Letters: Old-school TLC better than kids' boot camp

ISSUE | EDUCATION

Old-school TLC better than boot camp

Many things separate the rich from the rest of us: mansions, yachts, private jets, and the $1,000 "weeklong boot camp" for their preschoolers ("Boot camp gets kids ready for kindergarten," Wednesday).

I'd like to suggest another, equally good - if not better - educational tool: parenting. Read to your children daily from the day they are born; it bonds parent and child. Have them pick up their toys from the time they can bend over without falling on their heads; it teaches responsibility. Give them instructions and consequences when they don't follow through; it instills respect for authority. Discipline them when they misbehave; it demonstrates cause and effect. Talk and listen to your child; it imparts self-confidence and self-worth. Eat and do things with them; it gives them unconditional love. And turn off your cellphone; nothing says, "I don't care about you," like a parent who chooses his or her phone over his or her child.

Children don't need a replacement parent, such as a prekindergarten boot camp, when parents are doing their jobs.

|Carol Heim, Westmont