Frances Lear on the Media

I can’t quite figure out why Frances Lear wrote her article on the media (Commentary, June 7). The whole thing is basically a diatribe against the feminists of the ‘70s, cloaked in a diatribe against the media, specifically Time magazine. The only thing wrong with the entire thesis is that none of it is true. Her theory that feminists did not bring up their children with the correct set of “American” values and now these grown children are controlling the media is nonsense. First of all, Time is not controlled by people who are our children’s age. My children and Frances’ children are in their mid-30s. Time magazine’s editors are quite a bit older. Our kids were all brought up together (I mean really together) and quite frankly, you could not find a nicer, more thoughtful group right now than Kate Lear, Maggie Lear, Nicole Yorkin and David Yorkin.

Frances seems to have this need to bash feminism even at the expense of her daughters and I don’t understand why. Actually she was a very good mother and I don’t think either one of us “shortchanged our kids.” The tube was strictly rationed in both our houses and did not take over their education. I have no idea why it is necessary to rewrite history to make a point. It does tend to annoy me a lot.

PEG YORKIN

Los Angeles

* Frances Lear’s surprising, collective mea culpa is right-on regarding the points she addresses regarding the effect of the media and baby-boomer parents on the children of today, but she overlooks several issues which are equally valid. The boomer parents relied on the public schools to teach their children morals and values when the schools were espousing values-neutral (read: values-free) education. They also, by default, passed on the responsibility for sex education to the schools, which taught it as a “how-to” course with no moral underpinning, sense of responsibility, or concern for the sanctity of life of the unborn. Patriotism was made politically incorrect through the teaching of revisionist history.

I’m not down on public schools. They did a great job during my time in school, the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, when parents took an interest in how they were being run, and before the advent of powerful teachers unions whose goals were not the welfare of the students but that of the teachers.

I believe parents are awakening to the situation described above, and I have hope for the future of education in America.

RAYMOND E. BRANDES

Yorba Linda