Opinion: Mailbag: Stop making excuses

Dear L.A. Times, As a parent whose kids recently finished public school at a large high school in a mid size Florida town, I could only smile when I read Pam Felcher’s spirited defense of the notion that class ‘culture’ matters more than class size. But she only hints at what all parents and teachers know, but education journalists, administrators and ‘advocates’ avoid like the plague when writing articles or running their mouths. It is the homes that children come from that determine to a vast degree their success in school, and again we are not talking about size or money. Education is not a drip bag - have you got that?? No program, no expensive after -school whatever, no technology lab, no visit from Mrs. Clinton or whoever expounding their village, can make up for what a child does not get when their home is minimal in the qualities needed for educational success. A home committed to education with no computer and only a few pieces of furniture, like a Haitian family we know, can produce one successful kid after another, but those where parents are excuse-makers, lazy, absent, unengaged or a whole litany of dysfuctions can and will not. Sadly, children from the latter now make up about half of all public school children. Only when we agree to stop pretending and demand more of parents and families, will we see more success through high school of other than middle class kids. Gains created by hard working teachers in elementary schools will evaporate by the high school years. And yes, I mean the fatherless black boys, girls with the slovenly mother and her boyfriend slinking into the guidance office, and a whole host of others. The kids drop out, disappear, live with friends, muddle along, and re-pay the lack of nurturing and real interest in their futures learned at home. At least Ms. Felcher takes a shot at addressing the reality that all parents of successful students have observed a zillion times. Thank you - Sandra Rawls, Vero Beach, Florida