March 1, 2007
How to Fix What’s Wrong in School (5 Letters)
To the Editor:
Re “A Bad Report Card” (editorial, Feb. 27):
Until society does seven things, and does them well, little will change:
- Make teaching a profession that attracts and keeps the most talented of our young adults.
- Make schools intellectually stimulating for students and teachers.
- Treat teachers with respect and pay them adequately.
- Give teachers the continuing support they need.
- Reduce the ravages of poverty by providing poor families with programs like health care, child care, mental health services and job training.
- Support the development of well-paying jobs that require specialized training rather than a college education.
- Use well-designed research rather than bumper-sticker rhetoric to guide decision-making.
- Anything less will put us further behind.
Howard Margolis
Voorhees, N.J., Feb. 27, 2007
The writer is professor emeritus of literacy and special education, Queens College, CUNY.
To the Editor:
You point to declining reading and math scores and assume that the problems are a result of inferior teachers. I do not doubt that inferior teachers share some culpability, but teachers are just one part of the equation.
Teenagers generally spend more time with their families than with any one high school teacher, and I have seen students succeed with moderately proficient teachers because the students knew that that teacher cared about them, and they worked harder for this teacher than for other “more qualified” teachers.
Furthermore, there is a guaranteed avenue for students to take to improve their literacy skills: reading. Too simple for most bureaucrats, school boards and administrators, this activity has benefits beyond the classroom and workplace, and study after study demonstrates its far-reaching effectiveness.
Too many of our students can but do not read regularly.
James Siegel
Portland, Me., Feb. 27, 2007
The writer is a high school teacher.
To the Editor:
Your suggested remedies for educational deficiencies in our 12th graders are characterized as “far-reaching structural changes.” They include better standards, higher teacher qualifications and better financing for teacher colleges.
But what if a large part of the problem has nothing to do with teachers? Have you considered distraction and exhaustion?
Here are some trends in today’s youth and education when compared with kids of an earlier, higher-achieving age: less discipline in the classroom; more sexual activity with predictable drama; easy availability of street drugs; exploding increases in communications (cellphones, e-mail, chat rooms, YouTube); lack of free time (overscheduled extracurricular activities, too much homework); reduced family time and influence, along with bad parental example (who has time to read?); and tension from religious, cultural, ethnic and racial differences.
Do any of these play a role in reducing performance? Or will you still blame the teachers?
Lon Nesseler
San Diego, Feb. 27, 2007
To the Editor:
I am in full agreement that the state of public education in our country needs to change, and the most recent national report card on literacy and math skills is evidence of this need.
But I am not in full agreement with your suggested solution. You imply that the reason students aren’t doing well is that teachers are doing a poor job of teaching.
Over all, teachers do the best job they can given the circumstances. This reality is a symptom of a system that has few incentives to bring in the best and the brightest people to prepare our youth.
It has become increasingly difficult to teach because of the growing number of special-needs students in mainstream classes even as class resources are shrinking and class sizes are growing.
It is quite simple: if we want test scores to improve, we need to make class sizes smaller, invest more money in education (including lengthening the school year and student time in class), and provide more resources to teachers to help with increasingly diverse populations of students of various abilities and learning needs.
William Bucknum
Prineville, Ore., Feb. 27, 2007
The writer is a social studies teacher.
To the Editor:
Your editorial about the deplorable lack of reading and math skills among this nation’s 12th graders could not come at a better time.
You decry the “odious practice of supplying the neediest students with the least qualified teachers.” Usually, the neediest students are in inner-city schools. Most teachers avoid these schools for fear of their own safety.
Why would any teacher want to be in a dangerous environment?
Parents and students bear some responsibility for scaring away some of the best qualified and caring teachers.
Jennifer Bommentre
Minneapolis, Feb. 27, 2007
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