Where Do Good Schools Begin? (5 Letters)
Published: March 21, 2005
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 o the Editor:
"Failing the Wrong Grades," by Diana Ravitch (Op-Ed, March 15): Let's remember that parents exert an overwhelming influence on a child's education. When
a child comes home from school with a question, how many parents say,
"Oh, I was never any good at math"? Or grammar. Or history. This gives
the child not just permission, but also encouragement to remain
ignorant. Only rarely can a school counteract this. When I was
in first grade, I asked my mother about multiplication tables. She put
aside her sewing and picked up a pad of paper and a pencil. We sat
down, and she began to explain multiplication to me. Even if parents don't know the answers, they can say: "I've always wanted
to know about that. Let's learn together."
Thomas Devlin
Philadelphia,
March 15, 2005
The writer is a professor of physics and astronomy at Rutgers University
and a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
•
To the Editor: Why ignore the obvious? If
we are to offer quality education to all of our children, we will have
to spend more money to reduce class sizes in the lower grades and offer
higher salaries to attract better teachers. Schools that spend that money - in wealthy communities like Chappaqua and Scarsdale, N.Y. - know this. Why must our schools continue to be inadequately and inequitably financed?
Perdita Finn
Woodstock, N.Y., March 15, 2005
The writer is a former public school teacher.
•
To the Editor: It is true that middle schools are failing
to prepare children for high school, but a bifurcated system of
vocational or academic high schools is not the answer. This
system would consign less mature children to a vocational education and
lifestyle. It would ignore the needs of students whose primary language
is not English and who fail because they lack literacy skills. The
biggest problem is the antique belief that the humanities should be
reserved for an academic elite and that technology should be foisted
upon others, when the truth is that every child urgently needs both. Instead, let's try a longer school day and year, smaller classes with teachers
skilled in both content and pedagogy, and replication of successful university-secondary
partnerships.
Jerrold Ross
Dean, School of Education
St. John's University
New
York, March 15, 2005 •
To the Editor: I agree that the governors have made a less than encouraging response to Bill Gates's assertion that high schools are obsolete. Mr.
Gates has said that students need "a challenging curriculum that
prepares them for college or work; that their courses clearly relate to
their lives and goals; and that they are surrounded by adults who push
them to achieve." The governors promise higher standards, more
rigorous courses, tougher exams. In other words, they pledge to do what
we now do, but do it better. Missing is any serious thought about what
curriculum would prepare students for the futures Mr. Gates talks
about. It is interesting to recall that Mr. Gates's own success came from creating
something new and ushering in a revolution that has changed lives around the
world.
Deanna Kuhn
Bronxville, N.Y., March 15, 2005
The writer is a professor of psychology and education at Teachers College,
Columbia University. •
To the Editor: Small schools are not an unproven strategy. There is substantial evidence to confirm their effectiveness over the long run. More
important, though, is the information gained from actual observation.
During 30 years as a high school teacher and school leader, I was
astounded by the individual and familial hardship that many urban
children had to overcome just to reach scholastic competency. Small schools create the supportive community such children need to master
a rigorous academic curriculum and gain the maturity necessary to thrive in
college and in the workplace.
Perry Weiner
Brooklyn,
March 16, 2005
The writer was a co-director of the Humanities Preparatory Academy, a small
public high school. •
To the Editor: It
is true that we cannot blame high schools for the poor showing of
students who enter without basic skills. But this is true, too, of
elementary schools. I volunteer at an elementary school where a
significant number of students come from poor homes. Many struggle
academically. The school is not the problem. Many of these
children have overworked mothers, absent fathers and a home life in
which a constantly running TV set is their primary window to the
outside world. They were already "behind" when they started
kindergarten. Head Start-type programs can make a difference.
They are costly, but not nearly as costly for society as the long-term
effects of poverty. Vicky Schippers
Brooklyn, March 15, 2005
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