifer Waters who are likely the same people doing this local co-operative thing
Let's not forget Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, which has taken this approach since the 1990's in a 97 block section of New York City.
5
Yes look at all of the wonderful and forward thinking things Americans do in spite of their leadership.
Imagine what we could do if they acted the same.
22
@JKvam
They worship at the Church of the Almighty Dollar.
There is no hope for leadership from them.
3
David’s given up on the GOP so he’s searching for some light elsewhere. Preferably in the private sector, since the GOP version of government looks more and more like kleptocracy.
However, without a major shift in government back to doing what the Country needs and the private sector wants no part of, the USA is heading rapidly toward complete Oligarchy with walled fiefdoms for the rich, helicoptering over chaos as they travel between their private Edens.
34
You may not need any studies to prove this method works, but I and many others do. Your article is notably short on actual outcomes.
And how does giving money from the Cincinnati public schools to private preschools help those children in public preschools succeed? Do public school kids get to go to the private schools?
27
What a fantastic and timely piece.
At a moment when one is losing the will to effect change, you offer a model which will reaffirm everyone's commitment to good government and put people in touch with others who are like-minded, creating a self-reinforcing investment in our society again.
I hope it works.
2
David, go work on your Republican friends and stop trying to blame Americans across the board for our travails. You helped bring Republicans to power (in at least two suspect elections in 2000 and 2016), both of which saw a minority of voters elect less than qualified candidates to the White House. Your love for the Republican Party has now saddled us with a crooked authoritarian.
So, please, no lectures on "character" after the events of the Kavanaugh nomination and confirmation. Until you start making repeated, consistent denunciations of Trump, your credibility is gone!
20
David Brooks is not being "Pollyanna-ish" in celebrating locally driven, broadly collaborative initiatives like the one in Spartanburg. He is pointing out an old approach to civic improvement that was launched in various big cities early in the 20th century, but over time got abandoned or watered down because of the rise of special interests and political divisiveness. I'm thinking of the Cleveland Foundation in northeastern Ohio, the nation's first community-based philanthropy, which for more than a century has pooled the voluntary contributions of citizens of all stripes to fund an array of social, cultural, economic and educational programs of benefit to all, not to some. When people come together to focus on specific problems that are right in front of them, with practical results in sight, political, cultural and religious differences tend to take a back seat. That, truly, is democracy at work.
3
As always, there is a trade-off. Strong communities can offer a support network, but social pressure to conform to the group's values and behaviors is the inevitable flip side of such a group approach. As someone who grew up in a small Catholic community I experienced this first hand. Of course, I can also see how someone conservative leaning would see group conformation as a bonus.
To me there's just no good substitute for anonymous, embedded fairness and equality by the government: taking care of the weaker and less talented is a moral duty by those who can afford it, not a charity or good deed for which group praise or gratitude is owed.
12
Let's see what will happen of these good tries after a second victory of the Trumpers.
2
I love happy, shiny really good things too.
Probably more than David Brooks does, by the looks of it.
Reminds me of the one about the man who walks into the wake and says, "yeah, they're dead, but look on the bright side..."
3
All good stuff, but wake up David. Your party leaders are all jockeying for the Commander positions in the Handmaid's Tale.
11
Two thoughts:
1. Brooks writes: "Frankly, I don’t need studies about outcomes to believe. . ." Like so many, Brooks disdains data and factual evidence, when they should be driver of decision making.
2. A democratic government IS collective action. Why is Brooks praising the re-invention of the wheel when he has so actively nursed a lifelong disdain for the wheel?
19
Welcome back! Mr Brooks,
We missed your contributions over the past couple months. The NYT needs more community common sense, clear eyed problem solving articles like this from its staff.
I always feel a bit more hopeful when I find your column. It makes me aware of the potential for 'good' that people can accomplish......if motivated to work together.
It's so depressing to keep reading articles about Trump.....
and his dismantling of our foundations - justice, journalism, legislature, world affairs etc...
We can all see it. Words become meaningless. Nobody is listening! Even the extended article regarding the baby millionaire and his abuses, came and went with but a whimper!
Politics and business in America under Trump is a disease that spreads and infects. The only hope for a cure is our vote......and to live every day of our lives with faith toward action.
Keep shining a light.....
5
Save the children and perhaps we can save this messed up world. They are our future not the old, mean spirited crabs in congress. As a retired teacher who worked with inner city kids I applaud this approach. In the course of my career I saw so many one shot plans that maybe looked good on paper but never amounted to much. As Hillary Clinton once wrote it takes a village.
118
@amp
Indeed it does take a village and a home environment where education is valued.
I learned to read and write at 4 as my elder siblings taught me and were excited for me whenever I finishe a new book. Then they or my mom would take me to the library where I'd pick out new ones. My parents were also avid readers.
I liked all my teachers and they were full of encouragement and praise.
No private schools were necessary. Just value placed in the right directions.
3
When Hillary Clinton said it takes a village she was vilified for it. I don't remember David Brooks defending her against the vilifiers.
24
This is a great, uplifting article. "This is where our national renewal will come from." That would be wonderful. Local people can do great things. If only the executive and legislative branches would help. You-know-who would have to have this piece read to him. He wouldn't read it himself, it isn't about him. It isn't on Fox and Friends. The R's in congress will pay attention to this only if there is big money for corporations and therefore contributions for themselves in it.
1
How did our lower-middle class make it back in the 40's and 50's?
Well, one thing is that we had two parents at home, one of whom was always at home. Our fathers worked hard to put meager rations on our table, and our mother made sure we had 3 meals a day, none of which were confected foods. Take Cheetos, for example, please!
As for school, we didn't have a SAM urging us on. We had two parents who wanted us to have a better life than they did. They urged us to study and learn, and most of us did. If we are looking for positive changes growing up, look first to the parents.
If you can't find support there, find a mentor who cares about the learner.
The really good thing we need to start happening again in America is nurturing, caring, modeling, urging parents....and two of them....one of whom should be at home in charge of their kids growing up.
38
@Lake Woebegoner We also had catastrophic poverty and Jim Crow. We had a system wherein women couldn't have a checking account without a male cosigner. Gay and mixed-race relationships were illegal. Jim Crow was the worst of it, of course. I'll pass on the fifties, thanks.
172
@GL- Thanks, GL! But most of us didn't have catastrophic poverty. We had survival poverty. Our mothers had a tab at the corner grocery, and mailed a check to them monthly, forging my father's signature. Never did get jail time for that. Back then, most gay and mixed race relationships worked just fine. Don't know much about Jim Crow, because we worked alongside different folks, black, brown & yellow. Seriously, we could use the 50's again, but knowing what we know now, let's hope there's less screaming and no Facebook.
@Lake Woebegoner
Why did the second parent "decide" to go to work instead of staying home with the kids? Could be that the first parent didn't earn enough income to support the family and the second parent was "forced" to make that "choice!"
Pay workers more money and maybe their spouse could afford to stay home with the kids; or, at least quit the second or third job. But Capitalism is an economic race to the bottom for workers. Only Democracy can save us now and it is on it's last legs.
1
This is more Charles Murray social-engineering ultimately used to rationalize cuts in Education,HHS, Medicaid,SSA and Medicare. Sure these programs are good but the cruel calculus means they are replacements rather than enhancements. David seems giddy by SAM’s use of data since it provides a halo of innovation.
SAM is great but it’s wrong to believe that Brooks and his conservative ilk are no less giddy about the cuts in entitlements.
4
David, there is no mention of Trump and the damage he is doing to the societies that can create, manage and sustain SAM's. America must StriveTogether to survive together.
Current politics argue against you suggest cures.
4
We have hundreds of programs because each politician who comes along wants to put his name on a program, and each committee of politicians wants to have control of as many programs as possible, because that is how they measure power. Social spending is structured to benefit the politicians, not the people.
.
As part of a strategy of good government, hundreds of programs would be merged into just a few. Local coordinators would be responsible for knowing their clients, getting them the services they need and deserve, and cutting red tape. New spending would take the form of new tools for these coordinators to use, no more and no less. Old programs would be folded into new programs as politicians change priorities, as they should.
.
It is not enough for the Democratic party to decry the GOP for misogyny and racism and heartlessness. It is not enough to call for MORE government. The Democratic party must organize to provide BETTER government, because the American people are thoroughly cynical about yet another program with another politician's name on it. That is a path forward, and the Democratic party dearly needs a better one to convince the American people to trust each other and their government again.
This kind of work has been going on in New York City for many years. To name just one example, the Citizens Committee for Children of New York (www.cccnewyork.org) - which includes Eleanor Roosevelt among its founders - has developed a comprehensive zip code-by-zip data set on numerous bio-psycho-social-economic factors that influence child and family well-being (from pre-natal care to food security to access to public transportation) in New York City, CCC's data set, its analysts and policy advocates are providing government, healthcare organizations and community leaders with empirical evidence, and fact-driven policy recommendations that replace partisan advocacy with pragmatic solutions that incorporate multiple factors.
2
Way, way back, there was a book that asked Why Johnny
Can't Read. It resulted in a huge scrambling to find the answer(s) and do something about it.
Today, we're still throwing money and time at multitudes of increasingly nutty studies involving more and more people with little of value to contribute to figure out why Johnny still can't read.
No matter what is tried, no matter how many experts are brought together to devise the next program that will surely solve Johnny's problem, he will still not be able to read.
He can't because he can't. It's his brain.
Thank you, David, for a positive kernel in this negative, trump-obsessed paper! Finally, a focus on a solution, rather than a problem!
As I read the negative comments below, though, I see that you and I are exceptions in this NYTimes world. Please keep up the good work, in spite of it all.
1
I happen to be having breakfast with a neighbor who is one of the best teachers I have meet in years. She was lamenting how horrible the schools have become thanks to the micromanagement from politicians more right than left. Children’ s needs are being compromised by the constant demand for testing even when testing is ridiculous. Disabled children who should be handled in separate facilities are brought in probably to pad the numbers but instead compromise the function of the whole. There seems to be an ulterior motive in order to make public schools dysfunctional and force privatization. I think the right wing has succeeded in proving it can not govern responsibly. First Bush then Trump and our country going the wrong way.
4
Yes, the social contract has been shredded by rapacious capitalism, selfishness, foolishness,... but these programs are trying to re-establish it. Let's put our shoulders to the stone and see if it moves!
And, of course, let's try to fix the reasons the contract got shredded in the first place, too.
74
Well done citizens of Spartanburg! Our country needs competent, energetic young people willing to work together for the common good. After all, our young people will inherit all the problems associated with climate change that our national “leadership” ignores.
Life is not fair. Good luck.
2
Sense "a text w/o a context is a pretext," I think you better read today's Krugman to get a sense of what's going on in your own party. The GOP on the edge of bringing totalitarianism to America. If you think that's hyperbole, read it. The Republican yes machine waits in hope that if only it can hold the three branches of power, there is nothing to stop them from combining them into a bundle of arrows.
Perhaps your article for all of its genuine good hope serves another purpose: balm that cushions the fall, and therefore prepares for it. Untrue? Then leave the GOP NOW. Your suits grow threadbare.
1
It's 2018, the failures are manifest and disastrous, his party is in full command of the federal government and many local ones just as he demanded his entire adult life with all the money money can buy behind him and his fellow "conservatives", and what is Brooks doing -- why, hawking his two-minute non-governmental panaceas, as always!
"Religious leaders"! "Nutrition experts!" "Chamber of Commerce", "etc." So good! So private! So free from oversight!
Of course, in other countries they see keeping people out of poverty, and particular children as a matter of national duty and obligation. And, consequently, they don't have much of it.
But we? Oh, no.... "Life is longitudinal"!
1
Social-engineering rubbish from a pseudo-conservative. Kids get off track because their parents duck responsibility and too often just dump them off at school, counting on overworked and underpaid educators to raise their children. My theory has always been that only about 50% of a child's education comes from school. The rest comes from that child's parents and family. A village might help and provide a social salve for a child. But get real Mr. Brooks -- it takes a family to raise a child.
2
This is where our national renewal will come from. With Republicans in charge, of course.
Would that a pre-requisite of holding any State-wide or higher elected office was 2 years of such "community organizing" experience. That, now, really could change the world.
96
@ddbbuu: I like your suggestion very much. Two years, particularly if in the same organization, seems about right. I am curious about one detail: why restrict the requirement only to "State-wide or higher" elected office? Wouldn't you expect that members of the House of Representatives would also benefit from such experience?
We'll need a Constitutional amendment to make this happen. That doesn't imply we should all throw our hands up and wail, "It's impossible!" No, it just means we'll need some time. That doesn't have to be forever.
1
@ddbbuu Remember in 2008 how Republicans derided Obama as not having had a real job because he was a community organizer.
1
David Brooks unfortunately misses a main point. When children begin school unprepared, head-start programs are useful....But the main point is that all too often these children are not well raised by parents--if indeed they have parents--in their earliest years. And when they grow to adulthood, all too often they continue the cycle of poor parenting.
So, citizens, what remedy for this?
1
Just think how well education and development of people could work if we didn't drastically cut taxes and programs that help the poor and less fortunate!
1
First, note that I am so glad that the reasoned voice of Mr. Brooks has returned to the Times. I had missed his thoughtful and reasoned voice.
To SAMS, it can only be said that this is an ideal model for civic action at the local level. While it is encouraging that it has moved from Cincinnati to many locations around our country, the looming question is how to push it more deeply into the process of meaningfully addressing local issues through coordinated, cooperative local work.
My larger question is that in the context of a better functioning national government, clearly not at present, how might using this model be incentivized by the federal government as part of funds provided to states and localities. I do think there are opportunities here.
1
Coordination of efforts and team work is the key and it seems to be working which is absolutely great.
I am always so glad to hear of team work going on within America within local communities. It makes up for the deliberate divisiveness happening in Washington.
The difference is that Americans in communities care about others. Trump and the GOP and his appointees only care about themselves.
3
I remember a time when the Government did the community organizing because its priorities were the well-being of all its citizenry not just the wealthy.
16
Mr. Brooks is his usual Pollyannish self here. As the changes in our society, many brought about by his favorite party, the GOP, have led to the destruction of institutions that held us together he says a good thing is happening in America. Maybe in his America good things are happening but not in the America many of us are currently inhabiting.
When people cannot find jobs, cannot afford any housing, are told that they are worthless by their country, are forced to beg for charity and denied it anyway, it's not a really good thing. When all our sources for help are as in need as we are there is no help to be had. When an entire area is poor and been abandoned by all levels of government and the people don't have the will to do more than get by that's not a really good thing.
What Mr. Brooks fails to understand is that a great many of the problems facing people today have nothing to do with these people being unwilling to work or to be productive citizens. These problems came about because of the mismatch of jobs and locations, ageism, greed on the part of the richest in America, and our politicians interest in power rather than their constituents well being.
Corporations are not people. Corporations have become parasites. If Mr. Brooks understood this he might write better op-ed pieces.
14
Mr Brooks does not seem to understand that these community initiatives are rising because the fabric of society in SC is being gutted. The South Carolina politicians have handed out cash like crazy to bring in businesses from other states and cut back on all social and educational programs to fund it. When these new companies arrive, they cash in on tax incentives and then find that the education system is poor and underfunded - meaning that their next generation workforce is uneducated and their health care is the second highest cost in the country. Talk to some of the new big company HR professionals about what they think about South Carolina.
Spartanburg people are doing these "Good Things" because their local government has abandoned them. Hung out to dry.
So by all means heap praise on these initiatives, but tell the whole story. People are Striving Together they should be Thriving Together in a more enlightened society.
37
Another Brooks reminiscence about a thousand points of light.
These sentimentally satisfying programs are a symptom of a society that has abandoned the social contract and the broad commitment to systemic justice. All over America, communities are piecing together efforts to counter the loss of social services, the decline in school funding, the erosion of constitutional protections for the least advantaged.
Some of these folks are sincere. But many of them are complicit in the corporate takeover of American society and support these programs as a way of appearing to be concerned citizens.
Charity is not justice.
26
Once again David, you show that there is a sane middle ground that gets things done. This is an approach that should be used for all civic problems, particularly economic developement. We do studies and create focus groups but never bring all elements of socient together to wiegh in on what we want as a society and to be part of any change that needs to take place. We look for some magic bullet, an Amazon Headquarters, a big Fortune 500 company, to turn us around, when there are local companies that could expand and make a bigger difference for a much lower cost. We need to take this approach to education, community health, senior care, economic develpment, every ascpect of our lives. I hope you keep a light on this process and show us how to grow it in our individual communities.
2
anti trust laws are supposed to help mom and pop businesses,what happened?@Anthony Mazzucca
While the approach won't solve everything, it seems to remind me that "it takes a village".
11
Unfortunately the Republican concept of divide and conquer works strongly against these local initiatives. The grotesque income inequality fed by the Republican's trillion dollar tax cut also undermines any possible success for these programs. No, Mr. Brooks, there can be no doubt the problem of our cancerous chief executive and his Republican henchmen cannot be ignored. There can be no hope until they're gone.
15
@jonr
Income inequality is a factor in every country on the planet, moreso in those that have experienced wild population growth over the last 50 years, such as the U.S., which has DOUBLED its population since the 1960s with most of that increase at the bottom and due to 1+ million poor immigrants flooding into America every year.
A long way around to chronicle a system that was put forth years ago, remember, "It takes a village" by Hillary Clinton. You didn't like it then Mr. Brooks, but I guess now that you've encountered it on your own you think it's great. Hillary was right then and it's still right but how about giving credit where credit is due.
9
It is so heartening to see efforts to help young people succeed. One thing is certain: Republicans' efforts are aimed at helping wealthy, white kids succeed. The very last thing Republicans want is for inner city kids to become educated, enlightened, and empowered and then go to college. Because then those kids will grow up to be voters. And they will want people in power who support and encourage what they have benefited from. And they will question whether people like Trump, Pence, and Betsy Devos are really trying to help the kids in their communities. Imagine a system where educators, civic leaders, institutions of higher learning, and parents all get together to figure out a way to help children succeed. All these businesses who have been sitting around waiting for the trained workers they need to fall out of the sky should have been involved with strategies like this years ago. Now they are stuck trying to train them after they have become drug abusers and convicts. The ones being mentored now will be bright enough to demand a decent wage for their work. Exactly what the business community doesn't want. The evangelical community describes it very well. Reaping what you sow.
7
Agreed. Community initiative is great. But you didn't have to destroy all other safety nets to get it.
10
What difference will it make if global warming is not addressed? David, you refuse to connect the earth's wellbeing to action--drastic action--to save the planet. Until we rid the country of the evil that is trump, we cannot improve anything. We need water and food to function. This is an emergency.
25
@Maggie Every day, for the last few decades and for the next few decades, a 1000 more barrels of oil will be consumed today, than yesterday. Even with Trump gone, even with Dems in power in all three branches. we still have work to do.
2
The “magic intervention” is the traditional two parent family, a father and a mother.
SAM sounds like a good program.
But, no program, public or private, can replace family.
“Why are children falling off track?”
More than 50% of babies in Spartanburg are born to single mothers.
https://www.towncharts.com/South-Carolina/Demographics/Spartanburg-city-...
It’s the single most significant societal ill at the root of most problems experienced by children and teens, not just in Spartanburg S.C., but nationwide.
14
A Really Good Thing is Happening in Spartanburg
Yes
In America, no. Spartanburg, a college town is as
representative of the the US as , say Ithaca NY
4
There are some proven methods for "family & community-up efforts" versus state or national know-all's down methods:
1) See the results of the Frankish Population Health study and apply its lessons about literacy literally.
2) See the results of parents, grandparents....etc efforts at reading to babies from a very young age and having good outcomes even with regard to the reduction of incarceration rates & decrease in incidence of chronic disease
3) See the promising enrollment trends at North Carolina schools (Elizabeth City State, UNC-Pembroke and Western Carolina) of having 500 dollar per month semester costs.
4) See the favorable cost-effectiveness trends when physicians and patients band together and reinforce the benefits of Direct Primary Care with doctor-patient relationships unincumbered by profiteers & made more valuable by a laser focus on patient need versus computer face time doing meaningless documentation.
Hm. I seem to remember someone writing a book called, let's see, what was it? Oh yes, "It Takes A Village". Someone, who, if she'd become president as the majority of voters wanted her to, would have certainly supported these kinds of programs.
24
Good one David! Collective problem solving works. Now go and persuade your Republican mates that conservative individualism and strong man punitive policies don't work! Except to feed money into the private sector
17
Naive. Doing this requires money. Poor schools don’t have it. Rich schools don’t need interventions. Republican state governments aren’t going to help poor districts. Period. Full stop. Starving schools and cracking unions to get compliant servents is the Republican goal.
21
So tiresome reading these ceaseless rallying calls for the citizenry to raise itself by its own bootstraps since it can no longer count on government to do very much to meet the needs of the average person when it must carefully attend to its proper mandate of expanding, protecting and preserving the wealth of the one percent. Do columnists giving this advice really believe that their agenda is not transparent to all?
16
So, progressives focused on improving average citizens' life prospects are actually accomplishing something, while the 'rising tides lifts all boats' crowd that Brooks has been promoting for his entire miserable career are busy destroying the fabric of our national institutions. And, we should, what . . . thank you for bringing this to our attention?
We know a thousand experiments in social progress that you can't wrap your limited world-view around. But, right now, we're busy sharpening our knives.
13
This article is full of falsehoods. For example, the children who came to kindergarten better prepared came from private schools so what did the good folks do? They did the worse thing possible. They took some money away from the very schools that needed it - the public schools and allocated some of it to private schools. It's a no brainer that children in poverty come to kindergarten less prepared and the vocabulary gap grows exponentially. Taking money away from public schools isn't a solution. We need to stop robbing the poor and giving to the rich. We keep giving public education the barest of funding and expect it to succeed. Let's stop with nonsense like more money for the military and a 'space' military and more pork barrel favorites. If we can fund another space program than we should first invest in education. Data is meaningless these days. It's just cute little useless charts that are used for ill gains.
32
I just spent a few days traveling through the back country of West Virginia, where I saw tremendous natural beauty countered by jaw-dropping human squalor.
It's not as bad as the photos of what Bobby Kennedy saw back in the 1960s, but unlike anything I've seen anywhere else in the U.S. except maybe on the saddest and most remote Native American reservations.
No wonder the people that live there fall for Trump and other charlatans in huge numbers, not to mention for opioids and other distractions from hopelessness.
I see on the linked website that "StriveTogether" has no initiatives in West Virginia. Why?
9
It’s time for a resurgence of interest by contemporary intellectuals and pundits in the writings of Robert Nisbet (The Eclipse of Community, e. g.). Interest flagged in the academic world, of which Nisbet was a part, because he was labeled a conservative, before conservatives became reactionary and were justifiably demeaned for their sophistry. But Nisbet wasn’t just an academic and wrote to be understood.
Implications of his argument are that community, like history, will always be local, as Brooks anecdotally documents. Pseudo-community (not Nisbet’s phrase) is the realm of national politics and the mass media. Here’s to some good people in Spartanburg, South Carolina for knowing the difference. Kudos to Brooks, too.
Two things David Brooks has never understood and GUARANTEED to be missing from these programs which will matter most to the kids' success in life and which we in the UN lacking found lacking all around the world.
The ability for them to "see" value migration (economic profit) which incessantly spurts and then fades; AND the ability to "see" the systems all around them that hopefully get the right things done which incessantly decay and which they must tweak and eventually replace (see eg Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma on this).
A couple of weeks in high-school devoted to getting them up to speed on the tools for both and they will be set for big success in life. Absent these, all such programs will run out of steam, as the Oregon state-wide value indicators program did (they didnt grasp and execute the systems part).
I think that Mr. Brooks is trying to say that It Takes a Village.
But he knew that, long ago when Secretary Clinton wrote the book.
Too bad that we only treasure something when its gone. Now we have a large community where it only matters what the king says and does. A community that doesn't want the "socialism" that Brooks admires so much. Maybe we'll find our way back, The feeble light cast by Brooks is a start.
9
Dear David Brooks: data is always useful, and sometimes essential. Please don't ever say you are not interested in measuring outcomes! Especially when you have used some in your article: success of kindergartens. Trust and relationships are important, but so is the measurement that they work!
3
Hopeful program and ideology in an elsewise scary time for America.
2
This is a great article and a much needed ray of sunshine amidst the stress and strife of today's civic discourse. I wish there were a federal government agency whose job it would be to encourage, monitor, and gauge the success of many such programs–viewing them as a vast array of exciting experiments to see what works and what doesn't. Then it could end those that fail and quickly roll out those that work. That's what we do in successful businesses--try a lot of things, see what works, drop what doesn't, and run with the few successes. Perhaps it's a naive question, but would that be too much to expect from bureaucratic governmental bodies, where everyone involved wants to keep their program and their department going, regardless of success?
This is consistent with James and Deborah Fallows’ recent book “Our Towns.” Diverse community members working together to solve local problems are making change in cities and towns throughout the country. A key to achieving cooperation: Don’t mention national politics.
3
Witnessing these periodic moments of David Brooks being enlightened about the everyday goings of the working people are always so interesting as they reflect how wide the chasm is between the political punditry and everyday Americans. What he treats as novel and surprising is instead commonplace and unremarkable to the boots on the ground.
6
The wonderful aspect of this article is something that isn't specifically spelled out. Here we have a problem and a solution that both the conservatives, who prefer local to federal action, and progressives, who like grass roots/community action, can both agree and work toward. Finding common goals and compromising together (some govt support, some private sector support) to achieve the ends will go a long way to healing our political woes. Thank you David Brooks for illuminating this opportunity.
2
If party-man Brooks actually cared about the shredding of the social fabric in America, he would condemn his Republican Party, the party of divide and profit.
15
@Renee Margolin
If you read Brooks with any regularity or watch him on PBS, you would see he has been critical of Trump, et Al right from the getgo. He has evolved quite a lot over the last 15 years.
3
I think this article resonates with those of us who want to do something. Fundamentally, I want to believe that my life has made a difference in the lives of others, and I want to see something show for what I've done. Community groups allow for individuals to invest in the place he/she lives and see the impact on those who will outlive us.
Will this change the world? Maybe not the globe, but it will impact the world of my city, my neighbors, and myself. And at some level, most of us who aren't called to lead millions or thousands have to be ok with that.
I am.
1
The model sounds great but if the government is not in the business of community building (and sometimes, especially in the age of Trump, it is countering it) how real can change be?
Is Betsy DeVos community building?
4
David, didn’t I read this same article from you in August before your vacation? I thought I did. It picked out some random community organization that was doing great things ( although none of that was reflected in state or national well-being statistics, but why quibble when you’ve got a good unproven theory going), and described how great our country would be if we all had these organizations to turn to. Or if we all started one of these groups. Or something. Anyway it was a great solution to all the problems we face, this group was, and the brilliant government-not-required theory behind it - a great solution with absolutely clear policy prescriptions. Bravo!
In fact it was so good I’m pretty sure you wrote another column about another group, Italian this time (the logic is clear to me) and again it was clear that as soon as we all start emulating this Italian group that will solve our problems. I’m pretty sure I’ve read three or four more similar columns this year. And that’s good, better to make sure we get the message - I mean it’s clear, we all should behave like these groups or we should join one if we can find one that is relevant; or whatever, anyway it’s obvious you’re pointing out the solution.
So I’ll leave my comment at that, David - with a message and call to action exactly commensurate with this intelligent, productive, informative and prescriptive column.
2
Great ideas! Would that Mr. Brooks would preach to the leadership of his party.
"How can we work together..."
"...use it as a tool not for competition but for collaboration."
"...near-universal preschool..."
"Trust is built and the social fabric is repaired when people form local relationships around shared tasks."
"Building working relationships across a community is an intrinsically good thing."
Great ideas that appear to be alien to contemporary Republican "ideology"; i.e. starve education, make healthcare impossibly expensive, give more money to the already filthy rich.
7
Very positive, especially in light of what we we see, coming out of so called identity politics.
An initiative blessed with so much creative thought, loving care, and just plain hard work. If ever we needed some positive news, Mr. Brooks, it's now. Forget "Big Brother," Mark, and "Feel Good," Larry. This is real. Hallelujah!
You cite a recent study by Sarah Stachowiak and Lauren Gase. That study begins with these two paragraphs.
"Collective impact tends to generate strong reactions. Mention it, and the person across from you will likely either extol its virtues or roll their eyes. Introduced in a 2011 SSIR article, the approach to social change came onto the scene and quickly became a buzzword and philanthropy darling. For some, it offered structure and clarity about how to operate complex, multi-sector social change processes that can otherwise feel opaque and intangible. For others, not so much."
"If you Google “collective impact critique,” you’ll find many articles describing collective impact’s limitations: It’s too top down; it’s not focused enough on community, social justice, and equity; and it’s too simplistic for entrenched social problems. Critics argue it doesn‘t adequately acknowledge the work that preceded and informed it; it wasn’t backed by adequate research and evaluation; and it branded and “consult-ified” work that communities, organizers, and other researchers had been engaging in for decades."
There is an excessive layer of jargon that one must penetrate to understand just what "collective impact" means. That said, I do agree there is no magic bullet.
Cincinnati has been in existence long enough to make a credible "cradle to career" claim. Others, not so much. "Collective impact" is a systems approach to civic and social action and that is a sound idea.
1
https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2018/10/5/high-student-turnover-in-mi...
It all sounds good but see this article about a similar project in Milwaukee that is not succeeding because of a major problem of the poor: transient students.
It seems that as long as those of us who do not experience this life remain in charge, the more projects like this will fail.
4
Concur but how do you attract involvement? Out here in flyover country, the civic organizations that used to be the backbone of communities are literally dying off. Us old timers are the involved ones and finding new members under the age of 45 are treasured. The group under 45 doesn't see the need to get out in the community and volunteer. The rare ones that do had people like us as parents who got our children involved at an early age. Many of the under 45 that were born here moved away to the jobs and the ones moving here never apparently had any connection to the community where they grew up. A hollowed out community cannot survive.
7
I'm a community organizer and I've trained thousands of them over the years so no one believes more in the power of the local community than I do. But for a community group to flourish in the long term they must be nested in a government that nourishes its leaders and ideas, responds to its needs, promotes diversity and inclusion, and gives resources for its initiatives. To believe that the local community is not connected to what happens on a state and federal level is pure fantasy. And we are in a time where the government is poisoned with everything that is hostile and destructive to these small spontaneous and fragile efforts in democracy. Brooks, you use denial in order to avoid the truth.
23
"Communities coming together" sounds so appealing but as I read this, it gave off a Danger Red Rover signal. Who gets to decide what the standards are for all of this monitoring? I also began to wonder if children being tracked were from all aspects of the community or just "troubled" or "at risk kids". The aspect of invasion of privacy also reared its nosey head. It seems like Big Brother could be finding a way into family life in this town despite good intentions.
4
@J. Benedict I liked your comment because the description of these programs sound a bit like government minus the elective (accountability) component.
You quote Wendell Berry approvingly as “The disease of modern character is specialization." But in fact, all our major advances were done by specialists. Only specialists have the time to think carefully about a problem to the exclusion of other considerations.
By denigrating specialization, you and Berry throw away the telephone, the computer, aviation, and thousands of other achievements of modern civilization.
7
@Irving Schwartz Brooks and Berry haven't thrown out specialization. Thank goodness there are at least a few people who have realized that specialists working together might be able to solve problems in society that specialists working alone haven't fixed.
1
We need more positive articles focusing on what we can do to improve our corners of the world. And thank you for quoting Wendell Berry, a fine example of just that.
4
This article begins with two excellent observations, by which I mean I agree with them. First, "Sometimes social policies are distorted by the tyranny of randomized controlled experiments." Nowhere is this truer than in federally funded educational research. Second, the quotation from Wendell Berry: "The disease of modern character is specialization." Years ago, I wrote about the pernicious slide towards overspecialization in my field: early intervention for young children with disabilities and their families. The article goes on to describe a community-wide approach to looking at the whole child, like Greg Benner's work with the Tacoma, WA, community on the Whole Child Initiative. Benner is now on the cusp of doing great similar work out of The University of Alabama. Finally, Ronald Ferguson's work with Boston Basics, initiated from Harvard, is promoting positive parenting practices, with a community-wide approach. The lame title of this article is actually accurate.
1
David Brooks well explains why it truly does take a village. At a time when standardized test scores are too often used as a political cudgel rather than a tool to determine where instruction needs to be modified, efforts that put the emphasis on community are welcome. Again, we're talking about an old-fashioned concept that is often forgotten in today's environment: a rising tide lifts all boats.
3
I have the highest respect for Mr. Brooks. He is always well-reasoned and open-minded. However, I would be interested in hearing him speak to the contradiction in the practices he praises in this editorial and the approach of conservatism that the Dept of Education should be eliminated, that funding for public education should be limited, and that the future is in private schools which tend to be isolated within their communities
22
Thank you, Mr. Books. Reading about communities coming together to build a better future for our kids after many weeks of toxicity, I was positively encouraged. This is good medicine. I surely needed it.
5
Community has always been the backbone of successful societies, so it is hardly surprising that community programs offer some solutions to intractable problems.
But there are 320 million of us, and we are not getting richer and more successful; most of us are getting poorer or stagnating. That is the reality of income inequality, or income bifurcation.
And nothing that big is resolvable by community action. It requires all of us to behave as if we are a national community. One size fits all solutions might not work, but a few just might help. Healthcare and food security for two. Places for people to sleep and live. The basics.
We can leave a lot of programs to local communities - pre-school, drug intervention, job training are a few - but we cannot walk away from our responsibility as Americans to support Americans. Right now we are reporting the lowest unemployment numbers in about 50 years, yet food security, homelessness, medical bankruptcy, lack of medical insurance, drug addiction are entrenched problems. If we aren't going to support people by assuring jobs and wages that afford a living for all Americans, we will be stuck doing it as social programs.
Kudos for communities stepping in. Jeers for the national community for making so much of it local problems.
18
Once again, David writes a column that focuses on the positive impact of federalism. The ability of states and cities to design their own solutions to social and economic problems stimulates creativity and promotes democracy. This pragmatic emphasis on problem-solving also undermines the notion that Americans remain so committed to ideologically divided political tribes that they cannot cooperate.
The programs described by David require a willingness on the part of local elites to share power with the rest of the community. In the absence of such an attachment to democratic values, federalism promotes rule by a narrow economic or political elite. The jim crow system in the south and the prevalence of political machines in the north confirm this tendency for an earlier period
Federalism can strengthen democracy or retard it, depending on the values of the people who hold power on the state and local levels.
8
"Trust is built and the social fabric is repaired when people form local relationships around shared tasks." well, Mr Brooks, this does sound right, especially when there is a fire to stamp out. Aside from the New York Times, it is the local newspaper that draws my attention, and children feature first on the front cover.
Our village library and children's reading center is one and the same, where we go to cast our votes and bring home-made cake.
Earlier, memories surfaced of 'I Have A Dream' in homage to Eugene Lang, and 'Teaching Matters', credit due to the spouse of a prominent economist, who disliked the name 'Mr. Fixit'. He began by firing the Chancellor on The Board of Education, after viewing the condition of The City's Classroom for children from minority families, lacking in funds and a healthy social environment.
For some reason, and this does not make it right, it is the men, my contemporary in age, who appear to have trouble with their English and writing skills: The home builders, the military veterans turned gardeners, those who at 19 were already out looking after their parents and family.
To say it right, we need funds from the Government for these programs. But we are trying, Mr. Brooks, in our role of joyful pessimists, in trying to restore our spirits. As for your venturing an American Renaissance is in the works, we might well wait for Godot to appear.
Mother Nature remains gloomy these fall days, while our children lead the way and dance.
5
Big Brother tracks and controls the life of every child from cradle to career?
Sure, it is to "do good." But there is danger here too. It is a right wing type danger of Control, exactly what the Libertarian right fears the most. The right often says it fears this is what the left wants, but it is South Carolina that has done it.
5
Just today I suggested this approach to an elderly affairs division in my city, which acts more as a clearinghouse for disparate providers of different types of care for homebound seniors. There is a caregiving crisis that is growing larger, and more families are sharing one house among their generations. It makes sense to coordinate a general program with specified goals by bringing providers together in an organized way at the local level.
I also saw this work in a smaller setting in a high school with a school/community/parent council. What helps is that when different parties share a table in order to identify problems and desired outcomes, then they collaborate, instead of criticize the other for blocking their individual initiatives. People working together take a collective pride in their work.
It is what we used to call community development in the Peace Corps, except it does not devolve on one person to bring people together; the task begins, instead, with the mission statement adopted by all parties, and there is geometric progress.
1
And why shouldn't we expect the larger federal government to function in this holistic way in support of the larger national community?
29
David,
Excellent Piece. Inspiring so as to have me share with the Community here in Las Vegas.
I always watch you on Friday on the News Hour. I have concluded you are a good man, and I believe it was the novelist Flannery O'Connor who once said "A Good Man is Hard to Find".
My Best Always,
Sincerely Yours,
Michael P. Whelan
Las Vegas, Nevada
4
@Michael P. Whelan Interesting comments on this article. (and no, no relation - just coincidence). There's always hope, However, I do have a sister who lives in your city and shares some of these values - see the Hydrant Club.
Brooks is saying that it takes a village, but that is a collectivist conception. Republicans are supposed to be into personal responsibility and competitive, individual success.
15
@sdavidc9
Why is personal responsibility owned by Republicans and why is it considered an evil? Because they own personal responsibility while Democrats run from it? I am a Democrat, or was, until it became the party of victimhood and personal irresponsibility.
@sdavidc9 Republicans would say two responsible parents is the best chance for academic success. Democrats say one parent yields the same result. Don’t run from the hysterical criticism of VP Quayle now.
To sdavidc9–Why is it that we must always slap a label (eg collectivist) on everything and automatically dismiss or disparage an idea? Investigate, then come up with your own conclusion. Nowadays we throw around labels without defining what they mean—liberal, conservative, socialist, democrat, republican, Christian, Muslim, etc. Worse, we react in a knee-jerk fashion. This leads to the divide we see in our country today—“I vote for the X Party, just because. No matter if their policies are in the national interest or not.” This kind of thinking paves the way for one-party rule. Democracy dies.
David, there is one element of your feel-good column that deserves emphasis and discussion at the national level, that is at the level of the US Census Bureau.
That element is the collection of data using well designed systems, preferably national. The data I have in mind are SES data, not the data that the USCB focuses on.
Professor Kenneth Prewitt, former Director of the USCB, makes a well reasoned case for replacing the USCB system that he sees as archaic and outmoded with a system designed to collect SES data - economic, educational, health, and more.
Telling me that mother to be Naiima has access to pre-natal care from gestational week 12, free, at a local clinic, lives with a partner, has satisfactory living conditions, will receive child-support given to all is to tell me, a prospective researcher, useful facts that may lead to useful conclusions.
If instead all I am told is that Naiima, daughter of Somali immigrant parents, belongs to the black "race" I am being told nothing at all that I need to carry out a satisfactory study.
I have no idea, obviously, what kind of data are used to carry out the longitudinal study you present here, but I do know that a decent study cannot be done in the absence of good data.
I have obviously built my example on the Swedish system, that gives the researchers for whom I work what they need to do world-class epidemiology.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
14
It takes a village to raise a child, guide a young adult or help an elderly person in need. Great opinion piece.
8
Most of the problems in society are a result of affluence of the society that creates independent little families, and not the whole. This has resulted in children who need to be raised by the community, first their daycare, then the school, then the after school programs, and then hopefully one parent, a grandparent or a neighbor, as often the father or mother is not in the picture, dead, or in jail, and children are fragmented before they are born. Those who care matter to the child, and the more the better. The sad truth is that the person who too many people voted for, DT, was himself born with DNA, that made him a very fragmented person. He is the last person who should be an example of anything, as he cares about no one, only himself. We don't need to raise anymore children who only care about themselves, because no one has cared about them long enough to give them a normal and healthy upbringing.
7
Thank you for the thoughtful, positive article David. In my 35 years of local government, the most significant accomplishments were those collective efforts where various stakeholders were invited into the process and everyone's ideas and efforts welcomed. Issues such as these are too complex for simple, single agency answers. Even if you had all the money in the world to throw at these complex social issues, single agencies would still struggle to find solutions. Collective efforts that come at a social problem from multiple angles are almost always more successful in my experience. Not sure I understand the all the criticism in all the posts on this article. These successful endeavors need someone to shine a light on them. Most local efforts such as these are not partisan and represent the best in America.
9
Mr. Brooks,
I applaud your research. Prior to you stopping writing and going to look at local America, you spoke about the need your had to do just that. I agree with the positions some critics take about aspects of the nation and world we live in. Unfortunately, I believe your point has been missed somewhat. I agree that We the People must pay attention to the larger world, participate as required by citizenship supporting candidates who are better connected to us, and do our part to fix some of the problems we face locally, locally. In doing so, a community can move beyond the daily bombardment of disarray, discontent, and disconnectedness and begin the healing process from within if you will.
Brilliant message for all to consider and contemplate action, and go cooperate to make your community a better place. I do try everyday and now I have an idea and models available to go forth with! Thx, Peace Love & Harmony
3
David, I think you've lost touch with the real world. Things out here are no longer business as usual. The South Carolina program is wonderful. But a tsunami of Trump Republican autocracy is coming that will smother this and every other tiny point of light. Even the right to a good public education is under attack. Facts and science are under attack. What are you doing to protect the nation, its democracy, and its citizens including the children from this threat?
98
None of that is new information. A child - and adult, too - that is nurtured and respected has a far greater chance of success. It's not a miracle, it's how it's supposed to be.
Some have gotten way off track. I don't know if it's disenfranchised people or an outside group riling them up but a crowd of what looks like well-fed people cheering their snake oil salesman about kids in cages and a women assaulted are missing a core ingredient of decency.
There are dedicated people who do heroic things and others who say I have mine, you're on your own. Who teaches that?
17
David--please stop with this "Oh, look, here are people getting along!" This country is divided because the ruling class of Republicans are intent on stealing everything they can and denying women, minorities, and workers their rights and their fair share. We don't need an attitude adjustment we need a government by the progressive majority that wants to move this country. So, please, give it a rest. We are not children.!
121
Cup half full or half (or more) empty.
A US citizen functions in 3 civic frameworks: community, state, federal.
Are they totally enmeshed or can one function independently in one and ignore or exclude the other?
Nobody can deny that SAM is a great idea and it works. But reading some of the comments, the continuation seems to be "but......" "If there is Trump and Kavanaugh, then what difference does this make?"
Mr. Brooks has long been a proponent of building up. Starting at the bottom, local, community and laying a stable foundation. Can community exist without state and federal? Mr. Brooks says let's look at what works and copy it.
Is this bottom up perspective conservative? Yes. Does that make it wrong automatically? For some yes. After all there is: "but......"
Will this type of thing lead to "national renewal"? Maybe. Maybe not. Would it be better if it did not work? For some, apparently yes. That is sad.
8
@Joshua Schwartz
I wouldn't say this is conservative.
I would say it is just common sense.
Conservative or liberal, this approach should be obvious.
And I don't see conservatives like DeVoss and the rest of the Republicans promoting these ideas.
9
@Independent They usually do not get involved at this level. They do not have to promote these ideas, just not interfere. This is how many grass root local endeavors succeed. They are often non-partisan or as you write just common sense.
1
@Joshua Schwartz
Sounds like Hillary saying it takes a village.
On the other hand, my Republican friends all say these kids need to pull themselves up by there bootstraps.
Then when they have kids, they move to the best school district they can afford.
Another problem with the US is that we fund schools with local property taxes. That means the poorest communities usually have the least money.
On another note, I once spent a month in Haifa.
A day late and a dollar short, David. There's another group of concerned citizens and leaders, equally thorough and detail-driven telling us that we're about twenty years out from true climate chaos which is decidedly NOT a Really Good Thing Happening in America, or the world. Sure, the SAM program is very promising. The future, on the other hand, isn't.
Try to keep up, David.
71
Of the 26 or so industrialized democracies in the world, only one and one only lacks national educations standards. Fifty years ago the US was the world leader in all aspects of student ability.
What economists call “human capital”, i.e. investing in people, is a key to long-term growth. To be competitive in the 21st century is to have a highly educated labor force, one with college and advanced degrees. Instead, we are short changing our future as an educated nation.
The key to strengthening employment along with limiting the need for immigrant labor is to invest heavily in education and retraining so that Americans will be able to compete for jobs in the present AND future economy.
But no. Conservatives have chosen to regress. Education funding is being cut. Scientific research funding is being cut. Retraining programs are being eliminated.
While the rest of the industrialized democracies invest in future tech and a high skilled work force, Conservatives look to the past.
62
The disease of modern society is too much time away from actual people. Children thrive when adults know their names, and interact with them, face-to-face.
Social fabric is the wrong term. There is no fabric.
It's milk and cookies, and cooking and cleaning, and teaching, and playing.
Face-to-face.
12
Such a good conservative David is! Keep your eye on this little piece of happy news while we replace our democracy with authoritarian rule for the hyper-rich. Well done David!
132
Community problem solving is well and good, but a federal government that does it's job ethically will eliminate the need to address and resolve many issues communities are now facing
41
I read the column twice. Looked high and low but couldn't find the magic potion for curing society's ills in educating our children I read a long descriptive of many professionals and community people involved :Around the table was just about anybody in town who might touch a child’s life. There were school superintendents and principals, but there were also the heads of the Chamber of Commerce and the local United Way, the police chief, a former mayor and the newspaper editor.
I guess it's the 'anybody in town who might touch a child's life' caused the jarring moment for me that concludes David wrote a puff piece. Next to moms and dads, ask yourself who might touch a child's life for hours upon hours? Who was not at that conference? Care to make a guess?
Why of course- TEACHERS! The most needed, important, guiding entity for our children after mom and dad. David's omission speaks volumes on our attitudes toward teachers. The pay and status just reinforces those attitudes.
141
@Alan Schleifer The teachers were not there because they were too busy working second jobs, to support themselves! Or they were busy with after-school duties at the schools.
4
@Alan Schleifer The closest David got to taking about schools was 'the public school system allocated some of its money to support other private programs'. Such a bunch of baloney.
Brooks fails to understand that there is one problem that will prevent solutions to all that ails our society. It isn’t that we don’t have what we need to tackle our problems. Our blind spot is poverty. Poor children are asked to run a race in which they have no shoes and the track is littered with nails and broken glass. Poverty attacks the human spirit, robbing the potential of our children. Those with money and power could deal honestly with this reality, but they have a poverty of empathy. They can live happily with horrors surrounding them due to culturally induced indifference. Disagree? Then explain to my satisfaction how so many children were victimized by sick men pretending to be moral authorities, protected by others with funny hats.
36
Give it up David, the unaccountable private sector will never be able to deliver service to the public. It is not a person and can’t be voted out of office.
21
Bringing people of all classes together to solve social problems is great, but there will never be enough private money to support such programs in all the places they are needed. The limitations of your ideas are revealed by the fact that the effective universal Pre-K programs of Oklahoma and Georgia have not been replicated in other Red States. Universal Pre-K programs are good for the students, their cities, and the businesses that will eventually hire those students. However, universal Pre-K requires a commitment of tax money, whether it is spent through public or private programs. Most Republican office-holders and donors care only that their taxes should be lower. Furthermore, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 19735 reports that the real benefits of increased (especially public) Pre-K programs are primarily enjoyed by lower-income students, not a Republican constituency.
I do not want to condemn all Republicans as uncaring. However, as long as the party machinery is dominated by the McConnells, Ryans, and Kochs of this world, and the party primaries are dominated by the TEA Party and Trump's base, community-based solutions will never get the funding they need, especially in the places that need them the most.
48
We need universal quality public education for everyone.
Taking money from public schools dooms the least fortunate. I know, I've been there. It's ugly, what we've done in the name of privileged children. Giving a few of the less fortunate choice at the expense of the rest is plain stupid.
Teachers need to be paid a living wage and given support, and, though it's not relevant here, not one penny of that money should be spent on bringing more guns into schools.
93
Just to be clear, I think David Brooks is one of the best Republicans around, and his efforts to find humanity and reconciliation are a good effort.
Also, I can see that I made myself look like a victim of badly funded schools. No, I visited and tried to mentor in those situations, and the materials they had to work with were not up to the quality of their students. Shameful that a kid with potential had less chance than I did!
1
The Titanic had a fine band, and many who heard them found the experience edifying.
47
How can we quantify the seeds of success sown in a child? There's no way to know it's true value, or which child will grow into a powerful force for progress. The world's heroes started from obscure and lowly roots. Many readers seem to myopically forget the long-range benefits of seemingly small steps.
3
This column reflects a keen understanding of the challenges, but settles for a feel-good solution with little to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in implementation. We -- and Brooks -- can do better.
Yes, it is imperative to "help the whole kid all at once." Yes, too often there is misplaced emphasis on silver bullet solutions rather than comprehensive, multi-domain, longitudinal approaches. Yes, these insights point to the importance of collaboration within and between community organizations, schools, and government agencies. And there is inherent good -- Biblical good -- in feeding a hungry child, ensuring dental care and vision care, treating trauma, and encouraging members of a community work and break bread together.
Yet, we should hold our public and philanthropic investments to a higher standard. One that accomplishes the above AND achieves significant, long-term positive impacts on children's academic and social-emotional outcomes. Less well known organizations like City Connects and BARR Center are leveraging insights from the developmental and neurobiological sciences to create effective school-community systems that yield, under rigorous evaluations, real results.
The fact is, outcome evaluations can help us to know whether our excitement and vision for revolutionary change in American opportunity and renewal is misplaced, or on a firm foundation.
3
"So the public school system allocated some of its money to support other, private programs, making Cincinnati one of the first American cities to offer near-universal preschool."
Nice, you take money & resources from public schools that already are not funded sufficiently & give it to private schools. So how does this helps the kids who are still in public schools? Oh I get it - they don't matter. Problem solved.
54
what David Brooks likes, whether David Brooks knows or understands it himself, which I doubt, is that this is a nice big, social-conservative-pleasing, very big step, very deep, very deeply-tracked test run, on the tracking of these children - the tracking, as deeply as is currently socially feasible of as many aspects of their lives as is currently socially feasible until such time as they can escape from, or move on from this sad, sick, desperate laboratory.
5
Thanks David.
We desperately need to hear more about what works and how Americans can work together for real results.
Hoping you will bring much more of this to the forefront in your future offerings.
Bravo!
8
@G. Sears
Indeed - tell that to Mitch McConnell and all the rest of the "bring us together" republican senators and house members. While you are at it, remember Donald Trump and I'm guessing our newly structured Supreme Court will be joining in all the "together and good works for our country."
11
working collectively R and D, public and private funding: we can solve many of the problems facing us. together we can. But just fighting over power for tribal dominance is getting us nowhere. The 2 party system has turned into a dysfunctional mess. our country would function better if we let government workers passionate at want they do...do there job. Maybe a strong 3rd party would be healthy for our system. It would buffer current 2 party tit for tat bickering. We need to reboot and write a better contempory Constitution: 2 senators from each state puts proportionality all out of whack. As does the electoral college -every vote should count. Supreme court justices should have term limits as should our politicians and like our politicians they should be voted in by us not by party affiliation.
5
I absolutely agree. More parties forces more collaboration due to the need to form majority coalitions. It's done in many other Democracies. Not perfect but better than this two party stalemate, a partisan game not much different from a football game or any sports event featuring two teams.
And if I may add: special interest money out of politics! All politics strictly funded by taxpayer money with clear individual limits under $100 or so. Our country by the people for the people!
1
A potential benefit from such StriveTogether initiatives is that such community collaborations will be incubators for leadership, equipping a rising generation of politicians who value pragmatic, results-based, common ground and common sense solutions for their communities and constituencies. This could help provide the sanity our national politics now lacks.
4
SAM is a great idea. Yet to operate optimally it takes brains to set something like this up, maintain it and drive it over the durations required to create results. The conductor of this orchestra also needs the personal presence to co-opt ALL the politicos and other players and influencers who make it work. NO society has an abundance of such people. Some communities have very few and are consumed in their political bodies by mere rent-seeking and let-it-go.
The anecdotal appearance of SAMs and Spartanburgs doesn’t solve the societal challenge. David has been hopping around for some time from one anecdotal appearance of enlightened governance to another, and has yet to get around the problem of finding the right skills and capacities to universalize improvement.
It seems to me that it’s an opportunity for an entrepreneur to build an automated system that does what SAM does, employing and interfacing to existing systems, then build an operation that implements it in MANY communities in a way that minimizes the demand for large numbers of exceptional people to shepherd it. You won’t get the advantages possible within a community of many enlightened people, but you could drive substantial improvement. However, if you’re going to rely largely on people to interact effectively to address many factors of a given challenge, it breaks down when you can’t find the people. Truly enlightened governance requires highly capable people … and they don’t grow on trees.
@Richard Luettgen
We could always collectively try to pay people appropriately, and give them the respect they deserve. This, my friend, is all that good public servants are looking for. An entrepreneur is not in a position to hire good people to work for the public good -- an entrepreneur is in it for profit, for his or herself.
14
I think you are underestimating the people who are already working on these problems in most small and medium sized towns throughout the country. Exceptional expertise is not needed as much as mutual cooperation and coordination. Locals know the problems and usually the types of programs needed. Even when they get a good program going via grants from the feds these grants are always time limited and then they must miraculously come up with their own funding to keep it going. This type of structure Brooks reports on is exactly what is needed. The private money people have the best access to the politicians to help influence this private and public interfacing to the best service of the community.
3
Avoid the dirt of national politics and focus on the local level.
6
If salvation will come it will come at the local level where people still connect.
But ‘national renewal’ has an interface with a ‘social fabric’ that shows no signs for citizenry breaking through – yet. The system is not broken it is rigged.
2
Huh. It’s almost as though the communities highlighted were organized. I’ll bet we can all rally together with someone who helps organize communities like that. Yep, that sure would be great.
10
A Really Good Thing Happening in America - How disappointing. I thought he was going to tell us the entire Republican Party perished on a yacht party.
45
"How can we work together to apply those assets?"
"And when life is going well it’s because dozens of influences are flowing together and reinforcing one another."
"If you’re going to help kids, you have to help the whole kid all at once."
"SAM embodies a new civic architecture, which has become known as the “collective impact” approach."
"Like the best social service organizations, it is high on empathy and high on engineering. It is local, participatory and comprehensive."
"organize around the data, focus on the assets of the community,"
"create a “backbone organization” that can bring all the players together"
"coordinate decision-making and action; share accountability."
"offer near-universal preschool. That’s a community working as one."
"Collective impact structures"
"Trust is built and the social fabric is repaired when people form local relationships around shared tasks."
"Building working relationships across a community is an intrinsically good thing."
Brooks wasted a lot of words to express what Hillary Clinton easily summed up in a single sentence (borrowed from an African proverb) way back in 1996:
"It takes a village to raise a child."
Of course, Brooks would be loathe to admit that anything he supports could be remotely related to his anathemas like the Clintons, Democrats, Liberals, Socialist countries, etc.
Sorry Mr. Brooks, but we dreaded Liberals have been preaching these things for many years before you. Welcome to wokeness.
72
Wow! Private enterprise robbing public schools of already scarce resources, like calling it collective impact makes it any less damaging to democratic values and education of children not in private programs. That's the standard GOP playbook, coming up with a name that implies the opposite of what it's describing.
Mr. Brooks, it's like you've been asleep for the last month, no, the last several months. Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
23
Gee, I guess it really does take a village.
18
Yes David, it does indeed "take a village" to bring up a child!
How dare you not mention Hillary Clinton's book and how it was bashed by your own party! The hypocrisy in this article stinks to high heaven.
47
David Brooks, you sound like a really nice guy, albeit a naive one. Please read Charlie Blow, about what is really happening in the US. We have a war on our hands, one that will try to wrest democracy from us all. Blow tells us exactly what is at stake here, which is that a war for white male supremacy is still on-going, as when this country was created.
What you are describing is an attempt by people in poor states (and others) to get above and fight this war. Conservatives have waged wars on teachers for decades, but why? As professionals, they have children's welfare at heart. They are doing jobs we can't begin to fathom. And yes, they are organized, Otherwise, their professional integrity would forever be questioned, when you look at the pressure they face.
So, David Brooks, take a trip to inner city schools that are failing, in addition to the successes you see. Make yourself face the fact that schools are (without the proper support,) doing the jobs that families, churches and police should be doing. Then ask why that is. Make yourself face the facts that if we invested enough in those parts of our communities, such as proper child care, early education and other properly dedicated programs, many of our later problems may be avoided.
Read about what generations of poverty does to a person's brain (try "This is Your Brain on Poverty"). We think we are a first world country, but when we are compared to real first world statistics, we should all be ashamed.
38
Let's crowdsource to buy a ticket for David Brooks to visit the tent cities near the Texas border housing asylum seekers and children yearning to be free. Child trauma, no education, no due process, no Justice and no hope.
Prekindergarten education is not a new idea. Ever hear of something called "Head Start?" A man known as LBJ?
Besharov and Call of the Republican front organization, American Enterprise Institute, called for its abolition. The Party of Stupid, aka Party of No, is also the Party of Mean.
82
@JMT This is the best suggestion I've heard in a long time. I am a college professor living below the poverty line in San Francisco and I would gladly give $100. to force David Brooks to get his head out of the clouds, or wherever else it may be, and deal with what his Party is doing to children in this country. I used to look forward to his columns to read a moderate voice from the other Party. But he is so clueless about the horrifying viciousness his Party is spreading on a daily basis I can barely stand to read them now. It is just too painful to see a man of his intellect wasting his public voice to distract us with stories about "puppies and kittens".
2
We all know you spent all weekend celebrating your takeover of of the high court, and we all know what you are doing now (want to convince me you give a darn about education, explain Ms. DeVos). We’re angry. Livid, and we’re ataying that way. “Coming together”is no longer an option. We have joined the fight.
59
@R. Jeremy
I’d like to add that I also used to appreciate Mr.Brooks and Mark Shields sharing their viewpoints on PBS. However, more recently Mr. Brooks ongoing comments, ie tribalism on both sides and his endless unemotional evaluation of these times has finally gotten me to turn of this segment. I’m no longer interested in Mr. Brooks views as he likes to appear so even handed but now too often his points are loaded with false equivalency. How unfortunate for the nation. His ongoing lessons to us in civility as it relates to the President and the Republican Congress needs a good wake up call in truthfulness.
25
David Brooks may think he is helping, but I am no longer confident that he can. I have respected David Brooks for more than twenty years, but his stance on Kavanaugh has destroyed his credibility for me. I am sorry that he has no empathy for victims of sexual assault.
15
Hey, David Brooks, what's your plan for funding these initiatives? Largesse from the hyper-rich??
15
This is called community organizing. It’s one of the things the right vilified President Obama for ever having participated in. But what do you know? It works. Empowered citizens are quite able to help themselves. You’re a bit late to the party, David Brooks, but I’m glad you’re finally seeing sense.
16
When educational and social institutions are demoralized, defunded and defamed by political leadership the only hope is when kindly billionaires, bored with early retirement pick a cause for their foundation. Let’s hope they stay interested.
8
Keep it negative, please
1
I fear Mr. Brooks is right to focus on small independent efforts in his search for good news. We have no way to reach national consensus on anything. If we did not have interstate highways, we would never have them; we can't even repair what we have. In the US, I see a country that has given up. We have no national goals, only 300 million separate goals of personal enrichment. This assures we can never achieve any national goals of substance in the future unless our world changes.
2
Wait. What I'm seeing most in this "good news" article is data-collecting and "tracking." "charts measuring things" and a "methodology." I see a picture with actual children in it and what looks like a teacher. Is this a picture of participants in this SAM program or is it a regular classroom scene? Sounds like what SAM does is study the children and their problems and then ask, "What can we do about them?" Wow. That's certainly a ground-breaking approach. Pretty sure the shelves are lined with studies and recommendations gathering dust just waiting for the funds to put them into action. The only actual action that seems to have been taken is to take tax dollars away from public pre-K and give them to private pre-K. I see, Mr. Conservative The Government Can't Do Anything Right. You almost had me fooled.
12
Very interesting, but I don't need the anti-science comments such as "sometimes social policy is distorted by the tyranny of randomized controlled experiments." And "I don't need studies about outcomes to believe that these collective ipact approaches are exciting..." Yes, he cites the use of data, but just get rid of the other anti-science comments, Mr. Broder. There are plenty of those coming out of the administration.
6
A couple of thoughts. Hillary was correct it does take a village. Most educators have been very aware of the needs of children that go beyond what schools can do. However, all they have seen is cuts to these supports. Most communities don't have a Connie and Steve Ballmer who can donate to make these kinds of efforts happen. If we were truly a country that valued and cared about children and families, this would happen in all communities.
27
Interesting, encouraging. What Brooks does not discuss is whether this data-gathering, coordinated action, collective impact approach can overcome the partisan division, the deep distrust and anger, that now plagues America. Or does the SAM approach only work well in local communities where the great majority of people are on one side, or the other, of the divide?
5
As always, I see Mr Brooks narrowly citing private institutions and do-gooders as the best and presumably “most free” solution to our publicly-shared problems. I find his preference for tithing over taxes is tireless. Why, for example, divert funding to a private pre-K program when the public ones have been systematically and institutionally starved for decades? It’s no wonder they underperform! A starving racehorse wins no races, Mr Brooks. Instead, all I see is classic Republican legerdemain: take from the public in the name of the public good. The Sheriff of Nottingham had no sense of the public good, but he spoke of it often.
33
More sleight of hand from David Brooks. Not enough going on in national politics?
Pre-school education? Dental problems? Diet? Hunger? Homelessness? River cleanup? These are all big problems best solved by the government. The bureaucracy might be somewhat inefficient, but these are not the societal tasks that one allocates to charitable endeavors. Brooks' party has been opposing governmental solutions to these problems since day one.
Which party wants to take away medical care from undeserving poor folks? Which party wants to gut the EPA and pollute the rivers so they'll need more cleanup? Which wants to take away food stamps from poor families?
152
Mr. Brooks, I wonder how deeply asleep you have been for the last couple of weeks, years, or even decades. "Collective impact approaches" are what we used to call government. Our government used to work, and I used to work for a career civil servant who considered "good enough for government work" shabbiness to be a fireable offense. "If it's good enough for government work, it's the BEST!" After Ronald Reagan, he retired and I changed careers. Thanks to the Republican Party, our democratic experiment in good government is about to blow sky high. Good luck to the kids when that happens.
82
@Martha R
I fully disagree, politely.
"Frankly, I don’t need studies about outcomes to believe that these collective impact approaches are exciting and potentially revolutionary. Trust is built and the social fabric is repaired when people form local relationships around shared tasks."
Your's is the difference between an ideologue and an objective person. This is supposed to be about education of children, not building trust and social fabric. If the approach is working for the education of children there should be plain, obvious, and agreed metrics of some sort to show it - it shouldn't be hard. But an ideologue doesn't need any stinking facts, it's all about belief. It's entirely possible that all these people working on children's education just add noise to the process and that it is unhelpful. Or, It may be that their informal authority structure is a poor substitute for a staff of good teachers. A few education oriented results excerpted explicitly from the Spartanburg program would help readers a lot.
10
SAM is not a bad idea, but the concern with all education programs that are funded primarily by large corporations is that those same corporations will attempt to restrict the teaching or tutoring in subjects they deem "controversial": in particular science, especially sex education, evolution, and climate change, for example. What is really needed is robust financing of free public education across the United States, not just great schools in wealthy places and bad schools in poor areas.
23
"Around the table was just about anybody in town who might touch a child’s life. There were school superintendents and principals, but there were also the heads of the Chamber of Commerce and the local United Way, the police chief, a former mayor and the newspaper editor."
How interesting. All the people who might touch a child's life are bosses, managers, and politicians.
When I think back to my childhood, I don't think I ever met anyone like that. The people who touched my life were my parents, my other relatives, my teachers, my friends, my doctor -- we called her "Mary Poppins" because when I was sick she offered three different flavors of medicine -- the guy at the corner store where I bought junk food and comics.
Don't get me wrong. If all those rich people decide to do something useful for a change, more power to them. But if nobody else is in the room, the odds are they're going to reinvent the "teacher-proof curriculum," this time delivered by computer, rather than allying with teachers (and their union).
Mr. Brooks seems to have the heart of a liberal, but the brain of a Republican.
39
@Brian Harvey
True. You will enjoy reading Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by
Anand Giridharadas, rich in Brook type solutions.
3
@Brian Harvey
wsmrer
chengbu | Pending Approval
@Brian Harvey
True. You will enjoy reading Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by
Anand Giridharadas, rich in Brooks type solutions.
The thing is, if we used our tax money to fund affordable housing, great schools, universal health care and jobs programs that paid a living wage instead of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations all the children in the United States would have everything David Brooks claims to like and respect. Too bad his party is interested in one thing and one thing only; making the rich and corporations richer. You can't have it both ways, David Brooks.
72
Local community building is terrific. As for the assertion that "this is where our national renewal will come from," I am not so sure.
A national renewal will need, first and foremost, to show up at the ballot box. Republicans need to be turned out of power, at the state, local, and federal levels. Then and only then, can a meaningful national renewal take root.
18
What is so new? A little common sense goes a long way. We do know what it takes, LBJ knew what it takes, the idea of the Great Society lasted only about 15 years. It was a great success and needed funding and time to get even better. And the Reagan Republicans cut funding the moment they were sworn in. They needed tax cuts and the huge military budget had priority. The advice to poor families from the Reagan people was Ketchup is a vegetable and peanut butter is cheap and so nutritious.
At least we have some Medicaid and Medicare left.
LBJ also started one-year Kindergarten before grade school and even Head-Start for underprivileged children. What happened to it? It was always underfunded, what happened to it, what is left of it?
Common sense tells us, we need happy children to learn. Sick and hungry children, homeless children are broken children before they ever get to school.
85
I never used to be a fan of David Brooks — there were various reasons for that.
But I really appreciate how he looks for the ways ordinary Americans are coming together to solve problems. It is a sign of hope when there isn’t much of that coming from Washington.
8
But we all should make the sure that we have a government that takes care of the people by providing health care,education , infrastructure,and clean environment .so get rid of the people who are not committed to do this.
Think and VOTE
6
@Sumand
No argument from me on that.
Yes It takes a community, it takes a village, it's great when people work together for the common good. The problem today is the President and the Republicans prefer to rip communities apart, to strip them of funding so the rich can have tax breaks, to take away health care, education, so the rich can have tax breaks. It is a nice story but one in peril with the Republicans in power.
31
If the ills tearing this country apart are going to be fixed, it must start at a local level. It is obvious that the national model of governance is dysfunctional. Cities, counties, and eventually states will have to lead us out if the mess we are in. I wish them (and us) luck.
10
@George JudgeGeorge, I agree with you. It's critical that we all get involved at the local level. No one in Washington is going to fix our problems.
2
Thank you for writing a positive and uplifting article. It’s instructive to read the comments - many show the shallowness of American Knowledge. The country will never be great until it has an educated and reasoning population.
8
You comment that "Sometimes social policies are distorted by the tyranny of randomized controlled experiments." but that life is more complex. There is no "tyranny of controlled experiments" as good scientists never intend for controlled experiments to answer all questions, just the narrow ones being tested.
The problem usually comes when (1) the media prefers to emphasize simple conclusions as the truly complex cannot be effectively explained in an 800 word column, and (2) the public does not want to think about complex things, preferring supposedly simple black and white answers, a pill instead of changing unhealthy behavior, etc.
24
Sound great but if there were concrete examples resulting from all this, I sure didn't see any described in the article -- just more of the same old, tired and lofty language.
5
I find it really sick when little ones coming to kindergarten are called "students."
9
When it comes to providing quality public school education for black children in the beginning there was the late Dr. Barbara Ann Sizemore and all of her acolytes and followers and copiers ever since.
Even her former foe Diane Ravitch has come on board.
Then there is Betsy De Vos.
7
Yes, yes and again yes, provided we never forget that it ought to begin with good parents married to each other.
2
@A. Stanton ---- how about just good parents. Marriage has nothing to do with it. There are many bad parents married to each other.
4
@A. Stanton
1. The main obstacles to establishing stable families are structural unemployment and mass incarceration.
2. There will always be children growing up in families that don’t meet your criteria. They still deserve the support they need to flourish.
3. Knee-jerk finger-wagging is not helpful.
1
Be careful with that word "collective" Mr. Brooks, you are liable to alienate certain people who are repulsed by the supposed evils of socialism. Any whiff of that even if it is just semantics and they will go into attack mode.
10
Mr. Brooks,
I am so happy I read your column today. While I am, frankly, often disappointed in your writing today you lit a small light. You also
quoted Wendell Berry which is always a good idea.
I think most people are entirely sick of arguing and being "against" ideas not brought forth by their "team." Most people want to make a positive difference. We have to start somewhere. The past two years under the Trump crime family have worn many of us out. But, I look at African American and Mexican families that I know who just keep getting up and going to work and trying.
They are my heroes now. I live in awe of some. Yes, lets work together because the alternative is the rapidly approaching abyss.
10
Gasp! Brooks dares to use the word "collective" at all and even more than once here. Wash your writing out with soap, Mr. Republican Party enabler-turned-convert (Johnny Come Lately). Of course, the bitter irony here is about those people just now waking up to the cynical, faux-individualism of Republican stooges for corporate greed--the "Oops, sorry!" crowd including Will, Krystal, et. al. (Although Krystal does it quite intelligently.)
5
Mr. Brooks,
On this sad day in our country, I am unable to be cherpy with you.
I laud the work educators are innovating for children's education, but education is far far from being supported today in our country, dramatically, deliberately, and selfishly de-funded since Bush VS Gore.
That is what brings me to my conclusion today, and I refuse the judgement that I am straying off topic. How does the hard work and love of underpaid educators- mostly women- relate to the Supreme Court's dangerous and arrogant decisions of the last two decades, and Kavanaugh's appointment to the SC?
I'm too exhausted and disgusted to cleave to filling in the blanks.
You fill in the blanks, Mr. Brooks.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine showcased herself in Saturday's Supreme Court vote to confirm Bret Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court Bench, the Court that acted out in Bush VS Gore and Citizens United; the court that drowned voting rights, labor rights, our country and our economy and so much more; in war, disaster unregulated capitalism and erosion of our Democracy.
Susan Collins should step down. She should resign.
She has violated Democracy, women, and men, and a future for us and our children. And I feel violated by your ploy in this article which coyly avoids this fact.
82
@Julie Susan Collins was just one vote, ALL those who perpetrated this should be voted out. I agree Citizens United has done so much harm to this country.
13
@Julie
If Brooks lived in the aftermath of the Black Death, he’d be spinning the construction of Siena’s smaller cathedral (“look at how the community is responding to the deaths of 1/3 the population!” Instead of mourning, or figuring out how to prevent re-emergence of the Plague, the smaller Cathedral will be nicer anyway. Local solutions!)
Rah rah, whistle past the graveyard. Wonder how the schools will cope with an escalation in the kindergarten population in 6 years, when the unplanned kids born in the aftermath of the Kavanaugh cancellation of birth control and abortion start arriving at the schools.
But hey, a lot of them won’t survive the climate catastrophe coming in 20 years. Gee I wonder why I don’t feel better already....
5
@Lawyermom great comment!
Hope lies here. People working together to understand issues and address them. sigh. if only some of our so called leaders would do so.
3
David, You're fiddling while Rome burns. Please renounce the Republican party publicly, because they're killing the America we all love.
43
In other words, it takes a village.
26
Until enough Republicans are sent packing to allow a constitutional amendment overruling Citizens United, dark money spent by rich white men will crush any community-based initiatives.
Yes, it is a beautiful thing that a few souls struggle to help themselves and others at the local level.
But, the ruling class in this country armed with unlimited campaign contributions are the functional equivalent of the column of tanks in Tiananmen Square and will crush these reformers like Wang Weilin in that famous photograph.
Like the ruling Communist Party, the ruling oligarchs in this country will persevere unless and until we tear their hands from the levers of government they now monopolize because of Citizens United.
39
@Didier I think you underestimate the good that a few well meaning folks can do at the local level. I'm not sure what your involvement is in Charleston, but I encourage you to get involved with the local non-profits and churches in your city. You can make a difference, and it doesn't matter who's in the White House.
3
Typical Republican argument sneaking in more of our taxpayer money for theoretical "proven" good (private pre-K). It has been a trying 50 years watching these antics of justifying/stripping public money to private gain. Schools, prisons, healthcare/hospitals, our military and all government agencies should be entirely non-profit endeavors.
31
....or, as Hillary said, it takes a village to raise a child. Please don't let Trump read (or hear about) this kind of organizing or he'll find a way to redirect the funding.
13
Wow, organization of people and resources within communities, to improve the prospects and lives of everyone. What should we call the Leader ??? A community organizer. A civil rights leader. A brave woman that refused to sit in the back of the bus. And a very long time ago, a man named Jesus. Think about THAT, GOP. I certainly do, and I’m a long time atheist. Seriously.
102
I live in Quebec where we are the government. Democracy can and does work. Everything under one roof works but only the power of government or a wealthy church like the Mormons can co-ordinate. That is why we pay tax or tithe.
Good governance is the solution. We just elected a conservative government because our liberals were too successful we didn't have the people to fill all the jobs.
We went from a nation of priests, lawyers and doctors to a nation obsessed with science and the scientific method. We needed a break from all the success so we voted conservative.
You guys need democratic socialist to be in power for at least the next 8-12 years. It is time to do what our government did and hire real experts to heal, educate and comfort your population. Experts do it better.
Also the experts that run our crown corporations are the best there are. Democratic socialists don't run businesses they look for the best talent to run things.
Our community is under a single roof and we have two gatekeepers to co-ordinate the community effort of doctors,nurses, teachers, social workers, police, caregivers and business to take care of the village. That is what your conservatives destroyed. It takes more than a loud mouth to understand the complexity of modern life.
America was about paying for the best to do the job and understanding that you start at the bottom and work up. trickle down is not American.
16
David: In other words, as the African proverb popularized by a former First Lady says, it takes a village to raise a child.
63
@Jay Orchard Of course it does. Does anyone doubt that? The question we have to ask ourselves is what have I done today to make a difference in a child's life. It's a worthy calling.
1
This is a very patronizing op-ed. Is this meant to be a consolation prize for those of us who strive every day of our lives for higher values, but are forced to settle for policies that are enacted by the party beholden to the donor elites? Should we just swallow our injustice and move on?
You talk of organization. Have you heard of unions? Are you for or against unions?
You talk of pre-K. Are you for or against public pre-K?
You talk of the "whole person." What do you think of prison reform? Or of Black Lives Matter?
What do you think about health care for all? Education for all?
Mr. Brooks, with all due respect, you're mansplaining the idea of empathy and cooperation to a population who already has empathy and cooperates, and already knocks doors and staffs phone banks on weekends and donates and does everything within our power to take back some of the unearned and unjustified "power" from people exactly like you.
Either stop this proselytising nonsense, or vote your conscience and proclaim it loudly for your conservative brethren to hear. We are not your audience. Make some real waves with your "people," who do not read the NYTimes.
611
Carrie, why do you feel entitled to speak on behalf of NYT readers? I am a NYT reader, and I am grateful for Mr. Brooks perspective. I find his columns thoughtful and thought provoking, and he is an excellent writer. I don't care what political party he belongs to. I am tired of liberal echo chambers where all diversity of thought is ridiculed. I would rather converse with a thoughtful person who disagrees than a robot who keeps telling me how enlightened I am. Thank you, Mr. Brooks, for sharing your thoughts in this all too often hostile environment.
1
@Carrie Brilliant. Thank you.
1
@Carrie
Brilliant comment. Thank you so much for giving voice to my own thoughts. Patronizing and mansplaining. Brooks specializes in it.
1
Morning in America! Golly, who knew?
3
you mean all those Trump voters at his rallies screaming "lock her up" don't help?
30
"If you're going to help kids, you have to help the whole kid all at once." So David, are you saying it takes a village?
13
This is wonderful new for Spartanburg, a College town of 39,014 inhabitants
Wiki:
"Spartanburg is a college town, with eight institutions of higher learning:
The University of South Carolina Upstate
Converse College –
Sherman College of Chiropractic
Spartanburg Community College
Spartanburg Methodist Colleg
Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) –
Carolinas Campus.
Virginia College
Wofford College
Median income for a family in 2016 : $56,933
Mr Brooks ought to investigate Syracuse NY, a city in NYS.
Median family income 32, 704
13
Brooks glosses over several issues... First, those in the community whom research has proven have the most influence on children, (outside their families of course) teachers! For decades, we teachers have been desperately fighting all the “reforms” put upon schools which insist, and even evaluate, how well we ignore “the whole child”! In my 30 years as an educator, I’ve only encountered a handful of educators who didn’t understand this concept, and most of those never taught in the classroom, but jumped to administration.
Second, the majority of educators, when given time and manageable numbers are able to assess students and all their needs, way before test scores come out, and for only the price of their marginal salaries! Such a deal, if only they were treated as the well trained professionals they are! Teachers and their students must be included in these conversations and plans. Until this happens, these efforts will continue to produce minimal outcomes.
30
I spent a very formative year of my young childhood in Spartanburg. No offense to South Carolina but the primary education was among the creepiest schooling I've ever received in my life. What Brooks describes as "community," I'd describe as oddly prejudiced and obnoxiously infused with religion at every corner. I couldn't even tell you what faith they were expecting me to worship. Something Christian. Just the weird unspoken assumptions though were enough to put a child on edge. Kids are intuitive. I could definitely sense the oddness of the place. I didn't need any data.
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America has become the land of uncelebrated local institutions. Sometimes I go to the local public library and think, wow! This is something to be proud of - helpful librarians, activities for kids, a place where I might even see a neighbor. But it sure doesn't feel like public libraries are generating excitement. I wonder, does the average librarian, or postal worker, or school teacher, or religious leader, really feel like a member of a very important team, doing invaluable service? Yet these things are also, like StriveTogether, organizational marvels. I am thankful for this article, and for anyone who is going to highlight our American can-do spirit, but at least some of that enthusiasm ought to be shared with plain old public libraries and the like.
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"Trust is built and the social fabric is repaired when people form local relationships around shared tasks."
Thank you for this uplifting statement in this dark time. If we could only keep politics, power, government, greed, self interests and the insatiable quest for wealth out of this somewhat utopian social structure, it would be a step toward mending the brokenness of our nation. One can only hope and get involved on a local level.
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The surefire way to turn out successful children is to have tightknit family structures with two parents, that arrangement does the job. All publicly funded programs are really designed to make the taxpayers the parents to children from incorrectly structured (usually, fatherless) home environments. The answer always seems to be more public spending, how about more self-responsibility? There's the real answer!
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@Ronald B. Duke at the inner city school my daughter taught in MANY of the children came from two parent families with involved parents. They were consistantly held back from achieving what they might have because the OTHER children, who were not so lucky, acted out and created extremely difficult learning environments.
So in actuality most of what was holding these children back was poverty. Because their two working parents could not afford to live in an expensive neighborhood they were in schools with children with all manner of social traumas in their backgrounds. If those schools had the budget for enough special education teachers, social workers, and school psychologists to help the traumatized acting out children, maybe their entire learning environment would improve enough that the MAJORITY of kids from stable but poor backgrounds could learn more.
People like you always assume that poor people are at fault for their own poverty. Hardworking people can have terrible low paying jobs that don’t allow them to access good schools, or proper health care. Grow a heart.
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@Ronald B. Duke Sure. Two parent families are always great family environments and will meet all children's needs, and one parent families are cause of all social problems. I invite all of you from counterexamples to chime in here.
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Thank you, Mr. Brooks. True words we need:
"Trust is built and the social fabric is repaired when people form local relationships around shared tasks."
I do not care about the politics of my fellow volunteer. If I am given the opportunity to work with others to achieve a shared a common goal, then that is what matter most at that moment.
Until we find some degree of common ground (the love of children) we are never going to solve the great troubles of our time.
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While sounding warm and fuzzy, the gathering of data on children "from cradle to career" does have sort of an ominous Brave New World ring to it.
Who becomes the eventual recipients of all this valuable and intrusive data? Facebook, Amazon, the NSA, for-profit testing companies, anti teacher union PACs, or any corporate entity prepared to pay money for it?
This sounds suspiciously like another iteration of the increasingly discredited for-profit charter school movement which has sought to supersede good government education policy and the expenditure of public money on children.
So rather than unquestioningly celebrate the efforts of philanthrocapitalists and corporations seeking to burnish their public images with these kinds of slick "community" programs that purport to "measure" pupil progress, our free and fair press should dig deeper and do their journalistic duty: follow the money.
Rather than simply concentrate on kids "from cradle to career", America must start concentrating.on all its people from cradle to grave. We already have some of the worst education and health outcomes in the civilized world.
A pivot to government in the public rather than private interest would include Medicare for All, debt-free college, a guaranteed federal jobs program... in other words, a rebooting of the New Deal for the 21st century.
If the wealthy investment class really wants to help poor children, let them stop bribing our politicians and pay their fair share of taxes.
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@Karen Garcia:
"...has sought to supersede good government education policy"
"We already have some of the worst education...in the civilized world."
?
When the world seems to going mad, a fallback for many of us, I suspect, is to focus on the things we do control. As is the case here, the issues and solutions stand a reasonable chance of being understood and addressed. They are in control.
If you are attracted to the sound and fury of much of the mainstream media, yet are concerned about it impotence, you are not alone. Stories getting attention are largely controlled by the current administration and too much of the press follows like a puppy. Significant stories, though difficult to capture reader attention, need attention. An example was the recent report on climate change. Our best journalist must surely realize it is within their power to imaginatively assert themselves and move beyond the distractions of the day. Not easy, but they select and control their content.
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This is the second time in a week that I've heard about the collective impact model. Thank you, David, for publicizing new models for problem solving at the local level. Cities offer a spirited rebuke to the gridlock and extreme polarization of national politics. Public agencies and private entities and foundations are leading the way, joined by visionary schools like Smith College that embedded solving "wicked problems" into its strategic plan.
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“Frankly, I don’t need studies about outcomes to believe that these collective impact approaches are exciting and potentially revolutionary.”
And honestly we need outcome studies more than anything to chose methods that achieve the goals. Belief gives us motivation to innovate and take risk but belief without verification leads to ideological posturing and dead ends.
Belief and skepticism are the flip sides of one coin, the coin that pays for truth.
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And I'm sure these initiatives will be well supported, until they suggest a tax increase, or something other than voluntary participation. Whatever plans are made for the social fabric, you run into conservatives like Margaret Thatcher, who famously said, "And, you know, there's no such thing as society".
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Well, David...you're right. This is a promising approach and will change the lives of some.
But let's talk about the concept of leverage.
These individual community members can, through kindness and wisdom, change the lives of individual students...one at a time. That part is good.
On the other hand, looking at the headlines in your paper and others, decisions by GOP senators and Trump administration officials can change the lives of hundreds of thousand...millions, even. And there is no kindness of wisdom to be seen anywhere. That's maybe not so good.
It's called leverage...where small changes can deliver momentous impact. And your glorious GOP failed us again.
Good things are happening among the people...and truly terrible things are happening to the people because of the pap you and your fellow partisans have been feeding us since the days of Ronald Ray-gun.
So give it a rest and, like Jimmy Carter...go build a habitat for humanity instead of mouthing off. Leverage can be a good thing or a bad thing...think about that.
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I worked as an LA County probation Officer for 28 years and saw just about every law enforcement social experiment, political interpretation of data, and was forced to listen to people sell every bad idea anyone can imagine.
But, this idea sparks my imagination because it reminds me of the best idea I ever witnessed. A small community near LA wished to identify--and then support--at risk male youth. So...every kid that even looked cross-eyed was required to attend Saturday morning paper pick-up or grafettiti clean-up, or whatever was on the Saturday morning schedule.
But that wasn't the point. The clean-up crew was supervised by rotating staff--a Jr Hi Counsellor, a policeman, a teacher, a social worker. You get the idea. These "at risk youth" met, and talked to as many members of the community as could be arranged. And these adults learned their names.
The concept was to build connections, even if it was to just say Hi.
This Spartanburg program--SAM--captures that element...the element of being reminded you are not anonymous, that someone is watching you (hopefully watching out for you--not just watching) and people know your name...know things about you!
Agencies are inefficient, expensive, and way too political; but SAM sounds like a good idea. I am way more cynical than MR Brooks, but just as hopeful. Thanks.
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You are saying that community organizing is a good thing, right? I seem to remember some in your party denigrated community organizing when Obama was running for President. Nice that it took ten years for you to figure that out-although those who worked hard for his election understood the benefits from the beginning. Glad to have you on our side.
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@Pragmatic Thank you. I wrote a gasp at his use of the Republican-considered dirty word "collective." Brooks is among some people in a kind of twist on "me too" about being "woke" to some (but still not all) of the damage the Republicans have been doing for so long.
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Cool David. People working together. Exactly what Trump and the Republican party hate. Just ask Betsy DeVos. For profit schools are the answer. Buy the education you want, with convenient payment plans available.
Can't afford buying quality? Tough luck. It's your fault for being poor.
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Beautiful essay. Thank you David Brooks.
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This is great, and an example of how government is not the solution, but only part of it and not even the most important one. Let's expand it a lot, to other issues that our country faces.
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@vulcanalex
How much volunteer work do you do? And for what entities.
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Specific feel-good grass-roots initiatives are wonderful but not scalable. Focusing on these during times like this seems like a distraction. What we should be focusing on is the utter contempt for basic human decency, compassion and what we used to call Christian charity that is demonstrated daily by one political party who has come to be dominated by extremists rather than the good and decent people who once made up its core. Until that party reforms itself, which I fear will only happen after years of implementing its policies drives this country into the ground and reveals the fallacies underlying those policies, these feel good stories will remain just that. Feel good stories that don’t move the needle in a way that scales.
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@Devils Advocate I appreciate that you did not name the party to which you refer. This leaves people on both sides of the political divide to think assume you are referring to the other guys rather than themselves. Fact is, BOTH sides carry some guilt. And both sdes have a lot of work to do, to move away from the extremists and work toward reason, collaboration and outcomes-based action for the good of all.
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@Devils Advocate
"Focusing on these during times like this seems like a distraction."
Yes. That's the point.
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@Devils Advocate
I have often felt just what you expressed here. But, having lived a long time now I must say that - corny as it may sound - from little acorns mighty big oaks grow. Meaning, for the average person who is working and raising a family and doesn't have money or time to spare in any great quantity, to be able to work with others and do something positive and model that to their children is a bigger thing than you might think.
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I respect and admire David Brooks. I sometimes feel his rose colored glasses approach to our current stomach churning times is a bit Pollyanna-ish. While I appreciate the positivity (God knows we need some) I fear it is not enough to counteract what's happening around us. I'm not ready for rose colored glasses. Nor am I prone to be a Pollyanna. I think this is just dodge to find some right-wing cover in these dark times.
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Love your understatements
2
If you are going to input the data, then the data has to be consistent and relative to the problems suggested. (in other words, there cannot be cherry picking much like how the carter school system works)
We all know that if a child comes to school with emotional baggage and trauma from their personal lives, then 99 times out of a 100, that child is going to under perform. If they have to travel long distances, and are sleep deprived because of it, then they are going to under perform. If they are teased, ridiculed or bullied for not ''conforming'', then they will under perform. If their teachers are ill equipped (mentally, emotionally and professionally), then they are going to under perform. If the the school cannot even provide the basic necessities (like pencil and paper), then they are going to perform.
I absolutely guarantee that a large part of all of the data above is left out, ''massaged'', or falsely reported to come to biased conclusions = that privatizing the whole thing is the only option.
Wrong.
What is required, is taking in all of the data, (unvarnished) and applying all of the above stratagems so that all children are helped and none are left behind. That requires a concerted and dedicated effort that goes after one objective - to educate all.
Start with the politicians.
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@FunkyIrishman NO keep politicians out of all these things, they are generally ignorant and biased.
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@vulcanalex
I quite agree sir. I live in Portland, Oregon. A veritable bastion of over promising, under achieving politicians. So much time and energy is wasted here being "politically correct" and getting the wording right on some high minded "proclamation." No!
Let people just get together and do it!
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@v
Indeed, republicans surely are.
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Having spent years evaluating education programs for children in foster or family care, or institutions, it has been clear that one must take children as they are, where they are.
One ongoing tragedy has been to evaluate programs for these children based only their test scores. Average scores, at least in Ohio, have meant the end of many excellent programs, with the accompanying trauma of losing contact with adults who were shepherding kids through serious trauma while keeping them on track for 'productive lives', even academic success.
Our wise Republican legislators couldn't understand or, more likely never tried, that real life and school life are one and the same thing. Its only 'sophisticated statistical analysis' that breaks a life to pieces, analyzes each one, and renders judgement and funding.
Watching the deep and damaging trauma suffered by our newest Justice, its beyond me how the people in charge, without exception, can fail to grant a five year old the same courtesy.
Imagine being torn from your home, your family, your friends, the stores you know, the officers you encountered every day, the streets you grew up on, then having some burly bureaucrat come along and say "But you only have a C average...".
Sometimes, despite the tyranny of data, being average or thereabouts represents a victory of epic proportion.
So, good for Spartanburg.
To Cincinnati I say watch out, they're coming for you whether you know it or not. Go Bucks.
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Wow, 70 communities use this method.
Fifty one Republican Senators and 250 congressman don’t believe in climate change, evolution, a woman’s right to choose, or taxpayers need to fund an excellent education for everyone. Guess who will win this debate.
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@Andrew Those that don't rely upon government, and we spend massive amounts on various programs. Next evolution, climate change, and some right means nothing in this issue. Now if climate change is science, nobody would need to "believe" in it nor use consensus to support it. Evolution is a theory with some holes and might be the method used by the entity to create live and diversity on our planet. And abortion according to science is destruction of life which is murder unless some legal exception exists.
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@vulcanalex
Abortion and birth control are evidently considered to be the same thing by many conservatives, i.e. Brett Kavanaugh:
"Judge Kavanaugh just said Burwell v. Hobby Lobby was about "abortion-inducing drugs." That's a GROSS misunderstanding of the case, which was about insurance coverage for contraceptives."
Which is one reason why the claim that men are making decisions about how women take care of their bodies seems to be true. (I suspect, however, that Kavanugh's wife, Trump's wife, Mitch McConnell's wife, and Mike Pence's wife all use some form of birth control.)
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Well said. Community-based solidarity may yet save us from ourselves, especially in this charged political conundrum 'a la Trump'.
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"The data suggested that the private pre-K programs were performing better than the public ones. So the public school system allocated some of its money to support other, private programs, making Cincinnati one of the first American cities to offer near-universal preschool. "
Translation: private schools turned away children who were poor, English learners, or who had special needs, resulting in data that made them look better. The school district was then coerced into turning over much-needed monies to private entities which are now free to charge the school district rent, hire unqualified teachers and pay them next to nothing, and make lots of money for the CEO and investors such as the Walton and DeVos families.
Result: everyone loses but those who are already rich. Taxpayers, students, families, teachers, and the entire community loses their one democratic institution. There is evidence all over the country to support this unfortunate outcome of privatizing our schools.
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@jeito
In Los Angeles, there is a dearth of publicly-funded pre-K programs. LAUSD rolled out transitional kindergarten a couple of years ago, but for most families who do not meet Federal poverty level guidelines or state thresholds, there is no choice but private pre-K. I share your concerns about the privatization of public education. Nevertheless, if Cincinnati has figured out how to make high-quality pre-K universal, shouldn't all school districts strive for the same?
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@jeito Your concern is often the case, but is it necessarily so? Is it true in the case cited by David Brooks? Please inform us.
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@jeito
Although in general I agree, it's important to distinguish between "private" and "for profit." It's possible to be a private nonprofit preschool devoted to educational ideals. My daughter attended a wonderful private preschool that was very diverse and inclusive of children from families that were not at all rich.
But like you, I believe in public schools that provide equal opportunity for all children, and what I would like to see is those ideals and practices brought into the public system—I certainly don't want to see our children taken into the educational equivalent of factory farms.
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To respectfully counter-balance Dagwood -- The two-party political system is only a label. The idea, and it's impact, are paramount ... that's what gets noticed.
Back to topic. It is also true that each of us does not walk alone. Each of us is noticed by others. Others provide us a social network. Except when others are so egoistic that they cannot build a social network.
This article is hopeful proof for those who can build social networks.
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Well, I needed that after the last few weeks. Good thinking, to shift the focus on the grass roots doing by so many. Perhaps we should simply ignore the boors in power, and concentrate on the achievements and aspirations of the powerless.
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This is a country of volunteers. David Brooks addresses organizing volunteers. But he writes: "So the public school system allocated some of its money to support other, private programs, making Cincinnati one of the first American cities to offer near-universal preschool. That’s a community working as one." Using public school funds to support private programs impoverishes the public schools or it is an excuse to perpetuate lower performance by public schools. Volunteers are good; supporting volunteers with public funds is a slippery slope.
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@Dap please consider the possible benefit: all those private preschools that get support and students arrive in 1st grade better prepared and ready to succeed personally and academically! The money has been well-spent if this outcome comes to fruition because it will require less money to produce a better educated student because that student started better prepared the district used less resources per student, who fits the above profile, on remediation and other support systems freeing up more money for the students who need the extra support.
Just a thought about one potential outcome...
2
A wonderfully uplifting column. But, in light of the tumult of the past few weeks, an unnecessarily stark juxtaposition to that tumult. With the beautifully reassuring pen that is often the gift of a David Brooks column, might have been helpful to acknowledge the tumult to ease the segue into the bright sight that still shines. (Which, undoubtedly, is one of the points of this piece.)
6