Well unfortunately I don't think that was the gist of the column Lynell wrote. While I liked it and agreed with the points I have to disagree with Mr. Mann that the point of the article was "bashing bad parents", but rather advising parents not to be so worried about which school their child will attend as the defining factor in what kind of people they will turn into.
While the quotes do come from the article, the more pertinent or salient point is that parents are "trying to divine their 5-year-old's unique learning style, so they can find The Perfect School. Which, by the way, has never existed." Lynell isn't making a point of bashing parents but rather reassuring them. There is no such thing as a perfect school, so if you're doing everything you can right, if you stay sober, feed [your] kids, enforce bed-times, give hugs, teach manners, turn off the TV, read books, monitor homework and show up at conferences, the kids will most likely turn out fine. I think it's a bit misleading to portray this as a parent-bashing article or to provide quotes out of context, when it seems to be more of a parent coaching article: Don't worry so much about selecting the schools as you do about providing the necessities, and some of the most important lessons will come outside of school or from less than perfect staff and teachers. At least that's how it reads to me, but decide for yourself at: http://www.swjournal.com/display/inn_opinion/opinion04.txt. I liked it, and thought Lynell was right on. Jonathan Palmer Stevens Square-Loring Heights _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
