Friday, January 23, 2009

Letter to the Editor

My letter to the editor was in the local newspaper this morning. I was responding to the editor's article about summer school. Here's what I wrote:

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I disagree with the WTE's opinion that LCSD1 should "put more effort" into summer school. As the article stated, the academic gains made by "high income" kids during the summer was due to the involvement of the parents in their children's education. That is the key. Not more school hours. You can't mandate parental involvement.

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Sometimes I wonder if the American public school system hasn't simply become a babysitter, catering to the needs of working parents rather than actual teaching.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

DH and I realized that public schools had become indoctrinating babysitters before our first child reached school age. Which is why we homeschooled all the way through. (And our daughter has a full scholarship to U of Wyoming, and our son is going into the Wyoming National Guard's College First program which will pay for his 4 years of college to get a bachelor's before he takes up his duties as an Army officer.)

Peter B. Steiger said...

Gee, ya think? I'm shocked, SHOCKED to hear that! I'll go tell my two homeschooled children who are getting huge scholarships thanks to their exceptionally high ACT scores.

Sorry, I forgot to turn down my Smug Gloating emitters today.

Luana Krause said...

I have the greatest respect for home school families. I think that is the ideal. It would be nice if all parents desired the best for their children...alas, such is not the case in many homes. It's tragic.

My granddaughter (age 15) began a charter school this year in California. It will be interesting to see how this works out for her.