In Reply.—Dr Nader's main point is well taken. Under optimal circumstances, the physician should try to monitor the family's comprehension of what the school is doing with their child. Sometimes he may uncover misunderstandings or inadequacies that he can help to rectify through family counseling or a phone call to the school. Without doubt, most pediatricians would be in favor of this type of child advocacy.
However, the physician who does not find the time to perform this service, for whatever reason, should not be accused of "retreating from the arena of something uncomfortable." The practicing pediatrician knows all too well the arena of the unknown and uncertain. School problems do not carry half the stress of his daily confrontations with colicky babies, febrile young infants, poisonings, resistant urinary tract infections, unexplained headaches, and so forth. I would state again, there is a local division of labor—and the provision