3 NEW R's FOR OUR CITY SCHOOLS

City public school systems across the country are mired, brain and budget deep, in recurring failure and futility. Poor teachers, poor grades, poor buildings, poor safety, poor families and a swirl of poor here-today-gone-tomorrow reforms have convinced many that this mission has become impossible. Mayors, school boards and patrol cars each try band-aiding catastrophic hemorrhages, while the teachers and the families who really care and could do the most, flee for relief in alternative schools.

As another flawed school year in Chicago comes to another flawed end, educators, editors and elders all trumpet new anthems for the new year. But few believe the trumpets anymore.

Perhaps it's time for a little less from the brass section, and a little more from the composition itself. We need to write into this score three lyrical new R's: Recognition! Recruitment! Reward! Yes, this would call for money, but money better spent on the hemorrhaging rather than just on the heartburn. Specifically, on today's relentless hemorrhage of gifted teachers in our schools and concerned parents in our neighborhoods.

No need to replace any of the good programs already working. But in the final measures, what's needed are good people even more than good programs! So unless we get and keep more gifted teachers and more concerned parents, nothing that's working will work for long. Here's how...

GIFTED TEACHERS

* Recognizing who they are is the critical first step. Of course we have competent teachers and even very good teachers. But when thinking gifted teachers, think the cinematic role models in "Goodbye Mr Chips," "Mr Holland's Opus," "To Sir With Love" and "Dead Poet's Society." Put another way -- think those two or three gifted ones in your own life who made such a difference.

Gifted teachers like these do exist -- knowledgeable in their fields and passionate about empowering their students. Many are already in the classrooms, but perhaps go unrecognized. Others are coming up in the ranks, but perhaps are deemed too unconventional. Still others exist like sleeper-cells in other professions where they often fantasize a life of teaching, but assume it's too late.

Until we full-throatedly recognize that these extraordinary ones are the missing sparks -- in contrast to the ordinary ones processed through the gulags of ordinary education schools -- few fires will burn in our classrooms.

* Recruiting them demands a paradigm shift. Think how they recruit the Naturals in sports and corporations. If we want the best, we're going to have to start recruiting the best. Rather than simply certifying what's there. Sure, we need required courses and certifications. But not always for the gifted Natural.

No less than in Baseball or in Detroit, the best results call for the best performers. Performers you go after any way you can. Wining and dining, wooing and wowing. If shortstops and MBAs are worth it, teachers sure as hell are too!

* Rewarding in this culture almost always comes down to money. OK, so once we find the Naturals, be ready to pay them. Not simply for their classroom gifts, but also by putting them in campus positions where their gifts will be shared. Give 'em a title -- master teacher, faculty coordinator, whatever! But if CPS can land and retain two or three of these per campus for at least a few contracted years, watch the fires flame. Like what happens to your dugout when you land an All-Star in time for the new season.

CONCERNED PARENTS

* Recognizing these in our local communities isn't hard. They're usually the ones who write, call, visit, maybe even complain. But they care! So sublimate that energy into what schools need in order to energize the other families. Somehow, our schools have to win back some of that old-time-backing from parents that once made kids actually worry about, not laugh off, their homework and grades.

* Recruiting these parents should be one of every principal's priorities. Lets face it, concerned parents are the other half to gifted teachers. So launch letters, phone-calls, home visits. As Dikta used to put his mission: "Whatever it takes!"

* Rewarding these parent leaders can be done with both dollars and dazzle. Some kind of compensatory allowances on annual school fees, coupled with some well-deserved prominence in their community. Once upon a time in America, they felt they were on the same side with their local school. Well, it's time we rewarded them to help bring the good times back.

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There are no quick solutions to problems that have taken generations to fester. And yet, if we don't layer into our current efforts better people as well as better programs, nothing fundamentally changes. And be assured, today's educational changes have to be as fundamental as is the crisis. With 2010-11 looming in just a few weeks, it's already a little late...