Earthtalk

That  three-quarters of community college graduates cannot adequately  understand newspaper editorials or calculate the cost of food items per ounce (Front Page, Sept. 2) are sad and disturbing testaments to the state of  education in our primary and secondary schools.  Community colleges are not entirely at fault since they are merely dealing  with the damage they inherit.   Over the past several decades, poorly-trained students have become poorly-trained and poorly-paid teachers perpetuating a system that has corroded its core mission of education and replaced it with a resume-building machine based largely on extra-curricular activities.   This misguided approach at college preparation evolved in response to parental desires to enhance their children’s resumes and to colleges’ increased dependence on non-academic parameters in evaluating applicants.

    First and foremost we must  make teaching a profession that  once again appeals to the brightest and best of our  college-bound students.   Besides a massive culture-wide attitude adjustment, this will take substantial salary increases to draw top students.  It would likely take a decade at least before these new entries could advance to more powerful positions where they could make the structural changes required to once-again teach our children how to read, write, do math, and think analytically. 

Unpublished letter to NY Times