It’s Too Easy to Avoid Hard Work in School

Re “More Rigorous High School Study Urged,” Oct. 5: By choosing the right electives, a high schooler can usually get out of school by noon just about every day. The so-called “zero period” is also a joke, since even the most capable teacher can do little when most of his herd are still half-asleep, as can be easily attested to by most parents of teenagers. The long summer vacation is yet another impediment to learning, since much of the knowledge from the previous year is no longer in evidence after a three-month hiatus.

If we were to gear our high school curriculum more closely toward a college pathway, we should also offer an alternate pathway for those who do not intend to further their education. It is simply a great waste of effort and money to force a college prep class on those whose talents and desire lie somewhere else. And given the ignorance among so many Americans of the rest of the world, it appears that making world history and geography mandatory may be an idea whose time has come. The requirement for standardized testing, despite its imperfections, is certainly a step in the right direction.

However, our high school performance will not improve much if our students stay only half a day in school and have so much room in wiggling out of the basics in their high school education. Yes, our high schools can succeed, but only if we can overcome the political barriers set up by those whose agenda may often be anything but the students’ best interest.

John T. Chiu

Newport Beach

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I am confused about the uproar over the failure of two-thirds of California high school freshmen to pass the exit exam (Oct. 4). Is this an exit exam or an entrance exam? If a passing grade is required to receive a high school diploma, why should a freshman be expected to pass it? An “exit” exam should require the student to demonstrate that he or she has achieved the objectives of a high school education and would presumably be given shortly before graduation. Or are we requiring the student to already know what he or she is going to be taught over the next three or four years?

John Reeve

West Hills