Parents

* Louis Rosen (letter, March 10) is wrong when he claims that illiterate minority parents are the cause of poor reading scores. I speak from personal experience both as the child of immigrant parents with limited education and as a parent with children in a LAUSD public school. Any parents can do for their children what my parents did for me: Reinforce that school is your child’s “work” by teaching them to respect and listen to their teachers; ensure they get enough sleep and eat breakfast; ensure they get to school on time; ask them if they’ve done their homework; prioritize reading above other activities (i.e., television).

LAUSD can help by doing the following: Ensure teachers are adequately trained to teach; allow our teachers to focus their energy and time on teaching our children by minimizing nonteaching time required of teachers; provide necessities like books, photocopiers and teaching assistants. Let’s hold everyone accountable: parents, teachers, administrators and students.

LAURIE DEA OWYANG

Los Angeles