‘Lost Education’ Finds Replies

As a student entering the 11th grade at Santa Monica High School, I would like to say how much the education process in the Santa Monica-Malibu District bothers me.

I really love to learn, to experience new things and to grow. Unfortunately, often my school system appears to work in exactly the opposite direction. There is such a high emphasis placed on making a grade or shuffling obviously uneducated students through high school that I find myself with an infuriating message: It doesn’t matter if you’ve learned anything as long as you aren’t tardy and don’t talk out of turn.

Why is it there are so many teachers who just don’t care? I’m sure the financial situation of our school district contributes to the problem, but there must be more to it than that. It frustrates me so much to have my mind and my thoughts squelched down by a system so flagrantly ineffective.

DANIELLE A. DURKIN

Santa Monica