‘Schools Fail, Not Our Children’

Gehl is throwing stones at only part of the problem. Children are at school for 6 or 7 hours, give-or-take some extra time for extracurricular activities.

If we say, round figure, 8 hours in school, that still leaves 16 hours for the “other” teachers of our children: their parents and their peers. Both of these influences are failing our children--parents from the moment they conceive an unwanted child, take drugs while pregnant, walk out on their parental commitment once the child is born and then neglect or refuse to inform themselves adequately about their child’s curriculum, and/or refuse to educate themselves if necessary.

Need I elaborate on what peers are doing to their more innocent compatriots?

I agree that children hardly seem to have a chance these days, but it is totally tunnel vision to accuse just the schools. It is true that many teachers seem to have lost sight of the quality of dedication, a teaching essential in the educational community in which I grew up. In 1989 we (teachers) seem willing to compare ourselves to any time-clock assembly worker down the block (mostly on the basis that the assembly worker or technician makes more money than we do).

But to say that we have failed the children is to say that the plumber failed because the house fell down in an earthquake. It takes a lot of divergent talents to build a house, and it takes a lot of divergent influences to “educate” a child. Teachers, parents and peers, not to mention business, must work together if we are ever going to properly raise youth we are proud of.

CHERRY C. BELANGER

Los Angeles