I always find it interesting that those who have never been an educator, but have gone through schooling K-12, can be such experts on teaching and learning (“School money should be spent more wisely,” Oct. 3).

It’s like saying that since I have often been a passenger in a bus, therefore I can then tell the driver what needs to be changed in his profession.

New voices on how to improve education can be helpful, but the basic facts should be accurate in order to make the discussion valid. The editorial stated the usual information, such as “while our kids do well on national standardized tests, they do not “

Stop. Why the dismissal of “do well”? Where is the recognition that, in fact, our students do very well nationally, even though we are confronted with many challenges that could easily defeat well-intentioned but discouraged professionals?

Let’s take for instance, the low ratio of students to teacher in the classroom, the often quoted average of 11 to 1. This ratio is a direct reflection of the learning needs of our students, and the educational communities response to them. Living in a low-income state, many of our students are arriving with health, hunger, and literacy deficiencies. To deal these needs, we have various professionals who attend these students, including nurses, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and in special education there are coordinators, teachers, educational technicians, social workers, psychologists and other specialists.

These specialists are all averaged into the mix to create the phantom ratio of 11 students to one teacher. In reality, we are experiencing higher numbers than usual, and the goal of limiting class size to 20 students is rapidly giving way to 24 or 26 students to each teacher.

As one sees a more realistic view of what is actually happening in Maine schools and classrooms, it becomes clearer that, contrary to the opinions of those who view but don’t do, it is truly a wonder, and a joy, to actually realize how successful our educational professionals have been.

 

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