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Letters The New "Voc Ed" Sandy Mishodek Amen to "Beyond the 'V' Word." It may not be enough to run a quality, academically oriented, vocational program and place students in good paying jobs. Getting school officials to buy into the idea for the longterm will be key. My automotive mechanics program was closed 10 years ago because school officials felt we were spending too much money on too few students. K-12 administrators don't seem to appreciate that students who leave high school with the skills for a fulfilling career ultimately save money--for the students, their families, and the educational system, too. Donn Fishburn Air Quality Nightmare Two classrooms in my school smelled sewer gas for most of last year. The teachers and students complained of multiple symptoms, but no one listened until one day the exposure was high enough to cause breathing problems, eye irritation, and dizziness. Health problemls persisted in the following days and months. However, it quickly became evident that no laws had been broken because Illinois has no law regulating air quality. Where is the accountability here? Aren't local school boards and county and state agencies responsible for ensuring teachers and children are safe in their school environments? Forge ahead Connecticut, and may other states follow your lead. Nancy Thompson Our school has rooms like those profiled by the Connecticut educators--full of mold, with damp walls and ceiling and poor ventilation. And I'm not talking about a decaying inner city school; this is in the outer suburbs of Boston! Teachers young and old have experienced pulmonary problems. I developed an incurable lung ailment that became a big factor in my retirement. Every effort must be made to deal with "sick building" syndrome. It affects so many. Joseph Chamberlain The Blame Game The new ESEA will require teachers to continually be tested, assessed, and evaluated when students don't reach goal performance. I am not against the state's definition of a "highly qualified" teacher. My disagreement is with the federal law's takeover of schools and firing of teachers who do not reach the goals outlined when students fail state standardized tests. Students may end up with teachers who are "highly qualified," but they will also have fewer teachers and more federally run schools with substitutes who are neither trained nor qualified. Seems to me that the "assessment hounds" have picked up the fresh scent of the wrong hunting game. Lori A. Myles Running On Fumes I am an elementary special education teacher drowning in paperwork. I'm called upon to make impossible schedules work while trying to individualize instruction for 17 students in three grades and six separate classrooms. I am so close to burnout that I can feel the flames. After 10 years in the trenches, I am almost ready to give it up and head for a less stressful line of work. Thanks to the NEA for what you are doing. I plan to make the Illinois senators and members of Congress hear my voice and what it is like for me and thousands of others. Laureen Allison Assessing Assessment We can learn from Texas' mistakes. The ESEA calls for using "multiple measures" to rate students or schools. At a minimum states should use a "multiple assessment" system in which a low test score can be offset by a positive showing in other areas that include grades, portfolios or other demonstrations of a student's work, and even teacher recommendations. George Sheridan Saying you can improve education by assessment is similar to saying you can improve the flavor of ground beef by weighing it on a more accurate scale. It won't happen. Who decides what is improved anyway? Will education be improved if all students are polite and never pollute the earth? Is education improved if students can answer every true/false question correctly. Who even decides what's important enough to ask? Nancy Smith Rethinking the Bully Have you noticed that you are perpetuating the stereotype of the red-headed male, freckled-face bully with a crew cut? (See January and February 2002 issues). As a middle school teacher, I know bullies can be boys or girls; black, white, or other; have fair, olive, or dark skin; and have hair of all kinds. Please, when illustrating bullies or misbehaviors, be sensitive to the feelings of redheads with freckles! Judy Rosenberg Teaching Human Rights I am a Muslim by birth, but have been an American citizen for many years. Due to the tragic September 11 incident, I believe students are very curious about Islam and Muslims. Unfortunately the media does not provide authentic information. This leaves us with educators like Ms. Ambrose, Ms. Bishop, and people like me who are firm believers in human rights to do this job. Farhana Shah Zero Tolerance I was in court because I follow a simple policy: If you assault me, I call the police and file charges. In six years at an alternative high school I have been assaulted twice. What I've discovered is this: If we don't protect ourselves, no one else will. I have heard teachers say, "But I don't want to make trouble." Unfortunately, not filing charges actually makes more trouble. A child who assaults a teacher needs help, and often the best way to get help is to get the courts involved. This can benefit not only the needy child but the rest of the class. If nothing else, think about this: Do you really believe that a child who gets away with assaulting a teacher won't try it again? Timothy Mark Mennuti Junk Food: Selling Out By allowing any consumer logo into the school, we are bestowing upon it a credibility that it could never achieve on its own. We make a few bucks off it, but we have let the demon in. In fact, by courting large corporations we invite the demon in. The money we make is nothing to them. But the credibility and product exposure we give them is worth millions in potential sales. Valerie Wood Where Go the Savings? Jerry Hund Olympic Update
Ah, But What to Wear? But Morse-McNeely's argument really appears to be more about conformity than uniforms. Existentially she may be correct when she says, "the only real freedom is freedom of thought," but she ignores what dictators and the military have known for generations: that if you can force physical conformity, you can achieve thought conformity, too. She also ignores the First Amendment's right to free speech. What you wear on any given day is an active and visual expression. It is symbolic speech in its purest form. The real message that school uniforms sends: We will teach you about your rights and freedoms but we will not allow you to exercise them. K.E. Cunningham I spent 12 years in uniforms--in one of those parochial schools that Dave Oland talked about when he asked, "Do we choose to run our public schools in the manner of prisons, boot camps, and parochial schools?" I am offended by the lumping of prisoners with children who go to private, usually religious schools. Growing up, I was very proud to wear my school uniform. We felt a sense of belonging to a group, of being included. Back in those days, my family had very little money, but with those uniforms, no one could tell! We all looked equal and that helped raise school spirit tremendously. Mary Hinman Pat Morse Mc-Neely was right on with her view supporting uniforms in school. School is indeed a place for learning and conformity, not showing off. Discipline in public schools is a problem, let's admit it. The idea that schools would become like prisons is just plain wrong. Tom Shade Let's Talk
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