By: Peter C. Lytle
Education White Paper / 2005

Abstract

Parents and caregivers have the ability to help children attain levels of success well beyond what typical public schools, private schools and home schooling environments offer. Children that are considered failures can move to the top of the class with the right learning methods. Almost every child will attain confidence, happiness and become an academic star when their skills are correctly developed. This paper briefly describes how children learn and develop and what intervention is necessary for them to achieve high-end performance and success in the U. S. educational environment.

What is Tutoring and How Does it Impact Child and Academic Development?

The concept of tutoring is an old one, perhaps one of the oldest of all human teaching and development tools. As Jenkins and Jenkins described the origins of tutoring in their paper Educational Leadership (1987), "Tutorial instruction: it was parents teaching their offspring how to make a fire and to hunt and adolescents instructing younger siblings about edible berries and roots, it was probably the first pedagogy (teaching) among primitive societies." Tutoring is one of the fundamental foundations of physical, emotional, social and academic growth. It is considered one of the most successful of all teaching methodologies. Quality tutoring reaches beyond singular academic subjects by adapting to the needs of the learner and doing so in a fashion the learner can understand. It works best when it utilizes and takes into account the concept of learning as a whole mind and body experience; it involves all the senses, the environment, the community, family and specific requirements of the learner.

Tutoring is defined as the act, art, or process of imparting knowledge and skill. Over the last one hundred years the term tutor, especially in western countries, has more closely been identified as an individual who works with a single child or small group of children as opposed to a teacher who tends to manage with larger numbers of students. Tutoring has further been distinguished from early stage education and development. It is now viewed as a separate vocation focused almost entirely on academics. Most academic- oriented tutors work with children K through 12 and beyond while parents or nannies and caregiver services tend to focus on development of infants and young children. Individuals from both groups may still act as tutors and manage developmental activities during a child's early years.

Academic tutoring takes on a variety of different classifications: peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring, certified tutors and tutoring by certified teachers. Many tutors work one-on-one with students while others work with three, five or ten students at a time. The ability of the tutor to impart knowledge, as later discussed, may have less to do with the age or experience level of the tutor and more to do with individual attention and the ability to create learning strategies in a student. Good tutors follow the student, not the curriculum.

A parent's quest for the perfect educational and developmental approach is an old one, with answers embedded in each specific child's needs. To address the question, "What is the best possible development and teaching method?" we first must understand the nature of learning, the concept of human development and the learning requirements of the child. The answer(s) can be complex and further complicated by tradition, culture, religion, economics and politics. A parent or caregiver, however, does have options regarding their child's developmental and educational processes and can orchestrate for the child an education that is superior to either a public or private school program. They just need some basic knowledge of what works, and what doesn't work.

What We Know About The U.S. Educational System

A total of 49.6 million children attended public and private school in 2003, besting the previous high mark of 48.7 million - set in 1970 when the baby boom generation was in school. More than a quarter of the U.S. population age 3 or older - that's 75 million people - were in school nationwide in 2003. More than 17 million were in high school, and almost another 17 million were in college or graduate school. A total of 46 percent of high school graduates age 18 to 24 were in college in 2003. College enrollment stood at 16.6 million students, up from 14.4 million a decade earlier (NewsMax.com Wires, Associated Press 2005).

We know that public schools, private schools and home schools do work, just not for all children all the time. We do know that a great many people are doing what they can to keep the burdened U.S. educational system alive, working and progressing. Some systems have had stellar success while others are rapidly sinking. Polls indicate education in the U.S. is top-of-mind for parents and governments, especially as the media continue to refer to it as a system in crisis. The U.S. educational system is best viewed as a three-legged stool starting with caregivers teaching and aiding development of infants, education in early school environments up to 5 years of age, and more formal academic programs for children in kindergarten and up.

Current research tells us that traditional public schools and many progressive schools are failing to provide children with the basic educational foundation necessary for entry into college or post secondary educational programs. Why is it that 36% of 4th graders cannot read at a "basic reading level," or that one in four 12th graders cannot read at a "basic reading level" (National Assessment of Educational Progress)? According to a new Manhattan Institute for Policy Research study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, only 32 percent of recent high school graduates were qualified to attend a four-year college. In addition, the report showed that the high school graduation rate is at only 70 percent and has been declining.

Hanz Zeiger of Rant U. S. reports that, "According to the most recent academic comparison study by the Program for International Student Assessment, of students in 32 developed countries, 14 countries scored higher than the U.S. in reading, 13 have better results in science, and 17 scored above the U.S. in mathematics." While this may not mean much today, it does demonstrate a trend that could have a significant economic impact on the U.S. and this country's ability to compete in a global market or the ability of U.S. workers to continue expanding their lifestyles.

We know that school sizes, school systems and classrooms sizes are just too large and don't work. Classroom sizes (student-to-teacher ratios) tend to spread during economic slowdowns or periods where government budgets are thin. Student numbers increase and teacher numbers decrease. Classroom size has a profound impact on a student's learning. Class size impacts a student by a series of mechanisms that range from access to teachers to increasing stress levels through loss of personal space.

We know different cultures and the different genders react to personal space in unique ways. Recent research indicates male students feel most comfortable and learn better when they have more personal space, on the average 3.5 square feet (Eaton, Snook-Hill, & Fuchs 1997). Many students are currently being taught in less than 1.75 square feet of personal space, a result of both increased class sizes and over-utilization of older facilities. We also know that as class sizes increase, achievement test scores decrease (Glass, Cahen, and Smith 1978). Florida, a state intent on decreasing class size, has studied ways to manage the student-teacher ratio. They have not been able to reverse the trend of lowered test scores even by holding class sizes to 26 students per teacher. This suggests the number of students in a classroom must be even lower and greater personal attention to students much higher before test scores move upward.

Robert Rios writing for New Horizons for Learning reports that research indicates class sizes ranging from 15 to 20 students result in the best outcome for achieving better test scores, particularly with earlier grades which show the most improvement. This is a logical conclusion since we teach children to read and adopt basic learning skills through the third grade, and after that we tend to teach content. Children first learn to read, and then they read to learn.

Research that focused on the economics of lowering student-to-teacher ratios indicates that it is neither practical nor possible for most school systems to implement lower-ratio strategies. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program is attempting to eliminate some of these gaps but has yet to be supported by sufficient funding to be effective on a national basis. In addition not all schools, students or communities benefit, qualify or can access the NCLB moneys.

Additional research by groups like the American Association of School Administrators indicate parents' growing frustration with schools. Globalization, budgets, technology and politics make the management of educational systems more complex. Students and parents, on the other hand, are facing more personal issues with peer pressure, growing financial needs, competition for admittance of children into preschools and post secondary schools, increased discovery of disabilities and cultural changes. It becomes more obvious as one digs deeper into the U.S. educational system that parents see their own children as vulnerable and have ever-deepening concerns about the ability of their children to move successfully through the educational system.

How Do Children Learn and Develop?

There is usually an upside to a child's developmental and learning problems and that upside is how humans are designed to cope with these problems. Humans are created with the basic instinct to learn, to absorb information from our surroundings and to create what are referred to as learning strategies. There is a body of evidence which indicates that the more difficult a situation, the more a human mind challenges itself and often succeeds in creating alternate developmental and learning strategies (Bransford & Brown, The Design of Learning Environments, How People Learn). Humans are created to survive, and survival requires flexibility.

Starting with conception the fetus is a preprogrammed learning machine. Some information is genetically encoded and other information must be learned. Research by William Sallenbach from the University of Alaska and Director of the Institute for Prenatal Studies found that, at the prenatal level, there is the beginning of cognitive schemes and regulations in mental operations. He noticed learned responses that occurred in prenates during the prenatal period. After the child's birth he was able to compare these prenatal responses to trends in infancy, which he believes indicate "prenatal learning." Chamberlain (1992) demonstrated the development of "musical intelligence" in prenates after exposing them to Brahms's "Lullaby" and then after birth as premature infants exposing them again to the same lullaby. The babies exposed to this kind of musical stimulus were discharged earlier than control babies. It is believed that musical stimulus enhanced brain development in prenates which helped them progress with development more rapidly after birth.

Prenates have been taught to kick, move and respond to a mother's voice, and have learned their mother's language as early as 16 weeks (gestational age) (David Chamberlain, Prenatal Memory and Learning). Most of the significant prenatal cognitive development appears to be in the last trimester of pregnancy, although additional research may prove that it occurs even earlier. The research on prenatal development is growing, and we now know that babies can and do learn before birth. By the time they are ready to be born they will have much of their brain developed, genetically encoded and will be adding about 250,000 neurons every minute. The development of these neurons is critical to the learning process and will be discussed later in this paper. Researchers attempting to identify learned traits still face issues with a prenate's lack of long-term and sustained memory. As prenates grow, both neurons and connecting paths are changing, making memory after birth more complex to track. In brief, prenates may just keep relearning, over and over, until something "sticks" or until the brain stops its rapid expansion of cells and defined pathways are fully established.

Young infants are at first fairly immobile. With a lack of physical coordination and developed muscles, they rely on the use of touch, smell, their ears, voice and eyes for communication and learning. Taking this into consideration, researchers have developed methods of visual expectations to study infants' comprehension of events. Canfield and Smith in 1996 demonstrated that infants as young as five months old can count up to three. Other studies, using sucking actions tied to micro switches implanted in rubber nipples, have demonstrated the ability of infants to isolate and focus pictures they find pleasing.

Very young children are competent and active agents of their own development. They seek environmental stimulation that promotes intellectual development; they set learning goals, plans and strategies; they assemble and organize information (Piaget, Bruner 1972, Carey and Gellman 1991, Gardner 1991, Wellman and Gellman 1986, Gibson 1969, Newell 1958). They also show a positive bias toward specific learning types (Carey and Gelman 1991). We know most infants actively seek, organize and respond to external stimulus and information. Like a sponge they absorb almost everything, but what they retain is less understood.

As infants grow they develop very early learning strategies and metacognitions (Brown and DeLoache 1978, Deloache 1998). It appears that the stimulus a child receives during its formative development years provides it with specific learning styles. Most humans, the exception being those with certain disabilities, appear capable of learning with all senses, although we tend to favor certain senses over others for learning purposes. Some children learn better by seeing, others by hearing and yet others by physical interaction. For example, studies of children born to deaf parents indicate those children were exposed to fewer auditory stimuli from their parents or environment and developed strategies for learning that were more visual and physical. This does not mean, however, that these children cannot be taught to learn in other styles. In 1983 Gardner speculated that not all children come to school prepared to learn in the same fashion. This theory is that there are "multiple intelligences," that children learn best by supporting their strengths and working with their weaknesses (Bransford and Brown, How People Learn). The stimuli we are exposed to as children tend to point us to our early strategies for accessing environmental information, part of which is genetically encoded and part of which is learned. This information then produces for us further rewards or penalties by the response it stimulates when used. It is believed that from this stimulus we develop strategies for the efficient and manageable use of information at a subconscious level.

The brain of an infant reaches many milestones; each child develops according to his or her own time frame. At four months an infant's brain responds to every sound produced, in all the languages of the world. At eight to nine months, babies begin forming specific memories from their experiences, such as how to push a ball to make it roll. At ten months, babies can now distinguish among and even produce the sounds of their own language (such as "da-da") and they no longer pay attention to sounds from languages that are foreign to them. By 12 to 18 months, babies can keep in memory something that has been hidden and find it again, even if it has been completely covered up. They can also hold in memory sequences of simple activities, such as winding up a Jack-in-the-box until the figure pops up (Gayle's Preschool Rainbow).

As infants grow they develop in a number of ways. Strength develops from the top to the bottom of the body -- first head, body, legs and then feet. They grow from the inside to the outside -- trunk, arms, legs, hands and then feet, fingers and toes. They develop large muscles first for gross motor skills like running and jumping, and then smaller muscles, used for detailed activities like drawing and writing. They consume nutrients critical to the growth of bones and cells. They become social and interact with the outside world. They learn what works and what does not work. As children grow, they can only be taught effectively in conjunction with the development of their bodies and minds. An example would be teaching a child to write when he is just developing gross motor skills and has not yet achieved strong verbal skills. It is of little or no value to the child to teach skills beyond the scope of their natural physical development stage when more appropriate skills can be mastered.

At 24 months, preschool children have clear pictures in mind of people who are dear to them, and they get upset when separated from these people (even their peers). Then at 30 months preschool children can hold in mind a whole sequence of spatial maps and know where things are in their environment. By 36 months a preschool child can hold two different emotions in his mind at the same time, such as being sad that he spilled ice cream on his clothes but glad that he's at a birthday party (Gayle's Preschool Rainbow).

Each child has his or her own predictable path of growth, development and learning. Children with learning or physical disabilities often have their own track, and this track may be specific to a specific disability.

All humans have one common limitation when it comes to learning. That limitation is the ability to absorb large amounts of information and then to sort, categorize, relate it to a relevant experience and store it for future use. Short-term memory is the critical flawed component in the development of learning. The brain appears aware of this shortfall and, for most humans, develops coping strategies. In the book The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size by Tor Nrretranders, a significant debate is presented on the ability of the brain to manage all of the inflow of short-term stimulus. He suggests from his findings that the brain will make up information critical to keeping itself comfortable with its surroundings and will not always remove irrelevant information, allowing misconceptions to occur. As the brain develops its own strategies for information management, it often resorts to fabrication or does not properly delete useless information allowing the brain's owner to operate with bad information or out-of-date concepts. Research into teaching math and physics demonstrates that sorting out bad information and replacing it with good information is difficult because the brain appears to become wired such that it will keep supplying the originally learned (bad) information. Since relearning requires rewiring, this is not an easy task, especially in older children, and requires focused teacher or tutor attention to correct the problem (Smith, diSessa, Roschelle, Misconceptions Reconceived: A Constructivist Analysis of Knowledge in Transition). This may explain why some students fail certain subjects over and over. They may continue to rely on misconceptions and not have the ability in large classroom environments to eliminate old information pathways or create new ones.

A current theory on memory is that adults have fewer memory limitations due to the brain's full development. The limitation children have with memory is directly related to their increasing and changing memory capacity during growth (Pascual-Leone 1988). During this growth they are constantly building strategies to sort important from unimportant facts. Certain skills like reading not only require memory but also require the ability to master various sounds and organize symbols. There are a number of well-known and researched strategies that both children and adults have demonstrated to increase their memory and master skills. These are the use of rehearsal, elaboration, summarization, repetition, clustering and experience. These strategies will often be reinforced by access through multiple sensory inputs (e.g., finger writing in sand).

The ability to increase memory capacity, build strategies for memorization, and memorize key or critical facts is another aspect required for successful learning. For students to develop effective memory techniques teachers and schools often must implement a specific curriculum or teaching method. There are a number of well-studied systems and methods used to help students with memory, assessment of memory, and in the case of reading to memorize structured phonetic organization. Some examples of these systems and methods would be Direct Instruction, Precision Teaching and the Orton-Gillingham Method. Schools infrequently teach memory skills and strategies, and few teacher-training institutions even offer courses to help teachers build these critical skills. Memory is a critical component for effective learning and should be taught early in a child's educational life.

We do know that the activities, environment and stimuli children experience from birth to about age ten will define many of their learning strategies and their learning patterns for life. Children with certain disabilities may lack some of the critical developmental stages, senses, skills or capabilities for learning and this may reduce their ability to manage and process information but it does not eliminate their ability to learn. Each child is born with a programmed set of developmental and learning instructions. Each parent, caregiver, teacher or peer can help that child mature by reinforcing those instructions and providing the child with significant personal care.

It is all too easy and sometimes necessary to give away the responsibility for a child's development and learning to a daycare center, babysitter or school. Busy parents do have options for augmenting and enhancing a child's growth with outside child development support and tutoring support, and by providing regular parent interaction on a daily basis.

Understanding How the Brain Manages Information

The brain is comprised of a series of cellular elements, which sort, store and manage the functions of the brain and body, responding to both internal and external needs. Information is moved through the brain via a series of electrical stimuli. The brain learns through numerous complex mechanisms that begin with nerve cells called neurons, the cells that receive information from other nerve cells and sensory organs. Neuron cells are further comprised of a dendritic field, which is the input side of the neuron. Data also comes into the cell from other projection points called axons. Most excitatory information comes from dendritic fields and from the dendritic spines.

A specific neuron worth noting is called the mirror neuron (James R. Hurford), which allows an individual to better learn external information by tricking the brain into believing it is experiencing something in which it is not actually involved. An example would be a person who previously played a sport watching a football game on TV. This person might have the same emotional and physical experience as the actual players he is viewing. The viewer's mirror neurons are managing the visual and auditory information and processing it as though the viewer is actually playing the game, generating the same reactions, hormonal secretions and physical responses. This response exemplifies how the brain has learned and retained critical information from past experiences for future use. Many activities we view or listen to evoke previously experienced stimulus in our brains and bodies. First we learn by doing, then by watching or listening.

Neurons are constantly directing information to processing centers within the brain. Neurons develop within the brain in utero, and it is believed that after birth no new neurons are created. The junction through which information passes from one neuron to another is called a synapse. Synapses are like shortcuts through which information travels. Synapses can be added at any time as the brain learns, or deleted when they are no longer required.

Most individuals lose neurons as they age. The loss of neurons to age and possibly lack of use is beneficial because it is believed to speed up information processing. Neurons constantly integrate all information received from the synapses, and this determines the way they are maintained or destroyed. With too many neurons it takes longer for information to get sorted out, with too few the brain cannot function, and with just the right number you have efficiency. Recent research indicates that teens have not yet eliminated sufficient neurons to make quick and accurate judgments such as when to drive slowly and when to drive fast. Studies indicate that as they age they have fewer neurons and make better-experienced judgments. It is also believed that when large numbers of neurons are present the brain requires larger amounts of stimulation, which may account for why younger people often take greater unnecessary risks.

As the brain develops, a "wiring diagram" or information management system is created through the ongoing formation of synapses. The human brain continues to grow after birth; it gains about twenty percent of its adult size after birth as additional synapses are formed. During the first ten years of life the brain is both creating and deleting synapses and deleting neurons. "The nervous system sets up a large number of connections; experience then plays on this network, selecting the appropriate connections and removing the inappropriate ones. What remains is a refined final form that constitutes the sensory and perhaps the cognitive bases for later phases of development" (Bransford and Brown, Mind and Brain, How People Learn).

As the brain develops, nerve cells become more efficient and require more nutrition. Capillaries increase blood flow and increased astrocytes provide nutrients to the brain and remove waste. During development, the weight and thickness of the cerebral cortex increase further requiring more nutrients and stimulation. Studies funded by Head Start demonstrate the critical need for proper nutrition in infants and during early childhood for the brain to develop to its fullest capacity and provide children with the ability to concentrate on preschool and school activities.

Social settings also appear to be critical for brain development. Animal studies by Ferchmin (1978) and Rosenzweigha and Bennett (1972) demonstrated that the cerebral cortex changed with exposure to learning in a social context. The animals performed better at problem solving and with social interaction and as a result altered the basic structure of their brains. This altered structure is believed to benefit animals in their survival and ability to function. It is believed humans have the same aptitude and can increase and alter their brain structure through social developmental activity.

Research on stroke victims has demonstrated the ability of the human brain to remake itself and develop new functionality by reorganizing its wiring and by building new learning and functioning strategies. This simple demonstration occurs hundreds of times a day in hospital rehabilitation clinics. It suggests we can alter learning patterns in children with certain disabilities and in children with learning problems such as pronounced repeat learned misconceptions (bits of information that are repeated over and over until the user believes them to be real) by retraining and intervention programs aimed at utilizing different parts of the brain.

According to the article Pregnancy and Early Stimulation of Babies, about 75% of the nervous system at maturity has been genetically programmed; the rest appears to be created from our experiences. Of this remaining 25% only a third is developed to the level of adult capacity at birth, the balance is a blank book waiting to be filled in. Providing an enriched environment may make it possible to promote better child development if the training is completed from birth to age six. Numerous studies focus on these critical years and indicate they are the most significant in relation to a child's future ability to learn and perhaps be self-confident, happy and successful. A few studies report that significant numbers of parents may not be aware of this critical development period and the actual effort required for development. They often leave their children in the hands of untrained daycare providers, babysitters, or as the primary care provider promote little consistent developmental stimulation for the infant.

So what do we know about the brain? It is largely a genetically preprogrammed organ that provides for growth and development as it matures. In most humans it is getting ready for the body to grow and survive to adulthood and then reproduction. It is constantly rewiring itself to create efficiently managed information and to adjust and compensate for information -- both input and output. It creates information necessary to keep the psyche in balance; some of this information is real, some false. The brain develops learning strategies to bring in information on the most convenient levels. It organizes and stores information to make up for short-term memory problems. It develops the most in the early years and forms some significant metacognition capabilities very early on. Proper nutrition is critical for the brain's development. The brain of a child is like a sponge, acquiring knowledge through body sensory points; the more it receives, the more it grows and matures.

What Should You Do to Increase a Child's Learning Potential?

Many of the mechanisms for learning are still unknown. Complex neurological, physiological, psychological and social processes are all involved in learning. Learning appears to occur with some form or preference to the surrounding environment, emotional state, sociological state, psychological state and/or physical state of the learner (Dunn & Dunn). In a paper on Learning Styles by Terry O'Connor, Indiana State University, some teaching basics are outlined:

1. Students will learn better when using preferences in which they're successful.
2. Students will be better learners when they can expand their preferences.
3. When teaching accommodates various preferences, more students will be successful.
4. Teachers can construct activities that include specific (& multiple learning) preferences.
5. That can be done by adding alternatives, or completing learning cycles that incorporate all styles, or by utilizing holistic, complex tasks.

Teaching students by using methods designed around their learning preferences is not difficult unless one has 20 or more students. It does require that teachers, parents, tutors or caregivers use a multiple learning styles approach in education, so increases in prep time and better assessments of the student are necessary.

In the book A Mind At a Time Dr. Mel Levine states that the biggest mistake we make in life is to treat everyone equally when it comes to learning. Children process information differently from one another; some from images, others from words and others from sentences. Children have issues that can be addressed if understood.

• According to Dr. Levine children with learning problems struggle in different ways. By identifying and addressing these problems early, we avoid larger future learning issues.
• Sounds: There are 44 sounds in the English language. Some children's minds have problems differentiating sounds and have problems reading, writing and spelling words.
• Motor Skills: Children experiencing lapses in motor skills may have problems with cursive writing, playing musical instruments, guiding scissors or holding a pencil. These lapses may distract the brain from interpreting new information.
• Too Much Information: A child who has problems digesting large chunks of information can have problems with learning, despite the rate of speed or complexity in which the knowledge is presented.

Each one of these problems has its own practical solution. Levine believes that children thrive on doing what works best for them. He believes that parents, caregivers, nannies and tutors should celebrate a child's assets that they need to cultivate a child's memory that they need to develop a child's language skills. He promotes helping a child become better organized, helping a child adjust to slow motor skills, working with children to think "outside the box" and helping children develop strong social skills.

Learning Disabilities

Numerous studies have also shown children with learning disabilities will demonstrate significant advancement when provided with consistent individual attention and support in school and at home. When this intervention has been made available throughout their academic lives they show academic success rates similar to children with no identified disabilities.

Learning disabilities are not uncommon and most can be effectively managed. Fortunately numerous programs like the Sonday Reading System (Orton-Gillingham) and others exist to aid teachers, parents and tutors in building critical developmental skills in reading, vocabulary, math and science.

A disability must first be identified before intervention can take place. A teacher, parent or caregiver suspecting a learning disability should request that the school system assess the child. If the school denies this assessment, then a family doctor can direct the family to a professional child psychologist for this service. This documented information is one of the most powerful tools a parent or caregiver has in helping a failing child with a learning disability to succeed. It can gain for a child additional support in school, extended time on tests, extended time for SAT and ACT testing and a variety of social service and academic services. It should be noted that because a child has a disability does not mean they qualify for services as schools vary greatly in the services they provide.

Early Education and Better Education

Head Start takes yet another approach to learning that is based on several common sense and well researched, proven principles. Children who have a good preschool experience will be better prepared for school and more likely to succeed. Children who eat breakfast and regular meals throughout the day will be better able to concentrate in school and likely to thrive. These principles are simple to implement and highly effective in the learning process.

The American School Board Journal article What Works (1998) outlines what researchers all over the country are finding after decades of studies.

1. Nonacademic issues like family stability, etc. impact students but are difficult to manage.
2. Students' home backgrounds are responsible for roughly half of their school achievement. Early initiative gives young children a better start.
3. High-quality preschool experiences can reduce the need for expensive special education and later intervention.
4. The more money focused on the early learning years, the higher the later success rate.
5. Kindergarten and first grade should be about teaching basic verbal, reading and math skills. Without that, everything else starts to disintegrate.
6. Kindergartners need to be tested for their ability to discriminate among sounds and be checked again in first grade. Phonemic awareness is critical in the learning process.
7. Students need to be frequently assessed. Accurate assessments facilitate monitoring progress, and setting and mastering goals.
8. Bring in trained tutors. Several dozen studies indicate that early one-on-one intervention with a trained tutor can set students on the right academic track and can, in the long run, save schools money by drastically reducing the number of students who later need special education and remedial services.
9. Invest in teachers, train them, remove the bad ones and keep the good ones.
10. Reduce the size of classes and schools.
11. Increase the amount of time spent on learning.
12. Adopt a whole-school curriculum.

Other Ways to Learn and Manage Learning

Public school education has delivered many generations of students into successful careers and lives. Public education is still a positive factor in learning and still is an important aspect of U.S. educational systems. Every parent has or will experience both good and poor teachers as well as good and poor school systems. Therefore, it is important to evaluate all the environments in which a child learns and, if necessary, supplement or change those environments. Learning occurs in many different ways and there are alternatives to educational media and public educational systems that all parents and caregivers might want to consider.

Television: For better or worse, children watch a great deal of television; many students spend more hours watching television than attending school. In a study by Wright and Huston (1995), a group of preschoolers age 2-4 and first graders age 6-7 watched about seven to eight hours of non-educational programming and about two hours of educational programming per week. These studies indicated that the inclusion of educational television viewing improved the reading readiness, math skills and vocabulary of the preschoolers but had fewer effects on the older students. Television is a potent visual medium and can be educational, but it also has its downside and therefore parents should manage television viewing for content and maturity level.

Computers and the Internet: Parents, students and educators have readily embraced computers. Early studies indicate computers can have significant beneficial effects and augment the quality of education. Access to the Internet is considered one of the most profound teaching and learning tools invented since the printing press and, when used properly, should be included in educational environments. This includes on-line education.

Academic learning should be treated as holistic: It should be part of a student's day and a student's night. It starts with learning basic skills, basic content, doing homework, learning strategies for taking tests, prepping for tests, taking notes, doing study guides, asking questions, reading, and keeping physically fit and emotionally stable. Part of each parent or caregiver's day should end with a daily review of their child's activities. Education should not take a break on weekends, summers or holidays. There is always something a child can learn.

Parents need to be a child's advocate: Student advocacy is another fundamental foundation required to keep children on track in school. It takes a parent or caregiver to be a child's advocate. Very few children go through their educational years and developmental years without a need for some support. Children frequently fail to grasp concepts, understand skills, learn content, and fit in socially. Schools do not have the resources to be every child's advocate. If a child is failing, having problems with a concept, or experiencing social or developmental issues, then only a parent or caregiver can spend the time and effort necessary to seek a solution. Schools respond to advocates, they listen to the "squeaky wheel." It can be a painful and sometimes frustrating and difficult process to be an advocate, but it can help a child move into a more successful place in his educational and social environment.

Private Schools: Many positives relate to private schools, and there are some negatives. For the most part private schools can often offer small class sizes and also reflect the political, educational or religious preference of the parents. Some offer a better quality of education and some have very focused programs for children with special needs. Some private schools lack funding, staff, or a variety of programs necessary for strong academic growth. Private schools can be reviewed by looking at certification ratings, doing community reference checks and visiting message boards or viewing private school Internet sites.

Charter Schools: Charter schools, like private schools, offer many positive benefits and have some of their own issues to deal with. Recent studies of charter schools have, however, shown that some high profile charter schools are failing to meet the needs of their students. Before selecting a charter school check it out carefully with local and state certification boards.

Home Schooling: This is a growing trend and an attempt by many families to provide a better education for their children. Some parents seek home schooling for religious reasons, others for political or academic reasons, or convenience. Home schooling is often used to give a child with special needs added support. There are many benefits with home schooling. However, questions about social development, lack of group discussion and peer interaction concerns, broad scope of positions on issues and other key concerns have given rise to educators' fear that this method of education will limit a student's future growth potential. Many home school parents have sought the use of computer classes, tutors and social groups to meet these challenges. Home schooling is clearly not for everyone and requires a tremendous commitment from a parent or caregiver.

Experience and Mentoring: Just do it. Most individuals learn by experience, and doing something reinforces the learning process. Experience is critical in all learning.

Tutoring: Academic tutoring is still considered one of the best, if not the best educational teaching method available. It is an excellent strategy to augment a classroom education. It can be used for enrichment or focused on the development of children with special needs. School system after school system has implemented tutoring as part of their remedial intervention programs. Many school tutoring programs have placed one teacher with one, two or three students. The most successful intervention programs, however, have one teacher working with one student. These sessions often occur two or three times a week for 30 to 60 minutes per session.

In a 2002 journal article from the American Association of School Administrators, a dialogue on the value of tutoring for teachers and children unfolded. It focused on the University of Utah Reading Clinic and Utah's tutoring test program. One teacher's comment digested the article. She said, "One-On-One is a powerful aspect of many reading interventions, but that power does not benefit students alone. The opportunity to watch reading development happen up close and personal, without the demands of classroom management, significantly contributes to teachers' increased expertise." Peggy Lundberg, a reading specialist in Utah, said, "I've been teaching for 18 years and I've learned more about teaching reading from this (one-on-one) program than I learned in all of my university coursework and district in-services."

Are the Best Tutors the Most Experienced and Educated?

The ERIC Clearing House on Educational Management in Eugene, Oregon has compiled some very interesting studies. Children as peer tutors (tutor and student are the same age) have certain advantages over adults in teaching peers. They may more easily understand tutees' problems because they are cognitively closer. Allen and Feldman found that third and sixth graders were more accurate than experienced teachers in determining from nonverbal behavior whether age-mates understood lessons. Cohen (1986) believes that peer tutors present subject matter in terms their tutees understand, making them better teachers is many instances. Another aspect critical to all tutor teaching appears to be consistent interaction with the same individual. Students and young children respond better when they know the tutor and have a long-term relationship with a specific tutor.

Research has demonstrated that with proper training, students can be highly successful tutors as either peer or cross-age tutors. Tutoring is believed to have emotional as well as cognitive benefits. Working with a tutor, students can achieve at their own pace without being compared with faster learners. The extra attention and emotional support likely also help fill important psychological needs for children. In addition, younger students often find a big brother or sister or role model in a cross-age tutor, and this relationship builds greater desires to learn and help overcome the fear of learning alone.

Because there are so many categories of tutors, selecting the right tutor may appear critical. This is not so, according to a review of tutoring category research by Kalkowski in the School Improvement Research Series. Peer and cross-age tutoring has resulted in positive outcomes. In this paper Damon and Phelps say, "Despite popular suspicions about the dangers that 'peer pressure' poses for youth, scientific studies have left little doubt that peer relations can greatly benefit children's social and intellectual development." There is now a growing body of evidence that the closer tutors are in age to their students, the better the relationship. Colleges have had tremendous success with college students acting as peer and cross-age tutors. Elementary schools also have demonstrated success with peer tutoring and cross-age tutoring, and private tutoring firms like College Nannies & Tutors have been able to show the very positive effects of using college students to tutor both elementary and high school students.

Experience also has its benefits, especially with children with disabilities, and must be considered in the development of a tutoring strategy. Parents and caregivers can benefit by blending a tutoring strategy with traditional classroom education. It should be noted that children with specific disabilities might require another student or students to be present in tutoring for an effective educational process to occur.

The Ultimate Teaching Method

Perhaps the most compelling research on tutoring, the benefits it provides, and the research that has held up consistently over the years comes from Benjamin Bloom's The 2-sigma problem: the search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring (1984). Bloom demonstrated that a student that was one-on-one tutored would rise from a 50th percentile to a 98th percentile in educational achievement. His own research and substantial subsequent research demonstrate that students who have been consigned to the categories of "stress out," "drop out," "low achiever," not "bright enough," or even "unteachable" are students who can in fact succeed with the use of one-on-one tutoring (Center for Teaching and Learning, Idaho State University).

Bloom, Breuker, Khuwajz, Cohen, and many others have proven the superior value of tutoring for both enrichment and intervention. The consensus from these studies, according to Core, Johanna, Moore and Zinn from the University of Edinburgh, UK, is that "human tutors maintain a delicate balance allowing students to do as much of the work as possible and to maintain a feeling of control, while providing students with enough guidance to keep them from becoming too frustrated or confused," that "tutors allow students to take the initiative to construct his own knowledge by asking questions and proposing solutions," and that "tutors can intervene to ensure that errors are detected and repaired and that students can work around impasses." In brief, tutors are allowing the human brain do what it does best, and that is to learn.

Conclusion

The human mind and body learns continuously. Infants and young children have the most to gain from early stimulation and intervention while the brain is still developing. Direct and positive support by caregivers, parents and tutors can help ensure that a child will be successful later in school. In the case of children with special needs, this support and intervention can greatly reduce the need for expensive and perhaps unnecessary later services. While most disabilities are manageable they all require intervention at some level and some point, and early individual attention is key to this intervention. Research indicates that students with learning disabilities greatly improve with consistent one-on-one tutoring support and benefit from this support when it is provided over a broad span of their academic life. We also know that consistent use of the same tutor further reinforces the learning experience with all students, and the age of the tutor is less important than the ability to guide the learning process and for the tutor to relate to the student.

As children grow they experience periodic academic delays (critical learning moments). Rapid response in managing these periods by utilization of advocacy in the schools, work at home, and the use of one-on-one tutoring, nannies, etc., has demonstrated the highest degree of success in overcoming these delays. Additionally, students who have participated in building both early developmental skills and later academic skills through tutoring and child care strategies (from parents, tutors, daycare provides or teachers) have demonstrated they are happier, more confident and more successful throughout their educational years. Just because a child didn't receive early developmental stimulus does not mean that they are going to fail. It may mean they might need additional support during early academic years or that they will on their own develop learning strategies to meet their learning preference.

Parents and caregivers need to be aggressive in seeking academic and developmental alternatives for children when they believe that the existing environments are not providing critical skills, stimulus, attention, social interaction or content. Building a learning plan and strategy for a child starts with infancy and continues on through the teenage years. Monitoring progress is critical as are setting goals and being an advocate for a child. By enhancing developmental stimulus, thinking outside the box and supporting a child with individual attention at critical developmental and educational stages in their lives, parents and caregivers will help children learn and academically advance far beyond what any public or private educational program was designed to provide. No child needs to fail. All children deserve the right to learn, be confident and happy. The tools exist in the educational tool chest for this to happen.

About the Author

Peter Lytle is the Executive Chairman of College Nannies & Tutors, Inc. (www.collegenannies.com) an organization that provides both tutors and child development specialists to families. He is also a partner with the Business Development Group of Wayzata, MN. He has an extensive business and educational background. He has been the C.E.O. of both public and private companies. He formerly spent a number of years teaching students from K through 12. Mr. Lytle continues to do research and lecture on the subjects of how students learn and how they develop in their school, home and business environments. Mr. Lytle presented his first research paper on education and learning to the Iowa and National Academy of Sciences as a junior in college over 35 year ago.