Dear Wilma, I agree with Kathleen on this one. One-year-olds bite, chew and drool. Parents, teachers and peers socialize them. The stakes may be a little higher today, as some of the biters can now pass fatal diseases, but the nature of the beasts, at age 1, is not much different than it was at other times in history. 13 has changed, a lot, but that is a different story about prolonging childhood and longer living.
Second, you and I don't seem to be defining "competent" in the same way, and I wouldn't want your definition ascribed to my intentions. I see casual parents raising children, but 'competent' parents bringing babies to maturity. To my mind, competent parents are the ones who help kids learn the importance of being where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there prepared with homework done to cooperate toward achieving established goals. I will take a teacher to task for bad or ignorant speech or behavior, but I'll back a teacher to the hilt in support of reasonable and necessary discipline to improve my children and their prospects. In previous posts, I have stated my belief that the best of the city parents (and kids) are doing better than the best of the suburban parents (and kids). The argument you refer to was not a criticism of inner city parents, but a recognition that in many cases they are simply not available. It is difficult to include unavailable third parties in a viable solution for the problems found in most of the urban public school systems. Therefore we need to spend more time reworking the roles of people and things that are within society's control: Contractors Teachers Students Tools Books Schools (including Classrooms, Laboratories, Auditoriums, Cafeterias and Gyms) Best! Liz On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:27:49 -0400 Wilma de Soto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Liz Campion mentioned about competent parents would work to send THEIR children to private or magnet schools. However, THOSE parents (City and Suburban) are the ones who would complain to School District Administration if a teacher DARED to fail their child or give their child a grade that would prevent them from going to a top college, and bring a lawsuit against the School District. Thats why administrators change grades after teachers have given them no matter what the Academic Standards may be. Where I sit, that doesnt make them much better than Inner City parents. Small wonder kids dont respect teachers.