Take a Look at Students’ Needs
As a credentialed high school teacher struggling to make ends meet, I generally applaud the sentiments of your Nov. 23 editorial, “Multiplying Good Teachers.” However, it must be emphasized that there are many structural improvements that must be made to our educational system in addition to bringing more and better teachers to our schools.
We must look at the complete person we expect our students to become upon high school graduation. Not just a skilled worker or a standardized-test scholar but a responsible citizen who can socially contribute to the community. One who can vote conscientiously, serve on a jury faithfully and participate diligently in civic and volunteer work. One who appreciates why it is special to be an American.
Increasingly, since Sept. 11, we consider the patriotic duties and responsibilities of citizenship to have much more meaning and value than before. And yet we have squeezed civics out of our curriculum almost to the last drop. State-mandated standardized testing in social sciences is the kiss of death to locally developed civics programs that apply to each city and county.
Yes, we need more good teachers, and we must pay them and treat them as we would other professionals who significantly impact our lives. But, in addition to quality teachers that produce quality instruction, we must have quality educational values that look at the total learning needs of our students. This must start at the top, and everyone below should be pushing to see that it does.
Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach
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While feeling sympathy for Barbara A. Wallace (“Why Johnny Plays Legal Hooky,” letter, Nov. 23), I feel compelled to point out that answers to many of her questions can be found in the editorial on the same page: California has 42,000 untrained teachers; longtime teachers, like other professionals, need “to refresh their methods and maintain their enthusiasm”; teachers should be given opportunities to learn from one another.
The LAUSD is attempting to address these issues by mandating banked time and professional development days. Banked time is accumulated by students spending additional minutes in class each day. Professional development days are added to the 180 school days on the calendar. So Johnny is still in class the same number of minutes each year. Is it enough? No. But that’s another letter.
Margaret Gascoigne
Los Angeles
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Just as I was going to thank you for finally getting it right in your Nov. 23 editorial, just as I was ready to give kudos for your remarks on the difficult plight of today’s teachers . . . just as I was to commend you for referencing the Stanford task force’s prescribed reforms (although we teachers have said the same for 20 years) . . . just as I was ready to rethink my position on your position on most public education issues, you print Michael Ramirez’s cartoon (Nov. 24). Come on, teachers as turkeys? Make up your mind. Meanwhile, I’ll reserve my positive attitude for the classroom.
Jerie Morrison
Los Angeles
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Without realizing it, Ramirez has finally made an accurate observation about public education and teachers’ unions. His charge that teachers hate “aptitude tests” is right on target. My Webster’s Dictionary defines aptitude as “a capacity for learning” and “natural ability.” What is the value of testing the natural ability of students, affected primarily by factors outside the school setting, and using the results to evaluate schools and teachers?
We teachers have always welcomed testing, especially when it measures student growth and can be used as a diagnostic tool to individualize instruction. It is the political use of these scores to reward and punish schools that frustrates hard-working teachers, particularly those in lower-income, lower English-proficient schools. So thanks, Mr. Ramirez. You actually got one right, even though you didn’t mean to.
Kurt Page
Laguna Niguel
