Cheshire Cat has nothing to smile about...

Cheshire Cat has nothing to smile about in this case

I feel like Alice in Wonderland and I have just fallen into an

abyss. The world of public education is getting “curiouser and

curiouser.”

I am a kindergarten teacher at Pomona School in my 41st and final

year of teaching. Last year, I had to individually assess 10,800

items with my kindergartners. It barely left me time to teach! This

year we were given a reading program developed by Houghton Mifflin

(pronounced Ho as in Santa’s laugh, but not as kid friendly).

The first day of school, the kids were given a black and white

worksheet with all the letters of the alphabet in small print and

expected to write the upper and lower case A in a small space, as

well as circle all the A’s scattered among other letters 1/4 inch

high. Each day, they are faced with a similar worksheet as we race

through the alphabet on our way to “Reading in Kindergarten.”

Some kindergartners don’t even know the difference between a

letter and a number, let alone have the small muscle development to

print those tiny letters. Who decided that formal reading instruction

was an appropriate kindergarten activity? Don’t they know that you

can spend a whole year teaching a 5-year-old to read or wait until

they’re ready and spend two months?

Someone living in “Wonderland” determined that since our state was

failing in its test scores, we needed to raise the bar and require

reading in kindergarten. But let’s give them some handicaps: We’ll

continue to allow 4-year-olds to enter kindergarten (other states

require children to be 5), and continue to have kindergarten

optional, so that parents can take them out of school whenever they

like.

Let’s not give them a full day like first grade has. We’ll give

them just three hours and 20 minutes. To make sure the playing field

is not level, we won’t fund a universal preschool so that

second-language learners have a chance to catch up with their

English-only counterparts. What a recipe for failure.

To complicate matters, the “No Child Left Behind Act” requires

that 100% of the students must be fully proficient in English and

math by the year 2013, which is a statistical impossibility even in

our highest scoring schools. Each school must make adequate yearly

progress toward their goal. If you miss your goal by one point or if

only 94% of your students are tested, your school can face sanctions.

This could mean that your entire staff could be replaced. No wonder

teachers only last five years, on average, in this profession. Who

wants to stick around just to get kicked around?

We need to set realistic goals for improvement, with realistic

time frames. It takes a second-language learner four to seven years

to become fully proficient in English. We need to have reasonable

assessments and assessment schedules. We need to give support to the

second language learners by providing universal pre-school and

tutoring for children who fall behind. We need to support teachers

and understand that it takes a whole village, working together, to

educate a child.

PEGGY ENGARD

Costa Mesa

No need to shoe-horn skate park into TeWinkle

After attending the Costa Mesa Planning Commission meeting Monday

night, my opinion changed about the skate park being built there.

What is the reason for squeezing it in there when Fairview Park has

an abundance of open space for it?

Obviously, Planning Commissioner Katrina Foley was the only member

of the Costa Mesa Planning Commission who listened. It’s only a

matter of common sense to build it at Fairview Park.

It was too bad that the group in favor of skate boarding at

TeWinkle was well represented and there were not as many speakers

present to explain why it wasn’t a wise choice, economically or

otherwise. Why jam a skateboard park into TeWinkle at great expense,

when it can be built for less money and fewer problems at another

place?

LOUISA T. ARNOLD

Costa Mesa