Recently, I have noticed a great deal of punting to, and demonization of, teachers.

At both the state and local levels, we hear calls for better teachers so that our young people learn.

In an April 8 column, "No reason to tolerate ineffective teachers," the author said, "if students are not reading with facile comprehension by the time they are about 8 years old, their risk of future failure escalates."

Since the author did not mention anything about the adults with whom children live, the implication is that not reading properly is a school's responsibility. I think this is wrong.

Because so much of children's emotional and intellectual development is a function of the home environment, I believe that learning problems are much more due to ineffective parents than ineffective teachers.

Much research has shown that children's interest in reading is greatly influenced by how much the parents read to them. Similarly, the staggering number of hours that children spend in front of televisions and computer screens (averaging about six hours per day) has to interfere with the development of reading skills.

Similarly, if the parents don't take children to libraries and insist on quiet time in the home to encourage reading, that is the parents ineffectiveness and has nothing to do with teachers.

A teacher recently told me some shocking stories.

He had been called "a bastard" by one of his students. A colleague of his had a student say to her "F you."

Neither of these students was suspended. Supposedly, because one student may have had a problem labeled "oppositional defiant disorder," that student was not disciplined.

That is a school problem interfering with learning, but it is not the teacher's responsibility. It was the administration that did not suspend the student that interfered with learning by implying that such behavior is allowable.

Administrations that say it is a problem of the teacher not knowing how to control the classroom are dropping the ball and punting to the teachers.

The students' parents should be called in, the students suspended, and the parents add some punishment (perhaps no television for a week) in addition.

If parents "defend" their children and attack the teacher, they are doing their children a gross disservice. Similarly, if they do not punish the child for such uncivilized behavior, they are less effective as parents and are harming their children for the long run.

For about 11 years, I was the psychiatrist at the counseling service at Connecticut College. For more than 25 years, I have attended the clinical conference at the mental health division of Yale's student health service.

Throughout my career, I have worked with students from the ages of 11 to 25. Virtually always, if a student is not functioning up to their potential, there are emotional problems interfering.

Sometimes, these may be purely biological. More often, they are the result of a troubled home life: a parent with a substance use disorder, untreated emotional problems, or to parents who are coldly unloving or overtly fighting.

Such home problems easily overwhelm what even the most dedicated teacher can do. Teachers are no match for the tsunami of an unhappy home.

So what to do about the fact that American children are doing increasingly poorly in comparison to children in other developed countries?

Obviously, if there are psychological problems in the home, get them treated. far more radical thought is to limit greatly screen time.

Given the high percentage of garbage on television, there is no reason for a child to see more than an hour of television a night and then only if their school work is up to par.

Computer games could be relegated to the weekend or could come out of the one hour of television time. I doubt that a smart phone is necessary for the healthy development of the young before college. I don't think so but that question hasn't been researched to my knowledge.

I am not saying teachers are unimportant. I can think warmly of teachers who were very helpful in elementary school, secondary school, college, medical school, specialty training and beyond.

But if my home had not encouraged learning, I could easily have floundered. I think schools may be too anxious when it comes to helping parents be more effective.

But parents are the key. Without their proper support, guidance, and limit setting, children don't have a chance, even with the best of teachers.

Dr. Daniel Bendor, an assistant clinical professor in Yale University School of Medicine's Psychiatry Department, is a psychiatrist who lives and has a practice in Waterford.