Saturday, April 4, 1998 | 4:02 a.m.
It is really sad to listen to so many teenagers who use atrocious grammar, can't make change for a quarter without a cash register or calculator and who have no sense of current history or geography.
I can tell you who most of these people are. They are, or were, the students who never did homework and who had parents who obviously didn't care and never read to them or insisted on homework. If the student did happen to bring work home, the parent didn't monitor it or help when needed, so the student stopped. Those parents seldom or never went to school or talked to their teachers. They are the same parents who will spend hours satisfying their own entertainment needs.
The result of the above "child abuse" is that it makes it less competitive for those who do study and work hard.
It has been proven that the present school system cannot do the job by itself and, if more parents don't get seriously involved, we will soon become the No. 1 Third World country.
If any parent, regardless of income or social status, really wants to be a success, he or she will become involved in his children's education and moral development. That doesn't take money.
The only trouble with comments like the above is that those parents who neglect their children's education don't read this page.
Ted Maddox
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