SOUNDING OFF:TeWinkle is hurting its students’ futures

Every day there are articles in your paper about our failing schools. Finally, Steve Smith has attempted to get to the heart of the problem at one of the worst schools in the district, TeWinkle Middle School (“Board ignores schools’ failings,” Feb. 10).

As in Steve Smith’s case, we also sent our child to TeWinkle for one year with the good intention of supporting our local schools as much as possible. Our kids attended California Elementary School, which is right next door, and that was a great experience for all. When it came time to move on to middle school, we were all for attending our local school, TeWinkle.

While there is much talk about the underachieving kids at this school, you don’t hear any discussion regarding the overachievers. It is the smart kids at Tewinkle who are suffering much more than the problem kids. As Steve Smith pointed out, he removed his kids because he “could not stand the pain of their education there.” This was worded perfectly. It describes our experience as well.

The main problem there is the lack of discipline. This issue prevents the teachers from simply teaching to their full abilities. They are spending a good portion of their time dealing with problem kids. This occurs even in the advanced-level classes. The classrooms are chaotic, and the teachers’ hands are tied as far as disciplinary actions go. The year my son attended, the teachers were not allowed to send kids away from the class if they were disruptive. The teachers were forced to keep problem students in the classrooms where they were allowed to basically run amok and disrupt the learning process.

While my son was able to keep a 4.0 grade-point average, we are finding out that the sixth-grade education he received at Tewinkle was extremely deficient. He is attending a good middle school in another school district, and he has spent the first semester trying to catch up to the other students. He was in all the advanced classes at TeWinkle, but he was still behind when compared with students at better schools in the area.

Parents with kids in TeWinkle, beware — if your child is doing well and you think he’s prepared to move on to high school or a better school, you might have a very unpleasant surprise. Your child might end up behind kids in other schools, especially in math. This is the reality we are experiencing. This is a real problem!

After fifth-grade graduation, parents of smart children find themselves scrambling to find a good school other than TeWinkle. This is not right. Tewinkle is two blocks away, and we can’t send our kids there. We want our children to have a chance to get into good universities, and TeWinkle stands as an obstacle to this objective.

The school board should address this issue as well as the No Child Left Behind issue. TeWinkle is failing in more ways than one, and the district needs to wake up and realize this.

lives in Costa Mesa.