10/20/98
Opelika * Auburn News* THE NEWSPAPER OF EAST ALABAMA*10/20/98
Letter: 'Difficult problems need creative solutions'
Though I did not plan earlier to write more on the subject of YRS, my recent conversations with a few people who included teachers and parents and the two letters "Final question enrages resident" and "Parent unhappy with forum" of O-A News, Oct. 15, prompted me to write this commentary as a freelance educator. My son attended Lee-Scott Academy for six years, ACS for four years and is now at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science. I am highly pleased with the administrators as well as teachers of all these schools. I am of the personal opinion that a society's future is essentially designed by the K-12 schools.
(A writer's) letter surrounds her 8-year-old's concern that "he may lose his summer vacation because five or six classmates aren't learning what they are being taught." Both the mother and the kid should first learn that "the summer is neither lost nor ruined. Through YRS it will be remodeled and improved for the benefit of the entire class with all 'at-gift,' 'at-risk' and 'at-average kids." Wishing for a very long summer with a disinterest to return to school early in itself indicates a fast and tiresome past school year, the root cause of thc risk factors for many, as will be explained.
Incidentally, what was revealed at the town meeting was that the maximum at-risk students were at the age of (the writer's) son. I am glad and proud that Dr. Martin took a pro-active stand affirming "the at-risk population is a motivating factor, and no, I am not ashamed to be considering this alternative."
I see, hear and also deduce from the letters to the editor that the promoters of "STOP YRS" are mostly from the Auburn University faculty families whose children form a lesser percentage compared to the at risk ones. At same time I do understand that the entire AU faculty may not be associated with the "STOP YRS" promotion. At this point, let me enumerate major differences between a member of university faculty to which I once belonged, and the city school teachers whom I talked to often, as my son attended the city schools.
A typical university faculty member has less teaching load and less or no homework to grade compared to any school teacher. The hours of work of university faculty are flexible and some of the full-time faculty can easily avoid teaching a few days in a week and even run a personal consulting business. Some even delegate their teaching and or grading to their graduate students! The city school teachers have no such luxury. A university and hence its faculty chooses its students by a selective recruiting process and can avoid at-risk students. A city school and hence its faculty has no such choice. It has to enroll and educate any and all children. University faculty is not certified in education whereas both the administration and teachers of the city schools are trained and must be certified in the art of teaching and administration, and hence are to be respected to understand better than an eight year old's concern about losing the summer.
The university faculty that recently took a major decision about changing from quarters to semesters that affects over twenty thousand students, without any public debate or town hall meeting to my knowledge, should also respect the city school faculty and its administration in their process of improvement affecting about five thousand kids.
While, in general. most teachers both at university and city schools sacrifice money for the love of educating the society, I have invariably developed more respect for the K 12 teachers who spend lots of hours in the classroom and also at home for a lower salary! They even give us their home phone numbers to discuss our concerns, I have found that the scholarship of many school teachers is as good as that of the university faculty. I found them teaching with more concern at the city schools, the same courses in English, History, math, science and even accounting that are taught at freshman and sophomore levels at the university, only for less salary and no fees to the student.
Let us listen to what the school teachers are saying. ''We need more rest after each nine-week quarter to do our job better. We need time to cause remedial action before a new quarter starts. And the members of the university faculty who often put hundreds of freshmen in a classroom, say to them, 'Have smaller classes, teach after-classes and be more qualified etc."'. All these are being done. More and more PhDs are teaching at city schools and in addition are certified too.
Some teachers, I know, come to school even early in the morning to help in the homework of their students. While the university faculty can help their children in the comfort of their home, and the rich can engage private tutors, their recommendations to the school teachers as above only increases the day's work for the teachers and cause further disturbance to the at-risk students as well as their parents. There are creative solutions for all these problems. YRS is one of them preferred by the school teachers. Let us learn to respect the choices of the school teachers who are also parents.
Otherwise, as the AHS principal rightly submitted to the BOE on Tuesday, the increasing at-risk group will be not only the students, but also the teachers. Statistics show that the teacher burn-out is on the increase and hence more teacher turn-out and really retirement from school teaching, which will put our society at risk, with the pool of experienced teachers decreasing in our city schools.
Difficult problems need creative solutions. In 'mechanism design,' my engineering professional specialty, there is a technique called the "inversion" in which the designer changes the frame of reference of observation without changing the relative motions. With this inversion, motions that looked complex with respect to the reference in which the problem was stated become simpler in a different reference. This is how simpler creative solutions for social problems are also arrived at. A multi-cultural society like that of Auburn should take advantage of solving the problems of their "traditional" reference, using other frames of reference. YRS offers one such other frame of reference to solve our public school problems arising due to the complexity of educating every child in the society which was not the case a few decades ago.
N.S. Malladi, PhD Auburn
Letter: Tone down YRS discussions
After discussions with several of those who attended, and after examining my own motives in responding, I feel I must contribute my perceptions of comments on an alternative calendar at the Wrights Mill Road September PTA meeting.
Parents, teachers and a wide variety of young and older "others" had gathered to hear a musical on Johnny Appleseed and to hear two school speakers address various challenges related to learning this year. Into the meeting, the Wrights Mill Road PTA President spoke on the issue of alternative calendar. I do not know whether her comments were prompted by a question. I do feel that the posture of the president was misinterpreted by another writer.
Far from cutting off or refusing to take questions, the president assured all of us that there would be specific forums to address the alternative calendar issue. Parenthetically, I note that in the next three weeks there will be no less than 10 open meetings specifically called for the purpose of an alternative calendar discussion. Above and beyond this, the president stated emphatically that if questions remained after those open forums she would see to it that answers were gotten. As you may see, my perceptions (and those of people I spoke with who were there) of this situation are quite different from those presented in the previous letter.
I believe it is time to tone down the rhetoric surrounding the alternative calendar issue. Surely we believe that all those concerned are searching for ways to allow our children the most complete educational experience possible. As parents and concerned adults, the best thing we can do for all of our children is not wage or win this "campaign" or that. The best thing is to allow our children to observe us treating others civilly, debating without rancor or disdain and according others the grace and dignity to which we must believe they are entitled. Our children are watching us.
Leigh Anne ArmstrongAuburn