The three R’s are necessary but are not enough to learn while growing up. Look at the people whose houses have been repossessed because they did not combine their arithmetic with principles of budgeting.
How about the obese parents and obese children who do not eat nutritionally sound meals? What about parents who hit their children because they don’t know how to gain cooperation?
How about the abysmal divorce rate?
In an April 1 letter, “Public schools face multiple problems,” Trudy Polanco asks what courses in family relationships have to do with the three Rs and how many colleges grant degrees in this.
The answer to the second question is “hundreds.” But they call it “Family and Consumer Science,” rather than its former name, “Home Economics.” In addition to affecting the way people live, there are places where a course in one of these colleges directly touches the three Rs. In human development courses, for instance, students learn how preschool imaginative play and creative arts stimulate brain growth. They learn about the stages that come before reading, writing, and ’rithmetic, even though they don’t seem at all like the three Rs.
