This Sunday, Thomas Friedman posted an opinion column in The New York Times.  His premise, and one that I wholeheartedly agree with, is that we blame teachers for our children’s lack of success when it is parents who can make all of the difference.

I thought the article was going to be about the way that modern American parents are not as involved as they could be.  But instead it went in a direction that I had not anticipated.  Friedman spoke about the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) and how American 15-year-olds are not excelling compared to peers in other nations.

The PISA team started to look beyond the exam itself and interviewed 5000 families, comparing their responses with the children’s results on the PISA.  And here, my friends, is what they discovered:

“Fifteen-year-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all. The performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family’s socioeconomic background. Parents’ engagement with their 15-year-olds is strongly associated with better performance in PISA.”

Additionally, it was found that being engaged with your child: monitoring homework, ensuring your child gets to school, rewarding their efforts, and talking about the importance of college are all linked to better attendance, grades, and test scores.

But for me, it’s that reading piece that really shines.  Beautiful really.