Dear Editor,
In response to teacher Valerie Hunt, I am pleased that she is
proud of her best day in her teaching career. Her deflecting the
blame that a large number of her students are language learners is
typical, it seems, of some Gilroy High School teachers.
Dear Editor,
In response to teacher Valerie Hunt, I am pleased that she is proud of her best day in her teaching career. Her deflecting the blame that a large number of her students are language learners is typical, it seems, of some Gilroy High School teachers.
The education establishment can blame themselves for embracing whole language rather than phonics as well as bilingual education during the left-wing takeover of public schools. Both of these experiments have failed and will continue for years to have a residual effect. Thankfully, whole language has given way to more traditional language arts curriculum. Also heartening to people with “attitudes like mine” is seeing the move away from bilingual education.
Many of our forefathers came to America from other lands and other languages. We didn’t look to the government to cater to our language or our culture. We were proud to be Italian but we wanted now to be Americans. That meant total English immersion and absolutely no bilingual classes. My mother’s family of 11 and my father’s 10 all learned English quickly and all were successful. I believe that by having “English learner” classes, you actually retard the student’s progress in learning English.
Ms. Hunt’s Golden Quill letter only focuses on a certain segment, however I stand firm that it is wrong to hand out caps and gowns no matter how “stunned” a student looks when they fail. It is a tragedy that they have, but perhaps Ms. Hunt should accept some of the responsibility for her and her fellow teachers’ personal failures.
Mark Zappa, Gilroy
