Other Lessons From the Sports Field

Parents should challenge the craze for high scores in classrooms as well as on sports fields (“How to Win All the Time,” by Sean Mitchell, Sept. 11). Applied in schools, Jim Thompson’s approach would de-emphasize “No Child Left Behind” benchmarks, which coerce teachers to drill students on how to make pencil marks instead of giving them a genuine education.

My 6-year-old lucked out. We won the lottery for a public charter school that educates holistically without over-emphasizing tests. I care far less about the scores my son will get in second grade than the fact that his kindergarten teachers helped him embrace reading and math as tools for answering practical questions. We need a Positive Teaching Alliance to challenge a one-dimensional, numbers-driven education system that serves only to leave no child left untested.

Steve Askin

Long Beach