Well here's something you won't read in the news

Lake Forest, IL-- A disturbing picture of weak schools, disengaged parents and unmotivated youth emerges from the nation's first survey of top teachers, those identified by teens featured in Who's Who Among American High School Students as educators "who made a difference in their lives".

Today's Parents: Unwilling, Unable and Unprepared to Help Teens with School

While 79% of the teachers surveyed have been in the classroom for more than ten years, teachers across all levels of experience complain that parents today are:

Less parents are willing or able to spend time with their children (73%).
Less parents are involved with their children's school lives (63%).
Less parents are ethical/moral (69%).
More parents are self-centered (53%).
Parents are less demanding (41%).

"If parents are alienated from their children's lives, how can we expect young people to develop the kind of values that will help them succeed in school and adult life?"

Teachers rank parent apathy second to peer pressure as the prime reason for school violence.

While 45% of teachers say students cheat on tests, and 40% of students admit to it, less than 4% of parents think their children do.

The same is true of homework, which parents have greater opportunities to monitor. Teachers think 65% of their students copy work they do at home, and 66% of students confess to it; yet only 12% of parents think their children copy homework.

Sixty percent of teachers and 41% of students believe teens have drinking problems. Yet only 16% of parents agree. A mere .2% of parents admit that their own child has an alcohol problem.

In fact, alcohol is very common at parties given by students, according to 74% of teachers and 77% of students. Yet only 52% of parents think alcohol is prevalent at student parties. When asked where their children drink alcohol, 32% of parents say it takes place in family homes, while a distressing 73% didn't know or couldn't answer.