Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World

Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World, by James P. Comer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. 352 pp. $28.00, hardcover, $18.00 paperback. ". we all but ignore child and adolescent development issues. This is largely because the professional identity of teacher as instructor, rather than as child and youth developer in the service of teaching and learning, is established first in schools of education and then reinforced in practice with colleagues who were similarly prepared" (Comer, 2004, p. 273). In their book, Supplementary Education, Gordon, Bridglall and Meroe so often cite James Comer's earlier work, Waiting for a Miracle: Why Schools Can't Solve Our Problems, that some people worry that they and Comer, one of our most distinguished psychiatrists, believe that schools are unimportant in the development of our children. Comer, Gordon, Bridglall, and Meroe are advocates of "supplementary education'-the importance of the teaching and learning that occur outside of school- but they do not think that school and what happens in school are any less important. Children and our society need well-resourced and well-functioning schools. In his book, Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World, Comer reasserts his claim about what he feels that schools can do and should be about. Based on more than thirtyfive years of hands-on work in public schools and in the promotion of the idea that facilitating human development is a central function and instrument of schooling, Comer describes his experience with a model for school reform. It is an informative and inspiring story. Marian Wright Edelman, who coined the phrase "leave no child behind," has observed: "How different our schools and our nation would be if every child were a 'Comer Kid'" (Comer, 2004, reviewer's comments). Professor Howard Gardner claims "James Comer is one of the sanest and wisest educators of our time" (Comer, 2004, reviewer's comments). Waiting for schools, alone, to solve our problems is like waiting for a miracle, but not because schools are superfluous. Well-resourced schools and stable communities and families that support the holistic development of children are, in Comer's and our views, essential if we are indeed to leave no child behind. Comer's book is both biographical and documentary. In the foreword, the distinguished Henry Louis Gates helps us to understand who James P. Comer is, the course he has traveled, and the context in which Comer has lived his remarkable life. In the chapters that follow, Comer provides more details of his own lived experience, and the ideas and values that have shaped his work. About one third of the way through the book, Comer introduces the conceptual and organizational framework that provides the scaffold for the Student Development Program or the Comer approach. This nine element model consists of three mechanisms-a governance and management team (now called the School Planning and Management Team [SPMT]), a parent team, and a mental health team (now called a Student and Staff Support Team); three operationscomprehensive school plan, staff development, and assessment and modification; and three guidelines-no fault problem-solving, consensus decision-making, and collaboration or no paralysis. Comer claims that the framework enables the staff and parents to manage the three critical areas of work in schools-governance and management, student and adult development, and teaching and learning. However, as is true of most functioning systems, while such structures are important, it is often the culture and the processes that really make the difference. One does not have to read many pages before one realizes that at the core of Comer 's conviction is that essential to the process of educating children is a culture that supports child and adolescent development. Fundamental to the creation and maintenance of such a culture are the relationships between the teaching persons, the learning persons, and between those who are teaching and learning. …