Our Schools Need Changes

As a parent, I want to applaud the State Board of Education’s decision to return to basic math in our schools in spite of all the education establishment’s opposition (Dec. 13).

If you want to talk about who is dumbing down our kids, you could speak with just about any parent with children in K-6 in Garden Grove Unified School District.

Our district went for the new fuzzy math two years ago. Last year wasn’t too bad because our teachers still had the previous math textbooks to use and most of them did.

When parents found out that the district planned to remove the books from the classrooms for this school year, many of us went before our school board to express our concerns.

The district demonstrated that they care very little what the parents have to say and went ahead and removed them anyway.

Our sixth-grade daughter’s first week of math consisted of students measuring each other’s legs, arms, fingers and heads. Then they used a calculator to add up the columns and then used the calculator again to divide the number of students into that number to find out the average.

Finally they made a body out of papier-mache. What a waste of time. How much math was learned in that week?

As parents, we cannot just sit by and let the public schools do what they want with our kids.

Until their actions prove otherwise, as of this point, they cannot be trusted.

CLAY BOCK

Garden Grove

* The old cliche about possession being nine-tenths of the law pertains to tenured teaching positions.

No correlation can be shown between years of teaching experience and quality of teaching.

To the contrary, most old-timers have failed to keep pace with technological changes and classroom efficiency.

As a member of an East Coast musical group four decades ago, I was able to challenge any chair in the orchestra. So if I could prove a higher level of expertise than another musician, then I would have the job.

If the schools would employ such a challenge system, I could trade my substitute teacher position for a full-time math or science job.

CHARLES SENDREY

Huntington Beach