Farm School Fills Important Role

A few weeks ago, UCI co-sponsored a forum titled “What Is Quality Education?” Its aim was to help parents make informed decisions about their children’s elementary education.

How ironic that at this meeting, UCI took part in extolling the virtues of small class sizes, low student-to-teacher ratios and creative learning, yet seems ready to permanently end its association with the UCI Farm School (“Problems Crop Up at Famed Farm School,” June 29). This is not just a loss for the children of the Farm School and the innovative way they are taught to learn and look at the world; the administration of UCI does not seem to be taking into consideration the important role the school performs as a living lab for its own undergrads, graduate students, professors and researchers.

Perhaps the regents of UCI would benefit from talking over this matter with the students of the Farm School. The children seem to have a much better understanding of how illogical this plan is as it stands right now. And they are quite capable of discussing solutions that would work for all parties involved.

RICHARD F. DONOVAN

Lake Forest

* Thank you for the excellent June 29 article (“Problems Crop Up at Famed Farm School”) on the impending demise of the Farm School at UC Irvine.

The children at this school will learn a very important lesson regarding the hypocrisy of adults. Adults give lip service to “saving the environment,” “conserving our natural resources,” “preserving our ecology,” etc., all the while pouring asphalt and cement over every inch of our once beautiful countryside.

They will learn that university-level educators are no better than the developers and politicians that combine to bulldoze and scrape clean every hill, meadow and canyon in the name of greed.

Is a marble “recreation center” more important than a quiet place of learning? Ask the politicians, developers and educators, who constantly seek to aggrandize their already engorged personal empires. Please keep us informed on this very important matter.

CHARLES W. JENNER

Los Alamitos