Educational Reforms Review

Re “State’s Reading, Math Reforms Under Review as Scores Fall,” March 23:

Bill Honig, former superintendent of schools, now says that the whole language proponents have “gone too far.” Delaine Eastin, current superintendent of schools, says she will call the “best and brightest” to give us a “strategic battle plan.” Maureen DiMarco, Gov. Pete Wilson’s top educational adviser, applauds Eastin’s position and says that under the whole language approach “there were fewer children who were learning to read.”

This is unbelievable! Now that California students are near the bottom in reading and math, no one, it seems, is responsible for the programs that put them there. Not even Honig is stepping up and accepting responsibility. Once again, the “educational experts” have led California schools down the wrong path, and it doesn’t stop with math and reading. There are also “progressive” frameworks in science, physical education, history, etc., all of which water down the curriculum.

What really bothers me is that when one of these educational bandwagons rolls through, the so-called experts (state Department of Education bureaucrats, superintendents, school board members, principals and even some teachers) blindly jump aboard. Anyone who disagrees is labeled as “old-fashioned and unwilling to try a new approach.” It is even suggested that teachers who want to stick to the basics should retire and let the “progressives” have their turn. After 33 years of teaching, I have finally been vindicated! Along with a number of teachers at my school, I spoke out against the whole-language concept several years ago because it was obvious that students were not being taught to read, spell, punctuate and write complete sentences.

However, there is little joy in being right, since it is the public school system and the children who will suffer.

DIXIE JORDAN

Laguna Beach

So, “Many now concede that the reforms have gone too far, falling flat in the classroom and leaving a legacy of confusion that may be undermining student achievement”? Now Eastin is holding meetings, marshaling support for task forces, and planning to “take some of the best and brightest in California and put them in a room and ask them to give us a real strategic battle plan”?

Oh pul-eeze! How difficult can it be? Drop the experimentation. Teach the basics. The outcome--money saved, children learning.

NOLA M. JONES

Rowland Heights

As someone who has taught mathematics to prospective elementary schoolteachers for decades, I would like to suggest the following plan for teaching reading, mathematics or anything else. Let minimum standards for each grade in each subject be established, and then let each faction devise a plan for achieving those standards. Then let each individual teacher use whatever plan he or she believes is best. If a teacher prefers to teach reading by phonics, that teacher should teach reading by phonics.

My experience as both teacher and student leads me to believe that there is probably no such animal as the best way to teach reading or mathematics or theoretical physics or cooking. What is ultimately important is that the teacher enjoy what he or she is doing, so that he or she may most effectively communicate the material.

PROF. JAMES D. STEIN JR.

Department of Mathematics

Cal State Long Beach