Breakdown of the Family

In response to “Listen to Your Grandmother” (Editorial Page, April 7), I agree totally with David Blankenhorn’s observation that the nation’s “quality of family life” is deteriorating. His explanation that the cause is “Reagan closed the bathrooms,” made me laugh out loud and say a dirty functional word!

I guess I spent too many years in PTA not to be terribly concerned about the future of our children. Single-parent households simply cannot meet the needs of the children, as hard as they try. Though we observe a burning need for child care supported by government and the workplace, the responsibility is with the parents. Nothing will replace a two-parent family unit, even if it is not a Ozzie-and-Harriet ideal group.

Do we really want a governmental agency teaching American values? Who will determine what those values will be? I remember being part of a group of parents and teachers attempting to get a sex education unit into the 7th grade 20 years ago. Numerous people came before the school district committee to protest. These are “family issues,” they said, to be determined by the individual family’s religion, the ideals the parents want to promulgate, the individual child’s maturity and social development. Teachers were uncomfortable with the subject matter, believing, too, these were matters, like many others, to be taught in the home.

The grandmothers are right, Mr. Blankenhorn. Listen to them.

NINI CUTTER

Sherman Oaks