Letters To The Editor

Thu., June 29, 2000

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Will demagogues disability issue

It’s an age-old trick take a vulnerable group and blame them for our problems!

George Will (Opinion, June 20) chose our protection of special education students as a main reason for the moral decay in schools. He indicated the “hammer” of potential litigation has hamstrung principals into indecisiveness with respect to dangerous behavior, e.g. the New York principal reluctant to discipline a weapon-toting student.

Any principal who willingly exposes students and staff to potential harm out of litigation fear has no business being a principal. Special education law doesn’t require sacrificing students’ safety on behalf of one student’s rights, only that we consider the role the disability might play in the student’s misbehavior.

The law does allow for the suspension of special education students as long as alternative education opportunity is provided.

I appreciate Will’s inability to sympathize with certain disabilities. We can all see the wheelchair, the cane and even mental retardation. More difficult is seeing learning disabilities or emotional disorders. To many, it’s incomprehensible that a seemingly normal child is experiencing depression, anxiety or can’t learn to read.

Will implies that our therapeutic coddling of children has resulted in guaranteed employment for therapists, counselors and psychologists. How can the expulsion of a 13-year-old be of greater benefit to society than the teaching of anger management? Will’s taxes will go much farther if the latter course is pursued. The news is filled with examples of children and adults who can neither manage their anger nor appropriately express their feelings. Stephen Hirsch, Ph.D. school psychologist, Spokane

Parental involvement is key

Hank Payne’s spelling bee cartoon of June 13 unfortunately depicts the general sentiment toward home schoolers.

We are not home schooling our children to bring shame to our public schools. We just want to make a difference in our children’s lives. Besides, any student with one-on-one attention or a ratio of five students to one teacher has a definite advantage over students with a ratio of 25 or more to 1.

I empathize with the teachers. I believe there are wonderful teachers in our public schools. I can attest to knowing several of them in my own experiences. I know many people receive an ample education through our public schools and many of those people had concerned, helpful parents encouraging and adding to their schooling every step of the way.

The difference is made because of the parent. The ultimate teacher is the parent. We should not expect a teacher to fulfill the role that was given to parents.

If you have a grievance with the system, search for a solution. If your child struggles, help him! If you don’t like what’s being taught, bring him home. Get involved in your childs education. He’ll be a better person because of it.

Teaching begins at home. Many of us have forgotten that. Or sadly, maybe we think we just don’t have the time. Leanne M. Perin Valley, Wash.

Home schooling beyond reproach

I couldn’t agree more with the assertion that educating children shouldn’t be left to “dullards and dilettantes.” (“Job too important to leave to dullards and dilettantes,” Street level, June 25). Where I part company with the writer is who I believe the dullards and dilettantes to be - certainly not the conscientious parents I’ve observed home schooling over that last 14 years.

The fact that the home schooling movement is growing as rapidly as it is is sad testimony to the failed, monopolistic practices that have ruined what was once a fine education system. How ironic that this commentary would appear on the heels of recent media coverage of home schoolers winning the National Spelling Bee.

Home schooling success by noncertified teaching parents is the rule, not the exception, and has been corroborated by so many scientific studies I don’t feel the need to waste precious words dealing with Luddites in denial on this issue.

One issue I do want to deal with is the writer’s sad innuendo about parents who sleep in or have their kids do baby sitting, rather than teach them. We in the home schooling movement have all heard these horror stories. Most are fabrications. Laws already exist to punish parents for child neglect and/or exploitation. The hard part for the writer of this commentary and others of his ilk is to prove their slander. Paul J. Schrag Davenport, Wash.

Let’s see Onion Creek results

Re: “Dullards and dilettantes” (June 25, Roundtable).

In his sneering dismissal of home schooling parents, Andy James of the Onion Creek School Board asserts “the concept of compulsory education has a proud and extremely successful history in our culture.” Nowhere to be found in his diatribe, which accuses home schooling parents of everything from sinister motivation to poor hygiene, is there any accounting of how the children who attend Onion Creek school are doing. Checking the district Web site is no help, since there are no test scores there. Come on, James, if you really believe “common sense mandates that we account for the education of all of our children,” give us an accounting. How did children in your district do on “mandated achievement tests”? Robin J. Corkery Spokane

Add counselors for elementary schools

Re: “Sometimes you have to prod the powers that be” (June 17). As a parent of two Central Valley School District kids, I see a great need for full-time elementary school counselors. Most elementary schools must share a counselor with another school. That means we have a counselor for two and a half days a week. Problems don’t just come up on these days.

Ten or 15 years ago full-time counselors in every school might not have been necessary but times have changed. The school board must take a good look at the issue. Children regularly strike out in anger at the least provocation. The principal, teachers and recess supervisors do their best but have their hands full.

A full-time counselor could teach children the skills they need to resolve conflicts and deal with anger in a more acceptable way. Granted, this should be done within the family but often it is not. We need to help these kids while they are young so their problems don’t become insurmountable.

A group of concerned parents, Stand For Children, have done their homework and located funds that could be used for additional counselors. In past meetings with CV board members it was clear that full-time counselors are not a priority. The board members need to have their eyes opened. If you really care about the kids learning, go to school with an open mind and observe! Jean M. Hunt Spokane

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