New York state sets the standards for what should be taught and how it should be
taught. It defines the tests for evaluating the achieving of its goals. It
provides guidance in the ever-changing teaching support through texts, changing
methods of teaching and technology. The state process is flawed at every
endeavor on its part. By the state setting evaluation standards for principals
and teachers, it has detracted attention from its
own massive failures.
Teachers cannot develop
the professional experience in an environment that rapidly changes and obsoletes
itself every few years. Students are shortchanged by a system that forces them
to use calculators one year and then the next year bans them, and then a few
years later forces them to buy a more expensive calculator.
I have worked
with hundreds of children from grades one through 12. I am appalled at their
lack of competence and understanding of basic and advanced math. I have
illustrated to parents the flaws in the techniques used to teach their children
and how their ability to help their children has been marginalized. I have even
gone to Albany and witnessed the incompetence of those who are responsible
for our children’s education.
Irvin M. Miller
LaGrange