EDUCATIONnIn Loco Parentisnby Laura RogersnThe Brave New Familynin MissourinMany people are concerned aboutnthe problems that face our nationntoday, and the good folks at thenMissouri Department of Education arenno exception. In an attempt to reversenthe decline in enrollment and the highndropout rate, and to win back parentalnfavor for the public school system, Missourinlaunched an experimental parentingnprogram in 1981. It was then callednNew Parents as First Teachers, but hasnsince been simplified to Parents asnTeachers, or PAT.nDr. Burton White’s Harvard PreschoolnProject paved the way for thenPAT program. “Sending a new parentnhome with a six-day-old baby as we nowndo in this country is insane,” he assertednat a 1982 education conference. Henpredicted that future community involvementnin his “very unusual project”nwould reach 80 percent.nIn Missouri PAT began as a voluntarynpilot project in four school districtsnat a cost of only $30,000 each. Statenlegislators believed it would help disadvantagednchildren by screening themnfor “developmental delays.” In 1985n42/CHRONICLESnVITAL SIGNSnthe Missouri Legislature mandated thenParents as Teachers program for allnschools and all children. The cost rosento over 9 million dollars and involvedn53,000 families.nThis program now covers 100,000nchildren at a cost of fifteen millionndollars in tax money, and the Januaryn1990 issue of Parents as TeachersnNews, PAT’s monthly bulletin, reportsnthat PAT will be fully implemented “byn1995 or so.” Since 1981 PAT has beennintroduced in 40 states and at leastneight foreign countries, and in 1987,nthe Education Commission of thenStates announced eight spinoff programsnwith diflFerent names and similarngoals. Edward Ziegler, director of thenYale University Bush Center in ChildnDevelopment and Social Policy, predictsnthe future price tag will be fromnseventy-five to one hundred billionndollars for the total child care package.nAll that money will go to pay for anprogram that is revolutionary in itsnapproach to child development andnparent involvement.nMuch of the strategy behind PATnwas laid out at a Governor’s Conferencenon Education held in Kansas inn1989 called “Schools, Goals and then1990’s.” At the Kansas Governor’snConference two years earlier Dr. Zieglernstated that “the child care systemnmust become part of the very structurenof our society. It must be tied to anknown major societal institution.”nDuring the 1989 conference LamarnAlexander, president of the Universitynof Tennessee, called for “a brand newnAmerican school.” These schools arento be open year round for childrennfrom birth, and a team of teachers willnbe assigned to a child from the day thatnchild arrives at the school all the waynthrough college.nDr. Shidey McCune added definitionnto what she called the “strategicndirection” for American schools. “Itnseems to me that far too much of ourneflbrts have been focused on the issuenof let’s find a short term fix and fix upnthese schools and taking care of them,nrather than the issue of understandingnthat what we’re into is a total restruc­nnnturing of the society. What is happeningn” in America today and what isnhappening in Kansas and the GreatnPlains is not simply a chance situationnand the usual winds of change. What itnamounts to is a total transformation ofnour society. We have moved into a newnera.”nDr. Frank Newman, who is with thenEducation Commission of the Statesn(and on the national advisory board ofnPAT), agreed. “We cannot expectnthese systems to change unless wenchange the basic policies that surroundnthem. That means for example thatnnew teachers entering the professionnmust come in from higher educationnand teacher education programs asnchange agents.”nTo the Missouri taxpayer, the goalsnof PAT may be more obscure.nThe process begins when a “parentneducator,” through home visits andnschool visits, bonds herself to a family.nThe January 1990 issue of Parents asnTeachers News reports that the “purposenof these visits is to help thenparents feel more comfortable , aboutnleaving their child at the center. Becausenthe parent-teacher relationshipnbegins in the home, parents see thenteacher and the center as more responsivento their needs and to the needs ofntheir baby.”nOnce that bond between parentneducator and the biological parent isnestablished, the children and parentsnare eased into school programs thatndeliver a battery of services. First, undernthe guise of education screening,nparents and children are evaluated, thenchild is given a personal computer codennumber, and a computer record isninitiated that will enable Missouri tontrack each child-for the rest of his life.nAll of the twelve computer code definitionsnlabel the children “at risk.” Ifnchildren don’t fit in the first eleven “atn, risk” categories, they automatically fallninto the twelfth category PAT callsn”Other —That Wonderful CatchnAll.” There is no code for normal.nThe next step of the PAT program isnto change and usurp the relationshipsnparents have with their children. Then