State Policies for Teachers

The otherwise well-written article “CSUN Reflects on Challenges Then and Now,” Aug. 26, misrepresented my attitudes toward K-12 teachers by quoting me correctly but then writing, “By contrast, faculty President Jim Goss said that instead of blaming grade school teachers, the university should concentrate its efforts . . . “

In no way do I blame hard-working teachers for the state policies that force otherwise good teachers to be bad teachers. Generally K-12 teachers agree with me on the issue of standards.

As with the debunked Whole Language Learning, “fuzzy math” is a product of the California Department of Education. The responsibility to replace the “fuzzy math” curriculum by one with high standards and real content falls squarely in the lap of Supt. [of Public Instruction] Delaine Eastin and her education bureaucrats. In addition, I hold Cal State Northridge partly responsible for not requiring the same academic standards of future teachers as it does of its other students.

DAVID KLEIN

Klein is a professor of mathematics at CSUN.