In his recent columns, David Brooks of the New York Times has made early education, and the role of families in helping children develop self-regulation and discipline, something of an ongoing theme. In his Sunday column Brooks weighs in on the magazine cover story from last week on NCLB, KIPP schools, and the effects of poverty on children's performance in school. Brooks cites the work of Robert Sternberg, the Yale psychology prof and others to argue the importance of tacit knowledge, which he says is "knowing how, not knowing what. It's knowing how to listen, how to see and organize what you see." Brooks asserts that children pick this knowledge up informally in "homes that are organized, in families where the attachments are stable, among people who plan for the future and within cultures that celebrate work." But he also applauds schools that try to build this kind of structure into their approach.

It's great to see a newspaper columnist, especially a conservative one, explore how such capacities develop and can be encouraged. It's also interesting that many liberals shy away from schools that are so structured, as are the KIPP academies. Reporters should be willing to examine their own views on such questions and be sure their reporting is unaffected.