January 14, 1983

Diana Rosado, a bright and determined 16-year-old student, was called to her school's guidance office to explain her uncharacteristic absences. ''My mother left me,'' she said, and broke down sobbing as she told how her mother, troubled by illness and alcoholism, had walked out on her and her three sisters during the summer. Helene Amarose, 16, used to be the kind of student teachers long for. Articulate and intelligent, encouraged by a family that valued education, Helene brought home good grades. But then Helene turned indifferent, even hostile about school, and missed three semesters. She is still at a loss to explain why. Accounts like these are often heard by guidance counselors and principals of the city's public high schools, where over a third of the students are chronically absent - missing classes more than 15 days out of each 90-day semester. Interviews with 60 students whose frequent absences have caused them to fall at least a year behind in school indicate that truancy is a widespread problem among students from strikingly different backgrounds.

An article in Business Day on Thursday incorrectly reported the number of shares outstanding of Home Depot Inc. of Atlanta.

From Piraeus to Hong Kong, from Baltimore to Liverpool, the world's major harbors are jammed with vessels built to transport American grain to the Soviet Union, Saudi oil to France, Japanese videotape recorders to Britain. But for more than a year, many of the tankers, bulk cargo vessels and container ships that make up the world's maritime industry have not sailed anywhere. And, if projections about world economic recovery are correct, their next port of call could well be a scrap yard in Taiwan. The industry is caught in a classic squeeze: Too many ships are chasing too few customers. As a consequence, freight rates and ship values have fallen sharply and the industry is mired in a recession that some analysts say could last through the mid-1980's. The downturn has created yet another potential trouble spot for international bankers, who are already besieged with problem loans.

Editorials in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association urged the banning of boxing in light of new evidence suggesting that chronic brain damage was prevalent among fighters. In the same issue, the association's scientific council recommended that, if the sport is to continue, a number of measures be adopted to improve the monitoring of a boxer's condition before, during and after fights. One recommendation is that ringside physicians be empowered to stop a fight at any time. One editorial, written by Dr. George D. Lundberg, the journal's editor, said: ''No caring person could have observed the events in professional prizefighting in the past few months and not have been revolted. No prudent physician could have watched the most recent debacle/mismatch on Nov. 26, 1982, between Larry Holmes and Randall ''Tex'' Cobb and believe that the current boxing control system is functioning.''

''Why should a claim for a damaged leg survive one's death where a claim for a damaged name does not? After death, the leg cannot be healed, but the reputation can.