Thanks to being picked up by the Associated Press, this Nov. 9 St. Petersburg Times story about a parent's dinner at Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg ran in newspapers around the state over the weekend. It prompted a reply from Gabriel Hillel, a grant writer for a Gainesville charter school.

Hillel summed up a project that school used to engage parents, which you can read in this excerpt from his e-mail. But he also floated this idea about why some parents aren't as involved as schools would like them to be:

It also is vital to get most schools -- and those who propose reading programs -- to understand how limited the capability of some parents might be because of their own educational deficits. Most schools seem to be unaware that many parents who were deprived of educational opportunity themselves are not supportive out of ignorance rather than indifference. The subtle shift of demanding that parents be held accountable for the children's performance at school lets too many school personnel shrug off their own inabilities to reach the youngsters.

(Times photo by Lara Cerri)

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