It Takes a Whole Village to Educate the Children

I respect and admire Ruben Zacarias (“Can This Man Save Our Schools?” by Amy Pyle, March 8). However, despite his knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, he cannot eliminate gang violence, poverty, drugs, one-parent families and hopelessness in the community.

Education is a two-way street: The teachers can teach, but it is the students’ responsibility to learn, and education starts at home.

The best Zacarias can do is to provide opportunities for self-achievers to blossom.

Henry Sakaida

dybsca@email.msn.com

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Last year, a mother brought her son, an 8-year-old (typically in the third grade) to my first-grade classroom in the inner city on the opening day of school. This child had never been to school before. He could not write his name and did not know the alphabet. He could not count or even hold a pencil.

Three weeks later he had to take a standardized test with the rest of the children. His poor performance was in no way a reflection on my skills as a teacher, yet that is how Zacarias and countless other administrators would view it.

Test scores are not all that matters. What about teaching children to brush their teeth because their parents didn’t? What about teaching them to be good people, teaching them the value of education? What about loving a child because the parents don’t?

If parents did their part, teachers could do their job.

Kristen Jones

San Diego

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How pathetic that some Los Angeles Unified School District “educators” would not stand behind Zacarias’ get-tough stance of holding principals and teachers responsible for schools that continue to decline.

And it’s time to admit that bilingual education has been a disaster for both Hispanic children and the taxpayers. We need to get back to basics--like teaching English, for instance.

Veronica J. Hogue

Downey

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Saving the schools is not the job of one man but rather the concern of all students, parents, teachers and administrators, who need to have respect for one another. We’re all in the same boat. Let’s stop blaming the school personnel and get on their side instead.

Ellen Meehan

San Gabriel*