Don't blame teachers, school administration
I am disappointed that so many people place the blame for student failure on the school administration and the teachers.
I went to a parochial grade school, a public high school, a public college and a public medical school. My postgraduate education was in public and military settings. I never met a teacher who did not know more than I did on the specific subject being taught. I never met a teacher who was not vitally interested in teaching me. “Times change but people don’t.”
“No Child Left Behind” is not realistic. Some children are more intelligent than others. Some children are more motivated. Some parents are more motivated in encouraging their children to excel. If a student has not qualified to advance to the next grade, he should repeat his studies so that he will not fail the grade. As one teacher told me, “Some children should be left behind.”
The recent academic results in the students transferred from Harding High School to New Haven High School would be expected. You did not change the motivation of the students or the parents or the innate ability of the students. It is the responsibility of the student to attain whatever grades he or she can. To blame the administration and the teachers takes away the responsibility from where it should be. This lame excuse is a disservice to the students and an unfair criticism to the administration and the teachers. One must try harder to attain whatever goals one can and not blame others for disappointments.
J.E. Arata, MD
Hope never dies
How fancy are our homes? When someone somewhere who breathes like us, whose blood is as red as ours is struggling to survive, we brag about our fancy homes. We seem to have forgotten refugees around the world who are struggling to provide a piece of bread for their families.
We get irritated if we don’t have the latest cellphones, TV games, if our homes don’t have GPS-programmed windows and so on. Shouldn’t we be thankful for what we have?
Have we stopped to think how refugees feel? Refugees feel their wounds are deep, they feel the roads are so steep.
Let’s help UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) continue to provide food and clean water to refugees around the world. Make donations to UNHCR. Together we can make a difference.
Yahya Salah Moburuk
Fighting mental illness
Fort Wayne has a very active chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
Mental illness includes depression, manic depression and schizophrenia, which affects moods and thought processes. When a person has both highs and lows, it is called bipolar.
NARSAD (National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) artworks include art by people with mental illnesses. It’s lovely stationery, and all proceeds go to the county in which they are sold (see the cards at One World in North Manchester).
Jane Harshbarger
North Manchester
