Vanderbilt hosts president, vice president for
Re-Union
President Bill Clinton will join Vice President Al Gore Jr., Tipper Gore
and nearly 1,000 educators, parents and industry leaders gathering at Vanderbilt
University June 25 for a day-long conference on the role of families in
their children's learning process.
"Families and Learning" is the sixth annual Family Re-Union hosted
by the vice president. Co-sponsors of the event are the Child and Family
Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies and
the Children, Youth and Family Consortium at the University of Minnesota.
"It is very important for families to be actively involved in every
phase of their children's education, but many times the day-to-day demands
of life interfere with spending quality time with our children," said
Vice President Gore, who has moderated the annual conference since he was
a U.S. senator. "This conference will give us an opportunity to hear
from parents and experts in family policy about how to overcome those barriers
and incorporate learning into everyday family life."
"There is an essential connection between family involvement and effective
learning by children of all ages," said Bill Purcell, director of The
Child and Family Policy Center at VIPPS and one of the original organizers
of the forum series. "This conference will explore the relationship
between families and learning from early childhood through adolescence,
successful partnerships between families and schools, and new technologies
for learning."
The conference convenes at 8:30 a.m. in Langford Auditorium where Vice President
Gore will demonstrate new educational technology and lead, along with Clinton,
a panel discussion with federal, state and local officials; education experts
and parents. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, James Comer, professor
of child psychiatry at Yale, and VIPPS's Purcell are among the panelists
expected to participate in the discussion.
Following an address by President Clinton, the conference will adjourn to
the Peabody campus. Tipper Gore will speak during the luncheon on Magnolia
Lawn, where she will be honored with Peabody College's Distinguished Alumna
Award.
This is Clinton's third trip to Vanderbilt since he was elected president.
He is only the second sitting president to visit the campus. John F. Kennedy
spoke at Vanderbilt's Dudley Field in 1963 as part of the University's 90th
anniversary celebration.
Several members of the Vanderbilt faculty will be among the scholars participating
in the series of interactive workshops at more than a dozen sites throughout
the Peabody campus that afternoon. The session on "Reaching Out to
Parents from the Start" will include comments from Barbara Clinton,
director of the Center for Health Services. Jerold Bauch, professor of education
and director of the Betty Phillips Center for Parenthood Education, will
take part in the discussion of "Linking Home and School." John
Bransford, professor of education and Centennial Professor of Psychology,
and Professor of Special Education Ted Hasselbring will represent Peabody's
Learning Technology Center during a session on "Building Networks of
Learning for Families, Educators and Students." Ann Kaiser, professor
and chair of special education and professor of psychology at Peabody, will
participate in the discussion addressing "What Can Teachers and Principals
Do to Create Family Friendly School?" Kaiser also serves as director
of the John F. Kennedy Center's Institute on Prevention, Early Intervention
and Families.
The vice president's afternoon session will be a live, interactive dialogue
with representatives at four schools in Chula Vista, Calif.; Union City,
N.J.; Boston and Minneapolis.
All Family Re-Union participants will reconvene at Langford mid-afternoon
to report their findings to the vice president. Following his closing remarks,
Gore is expected to adjourn the conference at approximately 4:30 p.m.
The proceedings will be broadcast via satellite to more than 70 sites in
two dozen states.
Hundreds of representatives of the national and local media will be on campus
to cover Family Re-Union VI. CNN's Larry King is expected to interview Gore
Monday, June 23, in a broadcast originating from the Vanderbilt campus.
And several national and local television morning news programs are expected
to air live reports from the conference.
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Document Created June 26, 1997
by Billy Kingsley