Letters

From the November 1999 issue

(Page 3 of 5)

If anyone at work treated me the way many of my classmates treated me--to say nothing of how they treated those lower in the pecking order--they'd most likely be fired and possibly arrested. If not, I could seek work elsewhere. Contrast this with the fairly common plight of high school students who are required by law to attend school, surrounded by aggressors whom the schools can't or won't control or remove, and raised by parents who either can't afford private school or don't believe the threats their kids face.

Mr. Hazlett's suggested escape route to nongovernment schools has appeal, and of course there are many reasons beyond an escape from abuse. I would prefer that route for my own children. Yet Mr. Gillespie's appeal for decent schools seems not too far-fetched. Perhaps a place to start is to hold public high schools to the standards of an adult workplace: Disagreements and dislikes are expected but must be handled with civility; frequent taunts are grounds for discipline, including removal; and threats or violence are met with police arrest. If our so-called leaders can't muster the courage to pursue the idea on moral grounds, perhaps they could accept it as vocational training.

I'm considered quite imaginative, but as a teenager I could barely foresee the long future after high school when I'd be free of daily harassment. Perhaps the hate-filled young men in Colorado could not foresee it at all.

Brian Tillotson
Kent, WA
[e-mail]

Chain of Complicity

Texas teacher Jerry Jesness points out what doubtless is the most pressing issue in modern public school education ("Why Johnny Can't Fail," July). A host of reforms have been proposed to improve government schools. But almost none of them deal with the fact that there is enormous pressure on teachers in all states, from all directions, to wildly exaggerate how much their students have learned.

This "grade inflation" provides a subtle and painless, but nonetheless effective, cover-up for unwarranted promotion. Students are regularly advanced to the next grade or course without anyone being embarrassed by having to admit that they learned little in the past.

If public school educators and officials and their education professor mentors read Jesness' article, doubtless most of them would object to his depiction of this "reign of mediocrity" in the schools as excessive, imaginary, and curmudgeonly. Dishonest grading of students is a matter concerning which they adopt a bunker mentality.

But there is compelling evidence in California that Jesness' charges are accurate. Approximately half of the students admitted to California State University campuses on the basis of their high school GPAs are found to be very deficient in English and mathematics skills. Consequently, they must take no-credit, high-school-level remedial courses in these subjects before being allowed to study them at the university level.

The state universities clearly signal high school teachers that they will compensate for their irresponsibility. Education professors also are implicated in perpetuating what Jesness calls the "floating standard" for grading. They indoctrinate future teachers with the theory that grades are evil. They demonstrate their dedication to the theory by giving A's to almost all future teachers.

With the belief that grades are required yet iniquitous, most teachers sense no ethical dilemma in awarding them expediently, i.e., in any manner that makes everyone concerned the happiest. Thus, Jesness goes off track in averring that "there is no reason" there cannot be external, standardized tests "given at the end of certain courses" in school, with university admission "given to students who have scored well." In fact, everything else in his article contradicts that wishful thinking.

Patrick Groff
Professor Emeritus
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA

Booster Boosting

Sue Blevins is right about one thing: The government should not mandate the vaccination of children ("Shots in the Dark," July). However, for parents to make informed decisions about whether to have their children vaccinated against diseases such as hepatitis B, they must have accurate information. Unfortunately, Blevins' article appears to be nothing more than rehashed anti-vaccination junk science.

The most telling point about Blevins' article is that although she strongly implies that children face a minimal risk from hepatitis B, readers who might want to find out whether the vaccine has lowered the incidence of the disease have to look elsewhere. In fact, prior to the vaccine's introduction, an estimated 20,000 children contracted hepatitis B annually, with 200 children dying every year from the disease. Since then, incidence in children has fallen 97 percent, and in 1995 only 10 children died after contracting hepatitis B. Although a large part of that decline is due to vaccinating infants whose mothers suffer from hepatitis B, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that in more than half of all childhood cases of hepatitis B the mother does not suffer from the disease.

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