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http://www.ci.manteca.ca.us/survey
POSTED March 21, 2010 1:56 a.m.
Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
Any many of you know teachers throughout the state of California received “pink slips” on or after March 15. The school boards are required to send these out to notify the teachers that they might be laid off from work. Thousands went out in our great state. The boards want to increase classes from the current 20 students per teacher to larger size. The lower grades will be affected the most as kindergarten, first and second grades. This is going to create a situation where real teaching and children’s ability to learn will be greatly inhibited.
The teacher will have the choice of teaching the good students who study at home, get help from their parents, went to pre-school so have that built in advantage, speak English, are well behaved, and able to work on their own verses a child who doesn’t have those benefits. If you increase the class sizes, the slower students will be left behind and the reason is due to sheer numbers.
I went to a Catholic grade school and there were 40 students in my classroom so my first opinion was its no big deal to have more kids in the classroom. That is until I volunteered. The nuns had the authority to run the class. The classroom was quite and everyone learned. We respected the nuns. There was seldom a discipline problem. The nuns were in control. If the parents did not like it, they could send their kids to public school. There was order.
That is not the case in today’s schools. The teachers are limited in what they can do and how much control they have in the classroom. Parents can override teachers’ suggestions, even to the point of passing a student to a higher grade level when the child isn’t doing his current grade level work. The teacher’s hands are tied.
I currently help out/volunteer two afternoons in my daughter’s class. She is the teacher. Her hands are tied. She can only do so much as far as discipline is concerned. There is no way a teacher can have 30 kids in their classroom and have the kids really learn. The ability to learn is proportional to the class size and the ability to control the class. If you increase class size, learning will suffer. My daughter currently tutors several students after school on her own time without pay. She should not have to do this. She is attempting to bring them up to grade level. If parents had done a better job of preparing their kids for school, her job would be easier. In many cases where both parents have to work to provide for their families, it’s hard for them to provide the extra help needed. If our state representatives increase class size, they are destroying any chance for our kids to learn and become educated.
