DEAR EDITOR:
Another mystifying opinion piece once again brings me to
write.
Cynthia Walker has concluded that I do not like to be criticized
by anyone. I invite criticism. No one improves without
criticism.
DEAR EDITOR:
Another mystifying opinion piece once again brings me to write.
Cynthia Walker has concluded that I do not like to be criticized by anyone. I invite criticism. No one improves without criticism. What I object to are those who criticize with a chainsaw when a scalpel is needed. Throwing broad generalities around as in Doug Meier’s “pap” and “pabulum” does far more harm than good. Such methods ridicule education and educators.
I also object to those who throw data around indiscriminately. The proper use of data is numbers in context. Dispatch reporter Lori Stuenkel’s, “Does higher attendance mean higher scores?” story published April 24 was a great effort to head in the right direction with data. Most people quote standardized test scores out of context or without other significant data. Ms. Walker once again tosses numbers around leaving out important facts. Doing so serves a political agenda, not educational improvement.
In short, when you criticize me do so specifically and fairly – is that too much to ask?
Contrary to what Ms. Walker would have readers believe, I did not say, “If you don’t like what we are doing, then teach.” Ms. Walker had the audacity to use quotation marks as if those were my exact words. . For the benefit of Ms. Walker, I will translate. I wrote, “Don’t tell me how, show me how.” This is intended for all self-anointed, self-appointed, educational experts who not only say that there is a problem but then purport to know exactly how to fix the problem. My challenge to teach is to those individuals who think that they know education better than professional educators do.
Ms. Walker includes herself among the self-anointed. Recently she suggested that the Saxon series of textbooks would be better than the math texts used at GHS. The next week, Ms. Walker says that she is “not qualified” to teach. If Ms. Walker is not qualified to teach, then what makes Ms. Walker qualified to determine that Saxon would be a better text?
I have a degree in secondary mathematics education. I have taught out of the Saxon series. The Saxon series would be a disaster at GHS. As a professional who had a hand in the selection of the textbooks currently in use, Ms. Walker’s presumption that she knows more about mathematics textbook selection for my students than I do is offensive.
Ms. Walker claims that an opinion piece which she ends by telling teachers that she knows more about textbook selection than mathematics educators do is somehow ‘conciliatory.” What definition of conciliatory does that fall under? Offering to feed your child to piranha rather than have your child attend public schools is also very conciliatory.
The undeniable fact is that GUSD has problems. Everyone is needed to help fix those problems. The key is for everyone to recognize the limits of their knowledge and abilities to prevent exacerbating those problems. Ms. Walker is exacerbating the problems.
Wayne A. Scott, GHS Mathematics Teacher
Submitted Saturday, May 8 to
ed****@ga****.com
