Let Teachers Decide Courses

Re “Students, Then Teachers,” editorial, March 4: Perhaps the bargaining table isn’t the proper place for every issue regarding materials and curriculum, but let’s set the record straight on one aspect of your argument. You express the fear that “older reading teachers” might want to “return to the whole-language approach although scientific research has proved that phonics-based lessons are the key to reading success for most children.”

I recall vividly the day that teachers in my district were told that (based on scientific research) phonics and skills-based instruction would be replaced by whole language. We all left the meeting shaking our heads and saying “test scores will go down, and they’ll blame us.”

My wife teaches first grade. She and others like her continued using the phonics-based materials and other material that they purchased themselves in spite of the district mandates that this material was obsolete and shouldn’t be used.

Whole-language reading instruction was a glaring example of top-down “reform” that involved almost no teacher input. The great majority of us applauded the return to phonics-based instruction. The bargaining table may not be the place, but well-meaning “reformers” would do well to ask the teachers once in a while what they think. Even the “older” teachers.

Donald Kerns

Garden Grove

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Without consulting teachers, the state mandated that high school seniors graduating in June 2003 will have passed geometry. In my LAUSD classroom the failure rates for Algebra 1 and geometry are between 20% and 60%. Previous graduates took less-demanding basic math and pre-algebra to satisfy the two-year math requirement. Without any teacher consultation these classes were recently canceled.

Teachers need to be consulted so students are able to take the appropriate courses. In June 2003 the geometry mandate will cause a substantial number of seniors statewide to receive a certificate of attendance instead of a diploma.

Bob Munson

Newbury Park

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Your editorial expressed concern that teachers unions are seeking to interfere with the selection of student textbooks. You did not mention that college professors are at liberty to assign whatever text they want for their classes. Why not grant that same courtesy to the dedicated and hard-working K-12 teachers? And who is better qualified to speak for the teachers than their unions?

You imply that Sacramento knows best what to do in the classrooms. But legislators are susceptible to influences too--for example, from individuals who might oppose the teaching of the theory of evolution in science classes. Do you really want to leave the selection of textbooks only in their hands?

You wrote, “For years, the LAUSD contract gave teachers the right to choose their classroom assignments based on seniority.” You neglected to mention that that concession was granted to teachers for not going on strike in 1993 when the district cut salaries by 10%.

John T. Donovan

Hacienda Heights

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Why shouldn’t teachers have a large say in determining which textbooks are adopted? We’re the ones who are in the classroom with students every day. Principals and school board members aren’t. We’re the ones who take the heat for test scores. We’ve also been the ones who have been forced to implement, despite our skepticism, every new education theory that has rounded the bend in California, such as writing to read, invented spelling, whole language and new math. Later, when these “innovations” are seen as failures, it’s the teachers who are blamed for them.

Most veteran teachers never abandoned proven teaching methods, so your claim that older teachers might reinstate whole language in place of phonics was particularly laughable. In having a major vote in selecting textbooks, teachers are putting the students first. And in the future, please refrain from using the LAUSD and its problems to draw conclusions about public education in the entire state.

Kurt Page

Laguna Niguel

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So, are only editors allowed to choose the stories for The Times, with no input from the reporters on the beat?

Linda Bell

Malibu