Re: Greg Stratton’s commentary, “District ignores the state standards�:
Mr. Stratton’s response to the letters from middle-school teachers misrepresents their message. He is plainly wrong. At no time did any teacher’s letter suggest that one subject was more important than another, as Mr. Stratton accuses. Nor did any suggest that students should be free to choose an academic-free currculum.
Simply, our message is this: It is time to really look at the purpose of education. Just because a confused and failing federal initiative with no goal insists on us following its lead that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. The Simi Valley Unified School District made the right decision in making the educational needs of our middle-school students its first priority.
Mr. Stratton stresses the importance of science. I and many of my colleagues wholeheartedly agree! We just don’t believe that sacrificing one elective program after another, by replacing them with a semester’s worth of teaching to the tests, will produce the sort of innovative science and industry leaders America needs to secure the future. Those leaders will come from an education program that encourages thinking and problem solving, not memorizing answers to upcoming tests.
Mr. Stratton believes science is the key to our future. We say science is vital, yes, but we believe that our children are the key to our future!
— Susan Selvaggio, Simi Valley
(The writer is a teacher at Sinaloa Middle School. — Editor)
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