letter to the editor

at the Irvington Parents Forum:

I thought some list members might be interested in my letter to the editor of
the Rivertowns Enterprise published the other day. Ed B.

At the Irvington school board meeting three weeks ago, the District announced plans to survey the community about our playing fields. The Zogby polling firm, we're told, will undertake the task. This is excellent news and reflects a much-improved tone on the board, whose members have decided to weigh the taxpayers' views and seek professional advice for the campus's drainage problem. Most of us want high-quality fields usable the year round; we just need assurance that they'll be built properly and at reasonable cost. The Board has already gone a long way in this direction—bravo to them.

Once the fields survey is done, the next step should be to poll us about the central mission of our schools: academics. It would be extremely useful to have Zogby, whose fees are surprisingly modest, design an instrument to gather the community's views about
the academic direction of the District.

Do we think students are learning subject matter at a high level, or is there too much emphasis on discovery learning, "differentiation," and other elements of the "constructivist" orthodoxy that school administrators want to impose? Are we using technology effectively, or have we become overly enamored of expensive but academically dubious bells and whistles like SmartBoards, whose replacement bulbs cost $400 apiece?

What do we think about the controversial Trailblazers mathematics program? Should we begin foreign language instruction early in the elementary school years? Are students who
struggle academically receiving the help and support they need? Do we offer enough
advanced courses, and is access to them as open as it should be? To what extent, in
short, do we think our kids are being well prepared for college?

As we plan for higher education, nothing is more important than mathematics, reading and writing. But does that mean math teachers should issue writing assignments, as they do at the Irvington Middle School, taking valuable time away from math? And in English class is there too much emphasis on personal narratives at the expense of summarizing and analyzing texts?

All too often, my NYU undergrads, smart as they are, give me too much opinion and too little analysis. In high school, they're commonly taught to express themselves but less often to interpret texts, examine arguments, and marshal evidence based on what they've learned.

Perhaps views such as mine represent a minority, perhaps not. With Zogby's help
we can find out.