Coppola, Raymond T. (2008). Empowering Children for Success: How Parents and Teachers Can Open the Door of Success for Every Child! Reviewed by Rui Niu, University of Scranton

Coppola, Raymond T. (2008). Empowering Children for Success: How Parents and Teachers Can Open the Door of Success for Every Child! Kansas City, KS: Zender Publishing Pp. 210         ISBN 9780981725505 Reviewed by Rui Niu University of Scranton April 23, 2009 Empowering Children for Success by Raymond Coppola is a book of ideas. Focusing on the current high school dropout rate, Coppola argues that educators are undertaking a revolution due to the changes occurring in technology, society, medicine, and business. The book “present[s] a unique and proven approach to parenting and teaching that makes the learning process easier, happier, and more successful for children, parents, and teachers alike” (p. 2). Coppola also argues that the approach he proposes is centered on “passion” (p 2). He calls this passion for learning as children’s personal “energy construct” – “that innate aspect of the ‘nature’ we are born with, and learning activities that capture the child’s undivided attention” (p. 2). Therefore, one of the major purposes of the book is to help parents and educators to successfully nurture joyful learners. Throughout the book, Coppola hopes that the current revolution in education can involve teaching and parenting approaches that take a child’s innate energy construct and passion into consideration. He further states that it is because too many school children today are not enjoying their schooling that creates the high drop-out rate. Coppola, begins by defining the concept of a child’s energy construct, arguing that when a child is passionately interested in something, learning occurs with ease. When learning becomes easy, the child will not behave badly or break his/he promise. Coppola further argues that “proper motivation” takes place only when a child’s innate likes and dislikes are taken into consideration. Therefore, he suggests a modification of the traditional U.S. ways of teaching in the classroom, of structuring after-school activities, and of home activities. In achieving the changes he proposes that “parent, child, and teacher together create a ‘PCT Contract,’ wherein strategies and tactics are agreed upon by all parties” (p. 8). He further reinforces that we as educators should regard children’s personal interests for learning all curricula successfully. In Chapter 2 Empowerment! Coppola lists several successful people in the U.S., for instance, Peirre Cardin, Oprah Winfrey, arguing that each of the successful individuals knew what they were passionate about when they were young. He also argues that children’s awareness and parents’ use of the awareness will make educating children as easy as “1, 2, 3” (p. 12). This is a very naïve opinion to say the least. The Importance of Uncovering the “True” Child Within is the title of Chapter 3 and starts with the story of Pierre Cardin and his secret for becoming a successful businessman – following his own voices. Coppola cites two cases in which the parents listened to their children and the children were successful, and then one case where the parents did not listen to the child and he failed his schooling. Imputing this philosophy to education, Coppola argues that school curriculums should be individualized to the unique needs and desires of the natural energy construct of each child” (p. 26). Chapter 4 Stepping Stones to Success introduces the tactics and strategies that parents and educators can use in helping children to become successful. He listed eight statements as Parent-Child-Teacher Empowerment Culture and Value. These statements include topics of 1) a child’s innate passion; 2) parents and teachers need to assist a child in uncovering his/her passion! 3) collaboration among parents, teachers, and children empowers successful learning; 4) school curriculum and lesson plans must fit learner’s interests! 5) parents need to plan the after-school and weekend schedule of a child based on the child’s personal interests! 6) a child needs to agree to follow the directions that parents and teachers suggest for him/her; 7) when a child’s interests change, educational plans and goals need to change as well; and 8) the parent-child-teacher contract is a very important component of approaching the parenting/teaching process in an empowering way! In Chapter 5 Beyond Parenting/Teaching: The Tao of Mentorship, Coppola introduces five types of parents and teachers: abusive, inadequate, average, good, and great. Coppola argues that the “great” parents or teachers have a gift for finding and bringing out the best in the children who they mentor. He describes the “Tao” type of mentor as “an exchange of ‘spirit’ from one human being to another” (p. 33) and within this type of relationship, the child’s natural energy construct is united with a nurturing environment, which evokes the child’s personal interests and passions. This relationship guarantees “bonding, friendship, partnering, coaching, and grouping” (p. 34) between the child and parents or teachers. The next five chapters all play a variation on the “mentor” theme and give examples for properly nurturing a child for success. The goals and objective in nurturing a child are 1) uncover a child’s specific energy construct; 2) to mold the parenting/teaching process around each specific child; 3) to be willing to change direction with children change theirs; 4) to be a mentor and coach over and above being a parent and teacher; and 5) educator become an indispensible part of the solution. Coppola argues that the happy and healthy child depends on the trinity of 1) The innate energy construct of the child; 2) The proper environmental stimulus; and 3) The all-important “mentor” who enables the two to link together. He relates the story of Tiger Woods to illustrate the importance of a mentor relationship to a child in his/her growing process. In Chapter 11 A Virtual Reality Empowered Classroom Coppola returns to his idea of empowerment. He proposes that a child’s specific “energy construct” needs should be viewed as priority in any educational setting. He then follows this up in Chapter 12 by arguing what we need is “a new perspective and new leadership” (p. 93) in raising our children – “leadership that will unite these parents and teachers into a coalition, a voting block, with one mantra to every local, state, and national politician” (p. 93). Then he concludes this discussion of empowerment in Chapter 13 when he claims that empowerment fosters success, and one of the keys to success is networking. He states “When we activate our personal energy construct, we attract toward ourselves the very individuals we need to assist us in our journey” (p. 97). In the chapter, Coppola offers suggestions on how to help a child who is under care to start networking and how teachers and parents can network successfully. The next two chapters focus on the role of the parent in creating the proper home environment for their children’s unique energy construct. Again he cites Tiger Woods story to emphasize his point. He also argues that when parents found the unique energy construct of their child/ren, the parents then needed to find opportunities to empower their child/ren. Finally, in Chapter 16, Coppola returns to his primary concern, that of the high school dropout rate. He explains the damage that the high number of dropouts brings to the U.S. from three perspectives: a) the physical/ social effects; b) the mental/spiritual effects; and c) the material/financial effects. Also in the chapter, he lists the people and organizations that have already started the process of addressing the high-dropout issue, such as Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Karen Wagner, etc. Part two of the book, title From Theory to Practice, deals with the interconnections between theory and practice. In this section, Coppola provides detailed examples of what he suggests educators should focus on from his previous chapters, such as how to find a child’s innate energy construct, what teachers and parents can do to engage the child to fully development, the format of Parent-Child-Teacher (PCT) contract, and what parents and teachers can use to keep track of children’s progress. Following the suggested practice activities, Coppola suggests various resources that can be used in the general curriculum level teaching and learning activities, such as library resources, teaching activity designs, and internet resources. The most impressive part of this section is that Coppola provides dozens of internet resources from which both teachers and students can benefit. Coppola speaks in a very broad sense to rephrase his argument of “energy construct”, comparing it to the concept of ‘enlightenment’ of Buddhism, the ‘self-actualization’ of Abraham Maslow, the ‘selfhood’ of Victor Frankle, the ‘bliss’ of Joseph Campbell, or the ‘spirit’ of Christ” (p. 116). However, most of the time, his examples are focused only on the success stories of people in the U.S. Throughout the book, there is not much research cited to support his argument. He is more likely to use statistical reports [facts] of standardized tests to emphasize the critical situation of the current dropout rate in the U.S. than use data-driven research results to support his argument on solutions. Even when he did use research results a few times, he failed to cite the researchers’ names or the journal titles in which the research articles were published. Therefore, the book, and the remediation it espouses, should not be viewed as research based. The book will strike a familiar cord with anyone who has read Jim Collins’s “Good to Great.” Collins tracked several successful companies and individuals to demonstrate their common characteristics. Collins’s book seemed to suggest that if a company were to pattern its organizational structures and behaviors after these successful companies’ common traits, they would be on their way to becoming great as well. That seems to be what Coppola had in mind with his constant analogies to famous, successful individuals such as Tiger Woods and Bill Gates. Before the end of the book, Coppola used these stories from the lives of successful individuals to raise some in-depth thoughtful questions which are worthy of consideration by educators. For example, in the parent-child-teacher-mentor relationship, which component is the most important, parent, child or teacher? He writes at length about the need to make school a more “joyful” event for students. Unfortunately, most readers will not find this book very joyful either. However, although his book is not research-based, his arguments regarding the high dropout rate and schools needing to change, speak to one of the most critical problems of today’s education in the U.S., “How do we motivate students to succeed?” About the Reviewer Rui Niu is an assistant professor at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Dr. Niu earned her doctorate from Michigan State University and specializes in early elementary literacy, as well as, instructional strategies for educating English Language Learners (ELL’s). She has also done extensive work with professional learning communities and helping teachers engage diverse learners in mainstream classrooms.