Letters to the Editors

Work to change public attitudes about abortion

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 1, 2000

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that partial-birth abortion is a woman's "fundamental" constitutional right. If you feel even a little uncomfortable when you hear this horrific procedure described, then you can no longer sit passively by and allow this atrocity to continue.

You don't have to go picket abortion clinics to take action. There is much you can do. Start by writing or calling your legislators and letting them know how you feel. Then contribute money to or volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center. These centers are truly dedicated to supporting pregnant woman before and after the baby is born.

Get involved with families in crisis. They need our love and help. Look at the teens in your life. Do they have the self-esteem and courage to live a chaste life until marriage? How can we better encourage this behavior?

We could also pool our money and create a huge advertising campaign complete with television, newspaper and billboard ads to get the message across that abortion is not the solution.

No longer can good people sit by and watch women abort their babies because they feel there is no other alternative. We must help them.

We don't need laws to change the hearts and minds of people. What we need is prayer and a lot of good, selfless people to do something!
-- Marian Baird, Tampa

The court makes a difference

Planned Parenthood was pleased by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down the ban on abortion procedures, thus protecting the constitutional right of a woman to choose. Women's reproductive freedom won this time, but the battle to protect women's health and women's rights is far from over.

Nine Supreme Court justices, appointed by the president, make decisions that affect the lives of all Americans. On June 28, women's rights were protected by a single vote. What will happen next? Anti-choice hard-liners won't give up until abortion is totally outlawed everywhere.

The next president may be able to appoint several Supreme Court justices, setting the direction of the court for years to come. We must all work hard to ensure that only justices who support Roe vs. Wade are appointed and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
-- Barbara A. Zdravecky, president/chief executive officer, Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida Inc., Sarasota

The FCAT curriculum

Re: School grades improve -- a lot, June 29.

What I don't understand is why people refuse to listen to testing experts such as James Popham. These experts have spent their lives studying measurement and assessment, yet we listen to politicians instead! I find it so amusing when Gov. Jeb Bush says things like, "You can't teach to the test when you're learning to read. . . . These children are learning to read."

Hello! Where have you been, Gov. Bush? If you spend any time in a classroom, you will see that the students are learning exactly how to take the FCAT! I have seen it firsthand. They start in first grade and it consumes the entire school year. It is a shame.

I had a professor in a graduate level measurement and assessment course tell the class that two things would result from "high stakes testing." He said you would have teachers and schools that get caught cheating and that everyone would be teaching to the test. That professor must have known something because he was right on both accounts.
-- Jennifer L'Eon, St. Petersburg

Working with the test

Re: Florida's school-grading program is a fraud, by W. James Popham, June 4.

The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test does test the Sunshine State Standards, I am told. You see, I have never seen an FCAT booklet except on the outside as I have handed them out to my students during testing. My testing manual says that I will be penalized if I look at the test. I believe that. As I walk around the room I can see the format is what I was told it would be, but I don't know anything about specific items.

I would like to see the test given a little later in the year. I am not sure if FCAT tests everything that eighth graders should have learned by the end of the year or by the end of first semester. They do not learn it all in the first semester. I do give a pre-test the first week of school and a post-test during the last week of school. That test gives me direction for improvement the next year.

The preparation I do with my students for FCAT relates more to test format than anything else. I work with them on test strategies and how to mark the gridded response questions and the extended response questions. I use those types of questions all year, not just at FCAT time. Because I teach the curriculum and align my plans to the Sunshine State Standards, I don't really worry about the test questions.

What would help more than anything to gain highest student achievement and raise FCAT scores? A lower teacher-pupil ratio would help greatly and provide us more time to work with struggling students.

I know that I do not have the academic credentials of the author of the article, but I do have 37 years in the classroom teaching math to middle school students.
-- Sidney L. Caldwell, mathematics teacher, Safety Harbor Middle School, Safety Harbor

Competition doesn't help schools

Re: School competition works, by John F. Kirtley, June 22.

Kirtley's leap of logic in declaring competition responsible for the recent writing test results have confirmed, for me, the opposite conclusion. Here is why competition does not work in public education:

First, the morality of capitalism permits winners and losers in the world of private enterprise. It is perfectly acceptable for one company to be successful at the expense of another's failure. Public education's moral imperative is that all students must succeed. Schools are where students are educated. Therefore, all schools must succeed. A system that creates success for one school at the expense of another's failure is inappropriate.

Second, the ruin of many a company can be attributed to competition between divisions or departments within the organization. Nothing is more detrimental to morale and productivity than internal competition. Competition among schools within a school system will produce the same outcome: suboptimization of the total system and ultimate failure of the whole organization.

Finally, to argue that competition, through the threat of vouchers, was responsible for the improvement of writing scores in Florida ignores the fact that the conditions necessary for competition did not exist in this case. Competition requires at least two organizations that produce a similar product or service and are measured by the same standards. You can't compete unless valid comparisons can be made. The private schools that accepted vouchers are not held to the same standards as the public schools, and therefore valid comparisons cannot be made and competition cannot exist.

What happened this year had absolutely nothing to do with the threat of competition. Rather, it was the result of the threat of stigmatization, the threat of the loss of resources and the fear and intimidation that accompanies such threats. Such tactics result in short-term compliance to the requirements of a test, while the more important system changes necessary to provoke continual improvement of teaching and learning systems are ignored.

Teachers are not driven by competition but by the desire to do a better job. They share best practices and cooperate with colleagues. They maintain high standards and hold themselves and their students accountable for learning results. This is what truly works in schools, and competition would only serve to destroy it.
-- Rob McMahon president, Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, Largo

Factor in the parents

FCAT tests are used to judge the quality of schools, administrators and teachers. Wonderful. But shouldn't they, then, be used to judge the quality of parents? No matter how good the teacher or school is, the ultimate motivation for a child comes from his parents. It is the parent who should be responsible for making sure the child gets to school daily, completes his homework and behaves appropriately.

A school can only do so much. The parents, in my opinion should take at least 50 percent responsibility for their child's FCAT score and should be held just as accountable as the schools.
-- John F. Marretta, Port Richey

"Message' isn't for thinking people

Re: Jeb Bush to staff: Just read it, June 20, about A Message to Garcia.

After reading this article, I believe I understand a little more about how Jeb Bush's mind works. It reminds me of my youthful days in a military academy and how we were taught the mantra, "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die."

It may not have been a bad method for shaping an 18-year-old into the typical military model. However, I am now in my 60s and am deeply concerned that our governor would proselytize such a "message." I find this dogmatic approach to governing discourages critical thinking and the seeking of counsel from educated and experienced advisers necessary to accomplish worthy goals.

I believe it is archaic thinking to avoid seeking advice that might result in changing your viewpoint. It's possible a revised idea/plan/method based on new findings might benefit the public good.
-- Glenn Paul, Indian Rocks Beach

Garcia grows more unreachable

I have been thinking about the article on A Message to Garcia and have decided to update the instructions for a modern corporate version. It may help explain why it is hard to get someone to just do what he is supposed to do.

1. Carry this letter to Garcia.

2. Deadline is ASAP.

3. Current projects must be completed on time.

4. No overtime or expenses can be incurred because there is no budget.

5. We need status reports with charts and graphs.

6. You must follow the step-by-step company procedures.

7. There will be an independent audit to make sure you comply with company policies.

8. We have hired a consultant.
-- Rebecca Skelton, St. Petersburg

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