Putting Schools to the Test

Re “Drawing Attention to Schools,” Sept. 26: I am a teacher who retired last June, early at age 63. The No Child Left Behind Act simply did me in. I could no longer teach writing by formula, leaving the truly creative writer at a disadvantage. I could no longer teach so many math concepts for the next test that my students did not have time to internalize them. And I just could not accept teaching to the test and spending a week with practice tests to get ready for the real test. What happened to fun and creativity in the classroom?

David Housh

Glendora

*

It is unfortunate that it took the No Child Left Behind Act to remind the National Education Assn. and the teachers union of their responsibility to students and parents. Because the schools were unable to do so on their own, it was left to government to make sure teachers met standards that enabled them to actually teach our kids to read and write at grade level. Because public schools are not doing the job, universities spend the first two years teaching students what they should have learned in high school.

Compare the scores of public high school graduates in the U.S. to the scores of students in Europe and Asia in the basic disciplines and you will start to understand why certain segments in other countries have so little respect for us.

Rolf Hoehn

Palm Desert

*

So teachers and actors have united over glasses of Merlot and snacks of brie to tout the administration’s failures under No Child Left Behind. Although this is apparently an ill-conceived statute, they are calling for regime change because George W. Bush has not provided sufficient funding for California schools under its terms.

The education of our children should be a local matter, with decisions made in the community about the quality and type of schooling provided, and the resources we choose to spend on them. Public education is simply not the business of the federal government, and these house parties are just a masque given by folks in the NEA, the California Teachers Assn. and the Screen Actors Guild who cannot abide Bush in the first place.

If producers, directors and others really care about public education, they should cease their nattering and have each studio adopt a school district, paying the salaries of additional teachers with the obscene millions they make from mindless motion pictures.

Gary R. Albin

Long Beach