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LETTER

The Main Purpose of School Systems

The education writings of almost every reporter and columnist, and even the recent speeches of President Clinton have chronicled the failure of public school systems to graduate students prepared for college or for life as an adult. Many influences are cited for the criticism and most are applicable to all public schools. However, the results of testing public educated students reflect that public school educators have simply forgotten the main purpose of school systems.

At one time a high school diploma was extremely valuable in seeking jobs or for acceptance by a college. Most graduates could read and understand what they read; could write legibly and logically - others could read and understand their writing, could solve mathematical problems easily while understanding all the concepts involved in the solution, and were quite aware of the world around them in a historical and scientific sense. They were fully prepared for adulthood - its responsibilities, accountabilities, and careers, and for further education in college, technical school, or apprenticeships in the various manual arts.

Nowadays, most studies reflect that having a high school diploma no longer means having those abilities. Extensive remedial education is required by a third or more of all graduates before matriculation into a university degree course. And jobs previously held by high school graduates are now going to college graduates as it takes a college diploma to make up for education not received in high school. Simply stated, high schools. Simply stated, high schools, Hicksville High among them, graduate "functional illiterates" - those who can't read, write, and do simple math computations. What is the difference between then and now?

The most important functions of high school teachers pertaining to students are to challenge brains - honing them to function and operate at the highest capacity possible, to expand horizons with no limits on possibility; to nurture God-given reasoning, judgmental, and thinking ability; to assure deliberate and systematic searches for facts pertaining to an issue; to assure conclusions pertaining to an issue involving careful consideration of the facts; assure understanding of the interaction between math, science, history and humanities in life's mechanisms, relationships and occurrences. If teachers succeed, students will graduate prepared for life's challenges. This was generally the way high schools operated "then."

If Hicksville High School teachers were successful, failure rates on Regent's tests would be much less and the number of graduates with the prestigious Regent's degree would be much higher. The board of education (with an educator as president of the board) did nothing of substance to change the status quo when the terrible Regent's test results were published for 1994, 1995, and 1996. It did, however, knock off five minutes of instruction in each daily class in the 1997/98 school year so as to have a "ninth" period for more clown, joke, and basket-weaving courses such as "Film Appreciation," "Stagecraft and Management," "Polar Bear," and "Voices from the Inner City" courses which do nothing for the mind but do add to the list of trash courses appreciated by teachers. The board also stated the time was needed for "teacher training" which by itself proves inept teaching was a major cause of failures in the first place.

But to reduce valuable core education to provide more time for "junk" courses is reprehensible. Students will now be more at risk of failing Regent's tests! The "bleeding" will not be stopped! That is the way Hicksville High School operates "now" - teachers, administrators, and board trustees have forgotten the purpose of a school system.

Frank H. Willard