The System and Runaways
All parents of children from babes to kindergarten age should take heed of the story of Carmen Ponce (“A Mother Discovers the System Doesn’t Work for Runaways,” Nov. 15).
As a kindergarten teacher (now retired) in the East District of Los Angeles School system, I saw children with faces that revealed friendly love, but I saw more with fears, anxieties, hates, rebellion. Almost with certainty I could predict the dropouts, the runaways. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of improbable cure.
So, parents, look early to your child’s needs. If you planted a flower bed, you wouldn’t wait months before you nurtured it, would you?
DORA FREESTONE
Laguna Hills
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