Cal State Freshmen Need Remedial Classes

Why is the California State University so “shocked” about the skills of our high school students (“Cal State Freshmen in Southland Lack Skills,” March 27)?

The CSU is, after all, the source for the overwhelming majority of the teachers and administrators in the state’s public schools. It has produced the very system that is now seen as failing. The CSU is simply seeing the end result of its own failures; failures going back a generation and more as it lowered its own standards, allowed grade inflation and pushed faculty research at the expense of its teaching.

As a consequence, CSU graduates destined to teach have difficulty in passing mandated writing proficiency exams and the “dumbed down” basic skills tests. If the CSU wishes to see change, it will have to first look inward and begin to rebuild its own house.

ROBERT B. EVANS

Anaheim

* The Cal State system is reaping what it has sown. For many years, tenured professors in the system’s education departments have been selling such poorly thought-out ideas as whole language, new, new math and bilingual education to school administrators and beginning teachers.

All of these theories, including their ideas for class discipline, were formed in the interest of protecting the self-esteem of elementary and high school students. Hard work, basic skills and any amount of repetitive practice were considered taboo. Holding students back if they didn’t meet the minimum of requirements for each grade level essentially has been nonexistent.

When politicians discuss Cali- fornia’s poor public school record and eliminating teacher tenure as an answer, Cal State’s education professors need to enter into this equation and be held accountable.

STEVE ORMOND

Thousand Oaks

* I am one of those terrible students spoken of who dared to score at a remedial level on the entry level mathematics test. Why did I score so low? Because like 35% of my fellow students at Cal Poly Pomona, and perhaps 40% of students nationwide, I am a returning student, and had not thought about algebra or geometry for the preceding 17 years! Luckily for me, I had been on a college-prep track in high school, so my remedial classes were a matter of relearning higher math.

I knew several students who, due to having made the incorrect choices in high school, were having their first exposure to algebra in these classes. Remedial classes are needed for many reasons, not all of them obvious.

PAMELA ADAMS

Covina