Mr. Grant”s suggestions (Record-Bee, Dec. 3/Dec. 6) need serious consideration. His first observation that the various school districts should be consolidated has been done before.
In 1960, the State urged union school districts to merge into unified districts. Those superintendents, Boards, and staff that would be dismissed howled that the American tradition demanded local control, ignoring the fact that the world was becoming global even in those days. The State responded by offering cash incentives for those districts that unified. The offer was too good to resist and almost all of California”s districts unified, which ultimately saved the State money. This process needs to be continued.
Regarding Mr. Grant”s suggestion about ability groupings. “Homogenous grouping” as it is called also needs to be reinstituted. Conant suggested ability groupings in the mid 60s, and his suggestion was implemented. Over time, however, parents whose children weren”t in the fastest groups complained that their children were being stigmatized.
Teachers who were forced to teach the lowest groups of unmotivated, below average achievers found the experience mind-numbing (although they couched their objections in different terms for obvious reasons). Homogenous groups were jettisoned, except in high school where college prep students naturally group themselves.
The main problem with homogenous groups was that the lower groups were not given a different curriculum, i.e., preparation for vocational careers, but watered down liberal arts. If students can”t read Call of the Wild as London wrote it, we will dumb down the language, which, of course, was no longer the book London wrote. The point is, the group should never have been reading London in the first place. They should have been reading something practical! It was a pleasure to read Mr. Grant”s forward-looking educational ideas.
Charles Moton
Lucerne
