Public Schools

Re two Feb. 9 Education page stories: Are you serious when you claim that test scores will improve significantly if natural light is available in classrooms? This is another attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. The “experts” have been doing this for over a decade. Ever since we were duped into believing that whole language was the only way for our students to learn to read, our education system has been declining. It’s time for the public to take action.

Of course teachers are leaving the profession. They haven’t been taught the skills that are necessary to teach reading or math. The theories that they have learned don’t work in the classroom. The materials that they are given to use don’t help either. The public needs to carefully scrutinize what’s really going on in our schools. Textbooks need to be grade-appropriate. Teachers need to teach skills for mastery. Only then will test scores improve and teachers feel a sense of accomplishment. Only then will our students be prepared.

DALE A. KORMAN

Torrance

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Central planning by governments and big public agencies of every political coloration has been tried all over the world for the better part of a century and has produced an unbroken record of failures and disasters. Why are we still trying to preserve public school systems? Only war has produced more human wreckage than the Los Angeles Unified School District and similar public school systems in other large American cities.

RUSSELL HAWKES

Los Angeles