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Show that only the "winner" wins and everyone else is a loser, but by eliminating the competitive com-petitive philosophy, all that has been done is make life easier for the teacher at the expense of educating the child. Allowing a child to progress pro-gress at his own speed is the most asinine philosophy anyone any-one ever dreamed. It sounds fine when it is expounded that now a child who is exceptionally excep-tionally bright can progress by leaps and bounds and yet again, does not create any undue pressure on the child in the same class who isn't quite as exceptional because both children can progress within their own limits of ability. The fallacy is who decides where the limit is for each child. Now the teacher is also a judge. The teacher's responsibility is made even lighter because any progress or lack of progress pro-gress can 1 passed off as "progressing at his level of capability". No encourage- N ment is necessary, no extra effort is required by the teacher to ascertain whether the child is really only capable cap-able of that particular progress pro-gress or merely not properly prop-erly motivated and, therefore, there-fore, lazy. What is a child's limits? What is anyone's limits? I don't think there is anyone in the world that can answer that question, but in the present educational system, sys-tem, a child is taught "his limits" and is taught to work (Continued on Page 8) Dear Red, This is my first time in corresponding to you, and I apologize for not expressing my appreciation of the coverage cov-erage you give to Milford and Beaver County sooner. The paper, more often than not, is very interesting and filled with items that we "displaced" residents can stay abreast of the area by reading. Sometimes, however, the paper gets a little lacking in reading material. This, by no means, is any reflection on you. I think you've done an outstanding job with the paper and I've read your pleas for more help in covering cov-ering the activities of the county. This brings us to the reason for my letter. Enclosed is a letter I wrote concerning my views on the current situation regarding the California education system. sys-tem. It may be a bit lengthy for printing in your paper, but it is a subject that concerns con-cerns me very much. I am sadly sending my son to Milford for the remaining remain-ing school year (sad about being separated from, not for sending him out there to school), and would like to convey my feelings to the townspeople so that no misconceptions mis-conceptions occur on the reasons he's in Milford and the rest of his family is still in California. I hope, also, that if you print the letter, the people of Beaver County might appreciate ap-preciate the school system out there a little more and will make sure that what happened here will never gain a foothold back home. Thanks for your consideration. consid-eration. Denny Belliston 221 Decker Place San Ramon, Calif. The Honorable Edmund G. Brown, Jr. Governor of California Sacramento, California The Honorable Wilson C. Riles Superintendent of Schools Sacramento, California Gentlemen: Too often, when faced with problems from the "system", "sys-tem", most people take one of the following two actions: they give up and get out or they quietly conform. I'm one of those people and have chosen the first alternative. alter-native. I am not, however, going to give up without at least voicing my feelings. The great state of Cali fornia and its wonderful education ed-ucation philosophy and system sys-tem has now forced me to; first, be separated from my son for the next six months; second, to begin searching for a new home even though I like my home very much and enjoy the community where I live. I have tried for two years to understand what the education edu-cation system is trying to accomplish. From this experience, ex-perience, I have reached the following conclusions: 1. Classroom walls are too confining and restrict the "free spirit" of the child. 1. Competition between peers creates too much pressure pres-sure and produces unhealthy traumas. 3. Each child should be satisfied to work within his own limits. 4. Standard achievement goals should not be set for groups because each child is a separate individual and should have a separate goal. On the surface, those conclusions con-clusions don't seem all that bad. Like most philosophies, however, the actual implementation imple-mentation and operation creates cre-ates many problems, which in turn, causes many mutations muta-tions until finally the whole philosophy has completely backfired. We then operate only for the operation's sake rather than the ultimate goal originally intended. When you pull down classroom class-room walls before the child learns that there are confinements con-finements and restrictions in their world, you imply to the child that there are none; that he can satisfy his wants without regard to the consequences conse-quences he may cause others by infringing on their rights. Even if you have especially mature students who have learned to respect the rights of others, in an open atmosphere atmos-phere of a "no walled" school the noise level from surrounding classes is so disruptive that I'm sure the student excells in spite of, rather than because of the system. I would like someone to explain why competition is so wrong. This philosophy of basing a child's progress only against himself is an outrage, at best. It is not competition that causes the traumas. If anything has caused problems, it has been the educators' lack of proper instruction on how to handle competition. There should be nothing wrong with peer groups competing with each other. I agree it is terribly wrong if a child is taught receive. Competition on the personal level must be nonexistent. non-existent. We warn you that while the problem in the schools may be more advanced in California, Cali-fornia, it does exist in Utah and most other states. Therefore, it is impossible impos-sible to run, or move away from it. We must get involved involv-ed in local issues! Vote in every election! Attend public pub-lic meetings and hearings and not be afraid to speak out! And above all, we must be prepared to stand and fight to preserve this country on its 200th birthday, still the greatest monument to mankind man-kind ever built. Let those who want socialismcommunism and the bureaucratic way of life do the moving. "Red" DEAR EDITOR: ! (Continued from Page 2) within those limits from the ! time he is 6 years old till he is pushed out the doors. There apparently is no standard 4th or 5th or 6th grade achievement level in the educational system. Each child is an Individual and has his own standard. The teacher teach-er must identify those standards stand-ards for each child and monitor mon-itor each child against each of the standards. Since this is logistically impossible, parent participation is encouraged en-couraged so now we have parents in the classroom "helping" the children with their progress. If the child has particular difficulty, he can go to the teacher who in most cases "solves" the problem by explaining to the child that he obviously didn't comprehend his past work so he should go back 3 or 4 lessons and work back up again. I want my child to learn that there are restrictions in the world. I want him to learn that he will have to work and pla y within confined con-fined areas; that other people peo-ple have rights of privacy which will create boundaries he should respect. I want my child to learn that competition is good and necessary. I want him to learn how to compete; to "play" by the rules fairly and honestly, but to "play" to win. I want him to learn how to win and how to appreciate ap-preciate the successful conclusion con-clusion of his sacrifices. I want him to learn howto lose and how to gain the knowledge know-ledge from that loss which will help him with future endeavors. en-deavors. I want him, most, to learn that through true and fair competition with honest effort and attitude, others may do better than he will do, but because of his efforts, he will also have done better than if he had not tried at all. I never want my child satisfied sat-isfied with his present level of progress. I want him to learn that anything he does should be given his best effort ef-fort and that next time he should try even harder. I want him to learn to appreciate appre-ciate his accomplishments, but never be satisfied with his efforts. I want him to be proud of himself and be able to look in a mirror and honestly hon-estly say, "I tried my best". I am sadly sending my son to another school out of state while I search for an environment envi-ronment which encourages a child to try his best rather than judging that the current effort is his best. Iam sorry for the children who will grow up under this system convinced they are at their true level of potential and satisfied with what that level brings them. I am sorry for those children who know they can do better but would rather rath-er not, that the system allows al-lows to slide through until the child finds, too late, that it was important to learn to read and write and add and subtract. I am sorry for the parents who accept this situation - -I can't. Dennis R. Belliston EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks, we hope that those who read your letter will guard with their life the freedoms and qualities you have stressed. We firmly believe that the trend toward a bureaucratic society, indicated by the state AOG's (FCAG) and eight federal regional governments gov-ernments is th e beginning of socialismcommunism. In order to accomplish their purpose, our youth must be indoctrinated to accept ac-cept any station in life they |