Foreword

The Case for Prosocial Education: Developing Caring, Capable Citizens

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.

—John Adams, Second President of the United States

In 2012, education in America is once again experiencing the beginning of transformative change. Teachers and administrators, education scholars, and—most notably—senior government officials are challenging the dominant assumptions about the nature of successful public and private education. There has never been a more critical time in our nation’s history to “fix” education’s problems and meet its challenges.

In this book, leading social scientists, policy specialists, and educators synthesize evidence-based research, historical precedent, and futuristic perspectives, gently demanding a new definition of academic and educational success. Taken together, the chapters reflect a breakthrough in interdisciplinary thought, filling in an oft-forgotten goal of formal education: ensuring that all children reach their potential in and out of the classroom.

Persuasively, the authors argue that school success should not be measured solely by improved test scores in academic content areas. Rather, they map out a series of interrelated domains in the “prosocial, multidimensional” sphere of concern. Many terms, seemingly discrete, come together to build a picture of students’ personal development, a vision that may be both a full complement for academic success as well as a necessary precursor for superior academic achievement: early childhood success, adolescent development, positive school climate, character education, cooperative learning, moral development, citizenship education, service learning, social and emotional learning, student engagement, school bonding, role modeling, and inspired teaching.

Resonant with this approach, we at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation feel privileged to have observed and occasionally assisted the editors and authors during the evolution of this groundbreaking work. Much of our own previous research and program work has involved evaluating and creating approaches to enhancing student life by reducing behavioral and health threats to American youth and adolescents. Crossing the silos of governmental funding, our research has addressed threats that include alcohol and other drug use and abuse, family dysfunction, truancy, school dropout, mental illness, preteen and teen pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, gang involvement, child abuse, lack of social skills, racial and ethnic discrimination, uncaring educators, the existence of special needs, lack of school safety, attempted suicide, and lack of community awareness. Any one of these limiting factors often negatively affects school attendance and performance. Existing in combination for any individual student, they can affect profoundly both educational attainment and preparation for successful adult lives.

For many of these so-called risk factors, we see the most promising and empirically validated solutions as involving positive programs—asset-building strategies and services—rather than threats, sanctions, punishment, and ostracism. Such practical interventions will sound familiar to those who read this book’s discussions of mentoring, role modeling, parental involvement, peer tutoring and counseling, positive psychology, building attractive school climates, community service learning, values education, citizenship training, enjoyable physical exercise, improving family communication, expanding educators’ professional development, and establishing caring and respectful classrooms.

When it comes to the academic and social health of students, the worlds of education, social science, public health, and public safety coalesce across intellectual disciplines. Even as each of our authors can claim superior expertise in his or her specialty, they consciously shared a camaraderie, burnished in stimulating and challenging group discussions. In a certain sense, our contributing authors and editors have established a new field of study, a broad conception of the nonacademic priorities in educational development. There is an emerging understanding that such elements of students’ lives are crucial to the academic, technical, and vocational success of students K through 12 and beyond, and that they cannot merely be shuffled off to parents or churches or communities or the media.

Our authors have grounded their observations in the best science and literature available. However, it is comforting to know that none of the constituent elements of their thinking contradict sound educational theory from the past two hundred years, none violate intuition and common sense, and none interfere with the highest aspirations of intellectual development. Our contributors understand that this new integrated field has much to learn and that much more study and research is necessary, but also that it has an extraordinary contribution to make. Whether in the sciences of quantum mechanics, social network theory, behavioral health, or education, our society is coming to understand how phenomena are intricately linked, how personal and institutional change affects whole systems, and how systemic change affects schools and their students. This book signals such transformative changes in education, exploring an innovative expression of the grandest theories of human nature using the most common details of classroom practice. The time is right; this book is needed.

Allan Y. Cohen
Betty W. Straub
Bernard E. Murphy
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Editors’ Note: At the time of writing, Betty Straub was with PIRE and was instrumental in contributing to the endeavors to support this handbook’s efforts. She rejoined the University of Louisville in August 2010.