A Major League Partnership
by Matilda Raffa Cuomo and Deborah E. Lans

Corporate America has been speaking for years about the need for teamwork and team building. Companies devote substantial money and time to developing quality interactions among their employees and also with outside partners: customers, clients, patients. Our children, who are our nation’s most important “product” and greatest resource, deserve no less. As we look toward the close of summer and a new school year, everyone should consider the many people who need to join together as a team to assure our youth the promising futures they deserve.

Parents are the most valuable players on the team; their children learn from their example. When parents speak of the importance of education and demonstrate their words by actions — attending school conferences, meeting the child’s teachers and involving themselves in the child’s homework — the child is encouraged and inspired to attend school and do his or her best. Sadly, when parents are inactive and do not participate in the life of the school, their children learn that school and education are unimportant. Parents as team players can and must give their children self-esteem and pride in the school they attend. Parents also need to recognize and support the many wonderful teachers their children will encounter, particularly given the dispiriting environments in which they will learn.

The schools themselves have key roles to play. Invariably when asked to name their own significant mentors, adults name either their parents or a teacher. Children know when their teachers do not care or are incompetent, and they react with anger, disruptive behaviors or disrespect. Children also know when a teacher cares about the youth in the classroom and the subject he or she is teaching; that teacher will have the respect and attention of the students.

The critical coaches in the education team are the school administrators, from the Board of Education to the district superintendents and principals, who must inspire teachers, students and parents and insure that the whole is even greater than the sum of the parts.

Finally, but significantly, there is the “bench” who can, and must, fill in where parents and school cannot. There are many other adults who have the opportunity to support a child: community members at religious institutions, from cultural groups and in extended family, and mentors in formal mentoring programs. Each volunteer contributes critical support to help fend off the many negative influences which surround our youth—peers engaging in anti-social behaviors like drinking, smoking, drug use and gang membership; school absenteeism; and criminal involvement.

Social scientists have written repeatedly what our common sense tells us: the more adults a child relates to and is bonded with, the more likely he or she is to succeed. As the school year begins again, each of us should ask ourselves what role we can play for our youth. It takes more than a village to raise a child: it must be a village that plays well as a team.

Mentoring USA is recruiting volunteer mentors now, training them for the “season” which for children opens in September to give our children a better chance to succeed in school. Matilda Cuomo is the Founder and Chairperson of MUSA and Deborah Lans is the Executive Director.