I was an elementary school teacher for a few years, and you could draw a perfect line down the middle of every class, one side being "kids with parents involved in their life" and the other side being the ones without involved parents.

The kids with parents who were involved, even in the smallest of ways (such as making sure their homework was done), had potential many, many times that of the other kids.

We had an autistic child whom the psychologists and doctors had decided would never learn to read and write. His parents put every ounce of effort and love they had into their son anyway, and by the time he was ten, he could read books at a first grade level. It was beautiful to watch him try, with all his might, no matter how hard it was for him, and to hear him say "because I want my Mommy to be proud of me." That was the only motivation that was meaningful to him; other things like extra recess or candy or toys or whatever meager tools a teacher might have had no effect for him.

Then you had the students who were brilliant and their parents couldn't be bothered. Most of them failed. Not all; some kids will make it no matter what life throws at them. But their chances were so severely hindered. And this was in a classroom where the teachers cared a great deal about the students.

But when you ask a little boy who is failing math why he didn't do his addition homework, and his answer is "My dad said I don't have to do it because I'm too stupid anyway." (yes, a student actually said that to me), what can you do?

The world is what it is: full of bad and good, beautiful and ugly. Parents shape the way the child sees that world. A parent is everything to a child. And when parents don't step up to the plate, when they don't provide that attention and support that a child needs, that is when the child will look to the world for guidance, then. And who knows what they'll see.