Dear Evelyn

By Charles S. Clark

'Teacher says." The phrase combines the child's idiom with a familiar tone of authority. It's also the name of a newspaper column by Evelyn Porreca Vuko, a 53-year-old teacher who's something of an Ann Landers for the school parent.

Vuko's 1,000 or so words of advice appear monthly in the Washington Post and as many as 30 other papers nationwide, making her America's most widely read practicing educator. She offers tips on everything from learning styles to summer reading lists to the spread of germs in classrooms. Though she eschews a question-and-answer format, Vuko culls most of her column topics from questions posed by readers (from as far away as India) via e-mail, her Web site ( www.teachersays.com ), and her regular online chat for the Post .

"I call myself the Great Distiller," says the woman who spent 15 years in the classroom and now works from her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. "Many parents get frightened by a teacher's diagnosis of their child's talents and disabilities, especially when we cloak it in the jargon of our field so as not to hurt people's feelings. In the column, I try to distill things so parents know what their child is going through when the teacher says she can't ride a tricycle because her...