Report Card on U.S. Schools

If anyone should do anything, it is the parents who bear the responsibility. If only the parents did what parents should, then all of the scholastic failings would tumble: not reading analytically, poor writing, not doing well on challenging assignments, inadequate development of specialized knowledge, lack of understanding of significance or the American system.

Students with these problems are generally lazy; they need only the old-fashioned kind of encouragement that their parents can and should provide: Tell them what is expected--point them to the tools of education and let them determine how best to use them--demonstrate the consequences of non-achievement--and level appropriate sanctions for failure. It won’t take them long to get the message that they should have already been taught.

LAWRENCE R. GORDON

Santa Monica