By Letter to the Editor
Published October 13, 2003
There are four reasons I hate the FCAT.
First, this stupefying style of writing stifles creativity.
Second, the pressure on schools to perform, driven by monetary incentives, causes teachers to drill the students in this repetitive, dull, stilted style. Consequently, students never learn to write well.
Next, my daughter, who is a very creative storyteller, hates writing, which horrifies me, but I sympathize. I would hate writing, too, if I had to number all my thoughts.
Finally, students raised with the FCAT have now arrived in college, so in addition to teaching them science, I also have to teach them to write effectively. Papers written in the awful style of this letter are not acceptable in college.
In conclusion, thanks to FCAT, Florida schools are turning out a generation of students who cannot express themselves effectively in written form, who will never know the joy of crafting with words, and who don't stand a chance of getting a job at your newspaper, or writing a novel. What will it take to stop this destruction of our educational system?
