A Valuable Vision for Public Schools

Zowie & huzzah! for Mary Laine Yarber’s May 6 “vision” column.

All possible non-monetary cost changes that can be made to benefit kids, even in this no-cash economy, must be implemented right now.

The interdisciplinary courses you mention are beginning, as part of the school-based management plans teachers asked for in the painful 1989 strike, to be implemented, though much too slowly. The middle-school concept is being given serious study by teachers and is the topic of an annual convention for California teachers involved in this planning.

Team-teaching, mini-schools, cluster groups within the total student body, were all concepts of improved educational techniques dearly fought for by teachers in that old contract--and have not been as fully implemented as teachers hoped. Money is of course a factor, but so are bureaucracy and inertia.

Teachers, who are taxpayers as well as public employees, know there is no extra money. But they also know they have skills which could flower creatively if morale and support improved.

Let’s let them teach, that’s what they do best.

California used to have a vision of public education second to none. Let’s remember how valuable that was for each segment of our community.

MARTY RAUCH

Los Angeles