Untrained Teachers

Not for the first time the California Assembly is showing its collective stupidity. Allowing people to become teachers by virtue of having graduated from college, without any training in how to teach, is akin to allowing interns to perform brain surgery without having had surgical training (July 12). The difference is that while untrained interns performing brain surgery will endanger the lives of many individuals, untrained teachers endanger the future of our entire state and our nation.

At the present time, the status of education of children in California ranks next to the bottom in the whole country. With this move, the Assembly will bring education below that of every other state. While reduction of class size is necessary, putting untrained teachers in the classroom is not.

When will supposedly intelligent people finally understand that our children are our future--and not just pawns in a political game of one-upmanship?

SUE ALEXANDER

Canoga Park

* Let me get this straight. California is the 49th state in the country in funding per student. The “education governor” and the Legislature pass a bill to reduce class size to 20 per teacher in kindergarten through third grade. There are not enough teachers or classrooms to implement this program. To rectify an ill-thought-out bill, the governor and Legislature now propose to let any individual with a college degree, without any classroom experience or skill in teaching reading or math, become the teachers of our youngest and most vulnerable. God save us from the politicians.

DONNA KAPCHE

Fountain Valley