Reader's Letters
Kids Rule?
You are so "dead-on" concerning The Casual Betrayal of American Students. And yes, the Benedicts of the world truly need to be warned and weeded.
Last year I retired after 26 years as president and CEO of an educational media publishing and distribution company.
Normally I wouldn't respond to editorials in magazines, but your article was one in which I was transfixed.
Word for word, the truths stand out like flashing orange barricades. In my retirement, rather than watching TV or playing Internet Surfer on my computer, I decided to do a little substitute teaching...thus returning to my roots.
What I discovered while teaching was something that did not appear as part of the Casual Betrayal of the American Student article that I feel can be attributed directly to the schools, parents, teachers and students at all levels. The "something" is the growing level of negativity, incredibly poor attitude, lack of values, as well as outright hostility on the behalf of young people that is frightening. The "Casual Betrayal" has happened on all fronts because all of the parties have let it happen by default or blatant and total denial. None of the Benedicts assume responsibility. It has been substituted by ignored or lax rules, cultural hedonism, in many cases too much affluence, and detached or defacto parental control. What is happening? Kids rule!
The problems is that they don't have the skill set to do so, just as they do not have the academic intelligence to know who Benedict Arnold was or the ideas embodied in the concept of our national freedom.
Perhaps a follow-up article on the sociology of this betrayal might jar a few nerves among the Benedicts...but I doubt it. They're engrossed in acquisition rather than admonition.
Dave Little,
Overland Park, Kan.
The Problems Begin at Home
Please be assured that at least six suburban Kansas City school district superintendents are aware of our tarnished bottom line.
These six districts, the Metropolitan Community Colleges and Missouri Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education have created a unique partnership to restructure the K-12 experience in these district schools.
We know we have to prepare engaged graduates who have a clue where they want to go and how to get there and who have the academic skills to do so.
I agree with you that knowing who Benedict Arnold was builds our children's appreciation of their history. Not knowing how to solve basic algebraic equations and not being able to read at a 7th or 8th grade level will affect how they compete for jobs. It is unacceptable that a third of all American college freshmen take one or more remedial course. Painful from my perspective is that of the 1996 graduates from this new consortium's ten high schools, only 17%, on average, have completed a two-or four-year college degree at a Missouri institution after five years.
Dr. Dan Lumley, the curriculum director at Lee's Summit School District, has likened our consortium effort to that of "moving the National Cemetery." Change is hard; changing something as long-standing and shared as the traditional "American high school experience" is especially so.
Parents are often the hardest to convince that we need to do things differently. I appreciate that you recognize that.
Deborah Goodall,
Dir., Career Educ. Consortium The Metropolitan Community Colleges
All Out Blatant Betrayal
I just finished reading Jack Cashill's article and all I can say is "right on"! The only thing I disagree with is the subtitle use of the word "causal" as it has not been a casual betrayal it has been an all out "blatant" betrayal. There's nothing casual about the way our schools are failing the modern day student.
The students from the 70's slam dunk today's video game playing, AOL chatting students and I so wish it wasn't true.
David Convy
Preachers of Education
I've been preaching to my glassy eyed teenage (2-14 year olds and 1-16 year old) crew for years--it really concerns me--the other day at the dinner table I asked about any works they knew about from 19th & 20th century American poets and authors--lights out--Duh like who Dad? Have any ideas on ways I can help them gain at least some modicum of a Classical education? (No, I can't send them to Rockhurst--well maybe?)
Jim Andrews,
Miller Stauch Construction
Access to Higher Ed in our Communities
There is a critical issue of Americans being served by none of the educational support systems in place. Their lack of access to higher education is especially striking, for it is for neither lack of financial resources nor availability: these individuals simply don't have the intellectual preparation (distinguished from intellectual capacity) to benefit from what we have to offer.
As leaders in our communities we must shape a response to this human and economic tragedy which threatens the future of our county.
Dr. Dan Lambert,
President, Baker University
Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editorial@ingramsonline.com, faxed to 816.474.1111 or mailed to Ingram's, 306 E. 12th Street, Suite 1014, Kansas City, MO 64106.