Look to the past for school solutions

Re: Education. The information widely available should be disturbing to all. To slip from first to 31st in three decades is a travesty. In academia or not, it would appear abundantly clear what did work for many a prior decade. No need to re-invent the wheel. A return by students to respect for teachers and schools as an institution would go a very long way. A tremendous responsibility rests on the shoulders of students’ parents. Children from a very early age when entering the educational system should be taught that the school and all that work there are to be obeyed and respected. Decorum and behavior a rule.

Teachers should not be distracted from teaching, stealing valuable time, in order to ask students to “turn off your cell phone,” “put down that gun,” etc.

Every reproach by a teacher or administrator towards a student for an unruly behavior, or a violation of school policy should be sustained by the parent, not challenged.

An advocate recently appearing on a network show was espousing that a half hour later start to schools in California was the remedy to most if not all that ails the school system. I do not know what is more preposterous, her suggestion, or the fact that the network put it out for viewers to consider. Just turn back the clock, the answers are in the not so distant past.

MICHAEL GENZALE, BOYNTON BEACH