Education letters 9/21

What is free about our public schools today?

Where did Brian Crosby, “a National Board Certified Teacher,” get the notion that public school education is free?

Most of us have been paying hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each year for school taxes that provide funding for this so called “free education.” Home-owners pay taxes directly and renters pay indirectly. Either way, public school education has never been free.

He further states, “Students would less likely trash their schools knowing their parents had a vested interest in the property.” Maybe someone should teach Mr. Crosby that parents DO have a vested interest. They always have and hopefully they always will.

Bob Frasca, Cumming

A breaking news flash for teacher Brian Crosby

We parents do pay for public school education. It’s called taxes. My recent tax statement for Forsyth County billed me $3,478 for public schools. That’s quite a bit more than his suggested $2 per day. I’m surprised the AJC would print such a preposterous opinion.

Susan Harris, Duluth

A simple idea that can be applied to everything

Thank you Brian Crosby for figuring out how to fund education during the recession. Charging parents tuition is simple, but brilliant. That same idea could help in so many ways. We should charge the elderly for Medicare. We could turn I-285 into a toll road. We could fund almost anything that way.

David Curl, Tucker

Was he joking about charging us tuition?

You have to be kidding me. Does Brian Crosby not have the credentials to teach math or civics? Suggesting that parents pay for public schools is just plain ignorant.

I invite Mr. Crosby to come read my property tax bill, 80 percent of which is for my county’s school system. He wants me to now write a check directly to the school without even the Board of Ed’s oversight, I suppose.

It’s no surprise to me that he has Ralph Nader writing an endorsement of his new book on his blog site. Having Nader promoting his book is just further evidence of his warped view of the world.

My wife is a veteran teacher and would openly laugh at this guy. How simplistic and ignorant can a “professional” educator be?

Rick Sanderson, Peachtree City

The column was plain wrong on many points

I found so many incorrect points in Brian Crosby’s column. My children are not getting a free education. A large percentage of my personal property taxes go toward funding the schools.

Our school sells items or chooses to have a fund-raiser to raise money for extra things that are not in the school budget.

I also found it interesting that he states community colleges do not charge tuition or charge only nominal fees. According to the American Association of Community Colleges, the average cost of a full-time class schedule at a community college is $2,361.

His rationale about high school students littering is completely off the mark. I would expect his comments to come from a person who has never experienced giving kids an education, not a National Board Certified Teacher.

Melissa Costello, Woodstock

You ought to teach to the test to ensure learning

After 35 years of teaching, I retired, but continued to substitute almost daily for 10 more years, all happy, successful times. I would love to continue, but I am 85.

I am distressed about the trend in our schools. No Child Left Behind is not a very funny joke. All children are not created equal. They have different heights, complexions, interests, homes, parents and IQs.

How can they move at the same rate? How can a teacher discover and meet the needs of 30 students with that diversity?

The answer should be, first, with difficulty, but actually with testing and observing. Which brings up the question of testing.

Teachers test students to determine what each child knows and can accomplish, thus guiding her methods and materials. Simply stated, we test to see what to teach and what, how, and whom to reteach.

Then, how can it be cheating to “teach to the test?” If you don’t teach what you plan to test, how can students know it? Teach Greek, test English? No way. We teach for understanding and retention, not note repetition.

Martha, Pendley, Fayetteville

I support Obama, but
Joe Wilson had a point

I am an enthusiastic supporter of President Barack Obama, but the rude Joe Wilson may have had a point. Although Section 246 of the health care bill explicitly forbids giving free health care to illegal immigrants, there is no provision for proof of citizenship.

This happens every day in Atlanta public schools. If you are an illegal immigrant and want to enroll your foreign-born child in public schools, no proof of citizenship is required. All you need is proof of residency provided by a utility bill.

My 6-year-old grandson’s education is not enhanced by the half of his class who are foreign born, do not speak the language well or at all, and who well may be here illegally. He is very bright, but he is penalized for that every day, when excessive teacher time is taken by those with no communication skills.

How does one prevent billions being spent on those who have no right to be here, when ascertaining immigration status is forbidden to them? Joe Wilson is exceedingly rude, but he is not wrong.

Ron Slade Sr., Covington

Suspension for DeKalb officials was wrist slap

How is it that two DeKalb County school administrators who cheated on their school’s CRCT results are only getting suspended from their jobs? What does one have to do to actually be fired?

Caroline Truax, Johns Creek

For students, 9/11 may become another date

Today, schools observed a second moment of silence for those who were lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

After a short explanation of the moment to my Snellville high school class, a student asked, “What’s 9/11?” His classmates scolded him and after being reminded, he nodded like he knew all along and had just forgotten. This small event in my classroom raised a variety of thoughts and questions.

My students were only 7 or 8 when the attacks happened. Sure, the student who asked the question may have just forgotten but how vivid are the memories of an 8 year old? How much emotion can be attached to something on television at that age?

I was a freshmen in college when the attacks happened. I watched the plane run into the second tower on TV. I watched as a campus of 36,000 shut down for a day. I remember the disbelief, the tears and the fear that came with that day. My students do not.

Soon, we will see a group of young people who have no firsthand experience with the events of that day. They will only know of what happened based on history books and the Internet. This will become just another event in history. Sept. 11 will join them as one more day in the past that we write on a calendar and just remember.

The only way this moment in history becomes more is if the people who lived the moment pass on what the day means to them, what that day felt like, what the people around them went through and why they will continue to remember that day.

If we want these young people to know what happened, the story needs to be shared.

James Ammons, NOrcross