LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Some students deserve to get left behind

OPINION:

How many years will we continue to read the same old media reports before we realize that our educational system became broken 30 years ago when high-minded politicians and socialist bean counters conspired to dumb down America’s youth (“Scores show students not ready for college,” National, Aug. 17)?

This group came up with the grand idea that the methods of the good old days were not hip enough for a system flooded with illegal aliens and other special-interest groups that had dismally failed their own constituencies and decided that schools should be day care centers instead of sites of higher learning.

This boondoggle has presented us with the situation we have today and have had for three decades. The first big thought is that if you place half a class of low achievers with half a class of high achievers, the high achievers will bring up the low achievers. How does that seem to be working out for you?

The next brainstorm came in inflating grades so that everyone would feel good about themselves. That is fine, except that now everyone thinks they are smarter than they really are - only to realize too late that a garden turnip could have passed the same classes they did. With no discipline, no direction, no need to attend classes and only the barest minimum of effort needed to pass, many students just fall off the grid. Too many graduate without the ability to walk and chew bubble gum simultaneously.

American parents and students suffer the lack of proper attention because resources are eaten up by students with no right to be in the schools in the first place. Instead of reducing class sizes and consolidating schools, we spend billions housing current and future criminals causing a chasm of educational ability. No one wants to say, “I was wrong.”

Fixing the school system is easy. Face the fact that some students will not achieve no matter what you do. There are children that will be left behind no matter what some politician says. Let our teachers teach as educators and not as bureaucrats. Bring back the good old days, cursive and all.

WILSON FARIS

Gaithersburg