Back to Basics ‘Code’ Is a Myth

I am writing in response to Nov. 3 letters regarding the struggle over which direction we should be headed with our public education system.

Retta Mullaney claims that those of us who use the phrase “back to basics” have hidden agendas. Suzy Elliot seems to think that there is some sort of conspiracy. Cathy Van Houten-German speaks of “stealth” candidates.

The National Education Assn. and the California Teachers Assn. have a huge propaganda machine working to brand everyone concerned about the direction of public education as extremist members of the religious right.

If they would bother to read about the trends of education in this country, they might find that the code words they fear were in common usage well before there was a Christian Coalition--or even a Moral Majority, for that matter. I am associated with neither.

The so-called code words were first used by educational traditionalists who became concerned with the direction in which public education was headed back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They recognized that the direction was way off course. They saw the departure from phonics, the adoption of new math (and new-new math), and the implementation of whole language as causes for alarm. We find ourselves where we are today because we ignored their warnings.

Those who fear the “back to basics” movement must be content with the status quo and its mediocrity. For me, to have our educational system producing graduates with little knowledge in what Alvin Toffler calls the Third Wave, or knowledge-worker era, is a travesty.

The NEA and CTA, through their contentment with the status quo and attachment to failed programs, will send our kids into adulthood unequipped to compete globally. This is an unacceptable fate. To expect more is not an extremist position, and there is no hidden agenda.

BRUCE CRAWFORD

Fountain Valley

* I’m sure that other former education committee members who served on Orange County grand juries and worked in their association for educational reform these past 2 1/2 decades will join me in expressing wonderment after reading in The Times that legions of Marian Bergeson’s supporters think of her as an “advocate for educational reform.” This is certainly perplexing.

Where was she, for instance, when the Grand Jurors’ Assn. approached her during her legislative tenure and asked that she take a stand and work to trim the fat and curtail duplication of services, along with addressing the well-documented waste and mismanagement, which still exists, at the bloated Orange County Department of Education? The issue was dropped like a hot potato. Could it be that it wasn’t politically advantageous or safe at the time because she was considering a run for lieutenant governor?

I suspect that at least a few close observers will agree that there may be little or no difference between this education secretary and her predecessor when it comes to solid fiscal reform and accountability for the taxpaying public. Widespread administrative cronyism within the establishment and myriad school board “old boy and girl” networks, which incidentally give out an annual Marian Bergeson Award to themselves, will continue to drive our reeling public school system until such time as an aroused public finally gets the picture and cries, “Enough!”

KENT S. MOORE

Corona del Mar

* Regarding your article on Nov. 6, “Conservative Christian Blocs Trailing,”: Times writers have fanned the flames of divisiveness throughout the county even higher. Without defining their terms, your article repeatedly distinguishes so-called “moderates” from the so-called “Christian Right.”

This is pure drivel. Since when did the back-to basics agenda become the exclusive property of the Christian right? This kind of reporting goes a long way toward increasing division and destroying the cooperation which must prevail among all groups if our children are to learn.

I would ask to find a parent of any ethnic or religious group who does not hope that his or her child will learn the basics (defined by the reporters as math and phonics) since we all know that mastery of the basics is crucial to every child’s success. The “rhetoric” which promotes divisiveness “throughout the county” belongs to you alone.

PATRICIA GAUNT

Tustin

* If and when our state gets serious about hiring and retaining quality teachers (“Retirements Magnify O.C. Teacher Needs,” Sept. 24), it will consider at least three additional steps that were not discussed in the article.

First, teachers will be able to cash in their unused sick leave like most other public and private sector positions.

Second, teachers will be able to transfer their entire experience with them from one district to another. Currently, veteran teachers who desire a transfer to another district are unable to because school districts will only let them carry five years or so of experience.

Finally, retired teachers should be treated like employees elsewhere and allowed to pad their income by returning to the classroom and collecting full salary, instead of being subject to a salary cap of $17,550, limited by legislation imposed on the State Teachers Retirement System.

BOB BATH

Mission Viejo

* I understand why public school teachers are not receptive and sometimes even antagonistic to many parents. They have probably been indoctrinated with the same biased and skewed misinformation taught by Bill Lakin and stated in his Sept. 22 letter to The Times.

Lakin has taken serious subjects of major concern to parents and twisted them to be “buzzwords” that cause teachers to label unsuspecting and well-meaning parents as religious political extremists.

When words uttered by parents such as “back to basics,” “phonics,” “vouchers” and “parental involvement” cause teachers to suspect a hidden and sinister agenda, it is little wonder our school system has problems. This type of controversial thinking will certainly put a wedge between the parent and teacher which will not allow open and honest communication. Ultimately, it is the student who will suffer the most when parents are labeled and routinely dismissed as extremists.

BONNIE O’NEIL

Newport Beach