SLOUCHING TOWARD THE MILLENNIUM
As a teacher, parent and concerned citizen, I wish to respond to Vartan Gregorian’s opinion on education. The last sentence of his second paragraph--”More and more, the first two years of college resemble the last two years of high school”--strikes me not as just a fact but as a solution to the problem of school drop-outs, truancy, apathy, teacher shortage, overcrowded classes and sites.
Why not adopt the European method of testing students and graduating them at 16, thereby offering them the opportunity of starting college earlier or entering a vocational program or training as apprentices on the job?
Industry needs to become more involved by beginning in the junior high schools to promote its needs for skilled employees and then providing opportunities for observation-participation days.
Vacations should be emphasized as well. Students who travel learn more about geography, history, math, sociology, psychology, English and other languages by exposure rather than enforced study for a grade.
The time has come to not just wring our hands but review, revise and reduce the number of years that students are supposed to stay in school.
CLAIRE WEINBERG, Granada Hills
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