THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996              TAG: 9603130011
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   34 lines

WHERE ARE THE PARENTS?

I am so sick and tired of the ``failure'' of public education being dumped on the schools and the heart of the schools, the teachers.

During the three years that I taught at a private school, when ``parent day'' came (on a Sunday), all the parents came to meet with the teachers. During the 31-plus years that I taught in two local high schools, few parents showed. Yet all the ills and failures are laid at the doors of the teachers.

I occasionally work as a volunteer in the English department at a local high school. Each teacher has at least 100 pupils. On the morning after ``parent night,'' I overheard several teachers reporting the parental attendance:

``How many did you have?''

``Two.''

``Fourteen.''

``Eleven.''

One ecstatic teacher said, ``Twenty-four.''

Where is the shared responsibility?

First lady Hillary Clinton has written a book titled, It takes a village to raise a child. Aren't parents part of the village?

JOYCE DREW

Norfolk, March 6, 1996 by CNB