Dear Editor:
After reading Cynthia Walker’s July 9 column, I have created new
opinions and have found sufficient evidence to make my other
opinions more concrete.
Dear Editor:
After reading Cynthia Walker’s July 9 column, I have created new opinions and have found sufficient evidence to make my other opinions more concrete.
Some of my previous opinions were that you used statistics irresponsibly and that you tried to infer through your columns that Mr. Scott is a bad teacher.
You are correct, though, you have not once said “Mr. Scott is a bad teacher.” But, you don’t necessarily need to say something to infer it. If you did not think he was a bad teacher, then I question what your motives are for continually questioning his methods and classroom content.
I formed my conclusion using quotes like this found in your May 21 column. “Perhaps Mr. Scott’s attitude explains why only 17 percent of his AP students passed their exam.” After reading that, I would think you are inferring he’s a bad teacher.
Also, this quote makes me think the same thing: “That obstacle is Mr. Wayne Scott, GHS math teacher.”
So you’re saying that you think he’s not a bad teacher, but that he is an “obstacle”? I’ll perhaps waste my time thinking about that another time … most people would come to the same conclusion that I have.
There is another thing you are correct about. You can compare me, a 17-year-old white male living in a middle class suburb to that of a 15-year-old student in a state project housing complex in New York.
You can make that comparison, but definitely not responsibly. I’ve already debunked that argument, as has Mr. Scott.
You have told me that you’ve taken “calculus-based advanced” statistics. You also tell me that I have completed “algebra-based elementary statistics.”
Then I would think, that since I am of lesser education, and obviously can’t stand up to your overwhelming knowledge, then it should be all that more embarrassing that I point out the misuse of your statistics, which is in fact correct. I find that since you are more highly educated than I am currently, something which you flaunt about in your column, you should be thoroughly embarrassed.
Education is not a weapon Ms. Walker, it is a tool and an accomplishment.
But I would like to take the time to visit your May 21 article once more. In your July 9 article you wrote “But Michael Haney, senior at Gilroy High, in his letter of May 20, says: ‘Anyone who says that Mr. Scott is not a good math teacher is incompetent and irresponsible in their assertions … To say that he is responsible for the ‘passing’ rate on the AP test is irresponsible to the utmost degree.’ These are odd charges to fling out, as no one ever said any such things.”
Well, you did in fact say such things. You said in your May 21 column “Perhaps Mr. Scott’s attitude explains why only 17 percent of his AP students passed their exam.” Odd charges indeed …
And please don’t patronize me by calling me “kiddo.”
Michael Haney, graduate of GHS, former student of Wayne Scott
Submitted Tuesday, July 20 to ed****@************ch.com
