I called and spoke directly to dad. Dad was at work, laboring at one of his two jobs. He apologized for his son, noting that working both days and evenings was making parenting difficult. My phone call produced the desired results. “Horatio” came in at lunch today to get all his back work. His behavior has been top-notch for over a week now. I don’t know how long the magic will hold, but Horatio listens in class and has been turning in quality papers.

Eduhonesty: Calling moms and dads can be a real win. In the end, the luck of mom and dad is huge. I understand that sometimes marriages fail, and sometimes girls have accidents or make single-parenting choices, but two parent households are a win for teachers. Overall, the children from these households work harder, are more reliable and do better academically. This may not always be true, but it’s true in many, many cases.

We spend so much time trying to figure out what’s wrong with some of our inner-city schools. What are the teachers doing wrong? Pundits ask. Let me offer up the possibility that when most of the school comes from a broken or forever single-parent home, the problem may not be the school or the teachers.

To quote a half-remembered line from a long ago newspaper article: “What are you to do when a parent has never taken a can of peas and said, “peas, green, round”?