re: "Stop blaming black parents for underachieving kids"

Unbelievable! The article and the up vote.

In my personal experiences as a student at a public (non-magnet) in Caddo Parish in the 80s and now with both my children attending Bossier public schools, the author is an idiot. Back to school nights are next week and I can already tell you who will be there and who will not.

Last year in a perfect example. There is an apartment complex next to middle school my youngest attended. Not a single parent that lived in those apartments whose child was in the same class as my child attended(0-6). This was in an art class and not honors, but they were not any of the other classes either. We moved to the honors math class and the number of parents was almost 100% - both parents and every ethnicity was represented.

I don't notice the lack of parents in the non-honors but it was brought to my attention by my neighor whose daughter has been in classes with my son since 5th grade. He is an AF officer stationed at Barksdale AFB and is an African-American originally from Michigan. He whispered to me in one of the classes, "The parents you don't see will be first ones complaining about their children's grades or will have a discipline issue. I have seen it before and too many times."

If a parent makes something important, the kids will see it as important. That can a positive or negative, but the parent MUST lead. No one can do it for you.