Shame on us

Editor,

To school administrators and concerned parents of Porterville and surrounding schools. If you are wondering why our students continue to score low every year, I suggest you take a walk through the stores of this area on Wednesday afternoons.

There you will find many students using this time to visit fast food stores and then congregate in the local department stores, disrupting people who actually want to buy something.

Running and yelling seem to play an important part in this ritual.

I understand teachers and administrators have set aside these Wednesdays to try to work out a plan to better our students’ scores. Here are some suggestions: Provide teachers with proper training during the summer break and after school, paying them for giving up their vacation time.

Respect their time devoted to being the best teacher possible.

Parents ask yourself, if it is worth your time and energy to have your child our of school two hours every week, which equals about 70 to 80 hours a year?

Could this time be more effectively used by your child in the classroom those “teacher training” days rather than running around, often unsupervised?

Regardless of what excuses are used for the necessity of “teacher training” days, teachers have done it successfully in the past. If this does not answer the question, ask yourself this: “Why is the United States rated in the 43 percent of quality education in the world?”

Somehow we are failing our students and all I can think to say is, “Shame on each and everyone of us.”

Judy Stedman Porterville