Re: Holding them back, editorial, and No margin for error for third-graders, July 24.
Regarding your editorial and accompanying opinion article regarding FCAT failure: Both pieces open their arguments with anecdotal evidence. This is always a shaky way to debate a point - but, if personal anecdotes are what you seek to validate your opinions, then let me add for your consideration one of my own.
I failed two grades (sixth and ninth), graduating from high school, as a result, when I was nearly 19 years old. Some personal problems in my childhood probably contributed to this in some way, as well as my own dilatory behavior. Yet, as one of eight siblings, I went on to reach a higher level of graduate education than anyone else in our family. "Failing" two grades was a good experience in my life, carrying no lasting negative effects. Insulating children against "failure" is not a good thing. I learned much from my failures, and I suspect that other children can, too.
It is regrettable that some children do not rebound from being retained, but this doesn't make a case that testing is inappropriate. I would retain the tests, while working toward finding supplemental means for evaluating individual students. So-called "social promotion" is a well-intentioned, but misguided, approach to advance students, and it has hurt our educational system deeply. It has been a major contributor to the "self-esteem" model of educating children that says, "It doesn't matter very much if Johnny cannot read. It matters more if Johnny feels good that he cannot read."
The Ebonics controversy of several years ago in the Oakland, California school district is a good example of what social promotion can do to children: Faced with the widespread inability of students to master proper English, a lazy board of educators came up with this solution: "It's okay if a child cannot speak or read properly. Let's just validate street dialect, give it the name "Ebonics,' and expect this brand of English to carry the child through life." Some may say this is compassionate to children, insulating them against a stigma of failure. I say it sets a kid up for a lifetime of failure, and a lifetime lasts a lot longer than one extra school year in a child's educational process.
-- William J. Martin, St. Petersburg
Standards are necessary
Re: Holding them back, editorial, and No margin for error for third-graders, July 24.
My suggestion is that your customers start paying 3 to 5 cents less than the posted price for your daily paper. Also, on a regular basis your employees should come to work a few minutes late and leave a few minutes early. Sounds absurd, doesn't it?
In reading your editorial and op-ed feature on July 24, you suggest the same logic for students in regard to the FCAT. While I am not in full agreement with the FCAT method for determining a student's achievement level, there has to be some standard. Until a better way is devised, we will have to accept the current standard.
The term "50th percentile" can be used in different ways, but if it means that the student answered correctly on less than half of the questions, it seem that there is a lack of necessary basic knowledge or understanding of the subject. There always has to be a cutoff point.
Advancing students to the next grade without mastery of the material of the current grade does not help the student, the teacher or the classmates in the higher grade. This really becomes evident with the fact that most institutions of higher learning find it necessary to teach high school classes to many of their entering freshmen. Another absurdity.
It is likely that in the near future there will be an overall improvement in the test scores. If not, then it may be that there are more students with learning difficulties than anyone realized. If this proves to be the case, then it becomes necessary to resolve the learning problem or to accept dual standards and do the best possible with those having problems. It is not right to let them think that they have greater learning ability than they actually have. Reality will set in at some point.
-- Robert E. Hagaman, Homosassa
More bad education ideas
Re: An FCAT for college juniors?, July 24.
The idea of high-stakes FCAT-style testing for college students is ludicrous. This is just another device being implemented by the state to take funding away from public universities in order to fill the funding gap created by the mandatory class-size amendment.
Of course the class-size amendment sounded good to the voters at the polls. It will, however, do nothing but drag down public education in Florida on both the K-12 and college level. If these types of high-stakes testing are adopted in Florida colleges, it will just be the newest bad idea in Florida education.
-- David Gray, St. Petersburg
American students should come first
I have noticed that there is more talk of limiting the number of incoming students to our universities. If this plan is put into effect by all the schools, then it would seem appropriate that these same schools deny entry to foreign students, thus allowing only American students to be accepted. I think its time that America First is put into play.
-- Patrick Romano, Palm Harbor
Put it in the Constitution
The July 19 editorial, Clarifying Title 9, clarifies some of the Title 9 requirements that have successfully built women's sports and education for years. The St. Petersburg Times points out that it does not take away from men. Such laws exist because it is the will of the American people to stand for justice and equality. Americans understand the fairness of a level playing field.
Many, many American women held their breath while Title 9's fate, and theirs, was being decided. It is a familiar scenario: The battle is not over until Title 9 and other laws are cast in stone in the U.S. Constitution. Women and men must still await legal decisions on equality case by case, state by state. Again and again, Americans will have to sue to capture their rights depending on the will of any administration. Even now, the only incontestable right women have in the U.S. Constitution is the right to vote.
It need not be so.
There is a way. Our U.S. Constitution is the only permanent guarantee of equality. It now prohibits discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. Equality of the sexes will be codified only once it's also adopted in the Constitution. Until then, all courts are free to apply lesser importance to sex discrimination. Men will benefit, too.
Ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution is the answer.
Some question the right of women to demand equality as full and whole persons. They waver because they believe there will be too many lawsuits. Isn't that proof that there's still too much sex discrimination? Should we ignore the thousands of discrimination lawsuits filed just because the ERA is not in the Constitution? Look at what Americans had to do to get Title 9 back.
Americans want to be fair. So should their elected representatives: Ratify the ERA in Florida.
-- Sandy Oestreich, ERA Inc. of Florida, St. Petersburg
Lighten up for kids' sake
Re: Lemonade stand.
Don Addis' July 24 cartoon says it all. Where has all the fun gone? The old fogies and sourpusses have stolen it from our children! Childhood should mean imagining, laughing, skipping for joy, running and playing games.
I'm older too, but not an old fogie. My brother and I would sell homemade cinnamon buns and wild blackberries door to door, and we were welcomed. People loved to see us. Life was fun. I realize that there are rules and regulations, but come on folks, lighten up before our children grow up to be old fogies and sourpusses too.
-- Betty Holden, Clearwater
Looking for peace and quiet
I was appalled to read Mary Jo Melone's July 24 column, What they discovered about our sourpusses. Older people living in condos are not mean nor are they sourpusses, or cruel. They live in condos because they have rules and regulations. If you don't like the rules, you should not live in senior condos. We are no longer used to small children running around. Not all children are well-behaved.
Many of us have a lot of health issues and need peace and quiet. That is why we moved here. As a condo resident and a senior citizen we have our rights too.
We love our grandchildren but need our peace during normal days. Selling anything is against our rules and regulations. We cannot make exceptions for any reason or we will set a precedent for the future. If you haven't walked in our shoes, don't complain!
-- Mrs. Helen McKay, Pinellas Park
Encourage the spirit of youth
Re: Girls' sweet deed comes to bitter end, July 23.
After reading the article regarding the efforts of Kara Liechty and Breanne Tanner, two little girls determined to raise money for cancer research through the sale of lemonade, I am dismayed and disgusted by the response of the Seven Springs Villa Association to their creative enterprise.
Old people, with nothing better to do, must delight in crushing the spirit of youngsters in this county. They are like self-proclaimed tyrants who feel their only mission is to police their neighbors. It does not matter what productive or entertaining activity kids attempt to do, old people will object to it and will put an end to it under the shield of some masterpiece of writing they call "deed restrictions."
Don't encourage your kids to play basketball in the driveway, don't applaud your teenager for reconstructing a junk car in the front yard funded by his own earnings, don't teach your little ones to conserve energy by hanging your clothes out to dry, don't send them to fish with a cane pole from a vacant piece of land fronting a bass-filled lake, and never, never, never allow them to sell refreshing beverages from a lemonade stand for a noble cause; they will suffer the consequences.
Old people are not happy being miserable all by themselves; they herd together in little associations, combine and multiply their misery and then inflict it on others. Have we lived so long we have forgotten what it is like to be young, to have ideas and ideals, and to believe what you do counts and is valuable?
Deed restrictions violate constitutional rights and should be outlawed and abolished. It is the members of the Seven Springs Villa Association that offend and violate the spirit of liberty that elevates our country above others. They should be restricted, they should answer now in court, and later to a higher power for their own deeds.
Kara and Breanne, you are honored by this old person for your courage and for your sense of charity - you may sell your lemonade from my driveway any day!
-- Robert Guenkel, Spring Hill
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