DEAR EDITOR:
I want to thank the Alliance for Academic Excellence for its
efforts this year for the students of Gilroy High School.
DEAR EDITOR:
I want to thank the Alliance for Academic Excellence for its efforts this year for the students of Gilroy High School. You have helped improve instruction for better students and for all students in English classes. In my 43-year teaching career I don’t remember any other group that worked as long, as effectively, and as hard to improve the curriculum as you have. Thank you.
I hope you continue your work next year. If you do, you will of course want to follow up on the implementation of the improved English curriculum. If you would like to help GHS in another way I would like you to consider tackling two related problems that I was a complete failure at solving in my entire career as a teacher and more specifically as a math teacher. I was a complete failure at getting non-parenting parents to parent in regard to schoolwork and I was a complete failure at getting non-studying students to study on their own, away from school. I have no idea how you might attack these problems since everything I tried failed.
If you were to tackle these problems you might first want to check out the following guesstimates of mine: Less than 10 percent of GHS students spend enough time studying to master their subjects. On a given school night less than 25 percent do any studying at all. During a given school week less than 50 percent do any studying at all. During a semester at least 10 percent will not have studied at all.
Math is a real problem at GHS as is shown by the state test scores. If even half of the math students were to study one hour per day, the results would be outstanding. If most of the math students were to study one hour per day, the state test scores would be so high compared to the previous year that the state department of education would check their test-grading machines for malfunction and suspect cheating.
The math study materials do not appear to me to be a cause of the low math achievement level at GHS. GHS math students are disadvantaged by not having daily math; but the Algebra I text, which I am most familiar with, is excellent. If a student were to study and master that text he would know a great deal of math and more math than the majority of GHS students graduating this week.
Please continue your good work for the students in GHS English classes and consider how you might help the math students by getting them to study. Thank you.
David Fenley Clark, Gilroy
Submitted Thursday, June 10
