According to Sue Chisam (“Let Your Voices Be Heard” Feb. 9 Record-Bee) (Feb. 14 ObserverAmerican) KUSD Superintendant Dr. Nan may fire Oak Hill principal Mrs. Friedrich. Ms. Chisam wants you to help save the principal”s job. Her cry for help is touching but misguided. She”d do better to cry for the kids who attend Oak Hill Middle School. Their test scores are bottom of the barrel low.
Superintendant Nan is right to be alarmed at the Oak Hill fiasco. She should fire somebody. The entire school board and the superintendant himself must share the blame. Unfortunately, teachers like Sue want to preserve the status quo. Nobody will say it but they”re all participating in the nastiest kind of child abuse.
Sue would do better to let people know about KUSD”s real problems. Kids are getting everything they want but discipline. Some don”t bring homework to class. Others don”t raise their hands when they want to say something. Classrooms don”t get quiet when the bell rings. Instead of preparing kids for college, KUSD is turning out far too many career criminals for the state prison system.
The blind are leading the blind at KUSD. Board membershave listened too long to the jabber-wocky of Darwinian psychologists. They don”t spank unruly kids. Foolishly they “reason” with them. When that doesn”t work, they suspend them and eventually expel. Like ham-fisted cowboys who shoot themselves in the foot, KUSD leaders punish kids by preventing them from learning. Some punishment! Wiser men follow traditional advice. “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.” Suspensions and expulsions are cruel ways to treat children who desperately need learning.
Darrell Watkins
Kelseyville
