Suggestions for Educators

* Re “Revolution in Education? A Few Suggestions,” Ventura County Perspective, July 18.

Steve Blum is a teacher trying to get inside of a student’s mind. Instead of trying to think like a teenager, you should just ask us. Here are some ideas from a student’s point of view:

Everybody talks about longer days so we would have more time in class, therefore learn more. Well, maybe they should just eliminate some classes so that we only have to focus on a couple instead of six. Make regular school like summer school: one class a day for four days. That way we would get more time on one subject and therefore learn more. We also might not get information confused.

Mr. Blum talked about [the benefits of] reducing the number of students in a class, which is true. If you have 40 students then most won’t get the help they need because the teacher can’t have enough time to make sure that everybody knows what is going on. So some kids lose the will to do their work, and then when someone finds out that they need more help it is too late.

Taxpayers yell at officials because their taxes are too high, then they turn around and yell at them when education is low. If you want education, it comes at a price.

The media (and everybody else, for that matter) focus on the negative things that public schools do instead of the good things. Buena High School has started its own cable show run by students, and we also are building a house out in Piru. The house is going to a very lucky needy family.

Sacramento thinks what we need are more hours, more days and more tests. The teachers and officials are going to do what they think is right, but that doesn’t always mean that it is.

JONATHAN CHAPMAN

Ventura