What Say You Focus On Teaching Somebody Something?

Regarding "Roadway pollution putting 80,000 schoolkids at risk" (Sunday Front Page), while this article supposedly documents the pollution risk for Houston area schoolchildren in schools deemed to be too close to heavy traffic roads, to me it is yet another example of the skewed priorities of bureaucrats.  It's no coincidence that so many articles about our school system seem to deal with everything except whether or not we're improving the school system. 

 

Take the story "HISD weighs mascot changes" (Dec. 7th Front Page), where HISD Superintendent Terry Grier decided his number one priority was to squash the native American themed mascots at four different Houston schools.

 

Or the story "State votes to drop math rule” (Nov. 22 Front Page) about eliminating Algebra II as a requirement for the vast majority of Texas high school students so they could "focus on career and vocational training".  

 

Or the story "HISD scores $30 million federal grant" (Dec. 18 Front Page) about HISD scoring yet another pile of cash courtesy of the nation's taxpayers.  

 

The common theme of these stories is that none of them deal with Educators focusing on programs that actually improve the learning process for our youngsters, as documented in the Chronicle article "U.S. students still trail on global test" (Dec. 4th Nation & World).

 

Since the 70s, our Educators have focused their attention on political correctness, self-esteem, lowering standards to improve graduation rates, and a mind-boggling number of ways to pay themselves more money.  During that same time, you'd be hard-pressed to find even a smattering of articles about initiatives they've taken that actually succeeded in producing more literate, educated, college-worthy students. 

 

It is high time for our Educators to start doing their jobs, and stop distracting us with superficial matters.  As to whether or not HISD has a pollution problem, as recently as the mid-60s, Houston schools had their windows flung wide open because they had no air conditioning, and yet somehow those students managed to thrive.

 

Pete Smith

Cypress, TX