J and D's Corner

From the Letters Archive

To:    AV Press

Date: 03/2002

Re:    The Hidden Enemy in Education

 

Comment:  Edward Mooney is a teacher and frequent contributor to our local paper.  I find him a little over-emotional at times but in most cases he's a lot more on target than other educators whose only concern seems to be money.



Edward Mooney Jr.'s March 15th Viewpoint piece about the hidden enemy in our schools should be required reading for everyone with an interest in our children's education. His observation that the schools have become simply a battleground for not-so-hidden agendas and pre-decided theories is right on the mark.

The other sad truth in his column was the observation that schools are a mirror of society. This is sad because it means significant improvement in the end result of the education process will never come from throwing ever more money nor from making easy tweaks like changing homework requirements.

The only thing that will truly improve public schools is a sea change in the public itself. We are a monkey see, monkey do species. Like it or not, the fact is children require an environment providing consistent, full-time guidance rather than the sea of hopelessly mixed signals society now provides.

Being an upbeat type for the most part, it pains me to say I see little hope on the horizon.