Where I Stand: Report slaps legislative micromanaging the classroom

Monday, Feb. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

BACK OFF! Give us room to teach! are the messages educators are giving legislators. The 1995 Legislature wanted the input from state parents, teachers, administrators and school board members, and they got it in a report last month.

Some of the legislators didn't like what they heard, but they got a long, overdue education from the people responsible for teaching our children. Reviewing the brief report to the Legislative Counsel Bureau gives us a clear view of why the educators asked that "a moratorium be put in place so that no more specific courses are mandated via legislative action."

Let's take a look at some of the legislated courses other than reading, writing and mathematics. There's prevention of suicide, AIDS and sex education, patriotic exercises, instruction about violent crimes, child abuse, American free enterprise, sign language, environmental education, outdoor education, driver education, American Indians and technology.

These legislated courses aren't mere suggestions, nor are they not structured by the legislators. For example:

* Course of study: Technology

1. The state board shall, by regulation, establish a course of study in technology.

2. The course of study may:

(a) Include such subjects as the latest technological advances in the areas of:

(1) Agriculture;

(2) Medicine;

(3) Processing and preserving food;

(4) Processing information;

(5) Photography;

(6) Graphic and electronic communications;

(7) Construction;

(8) Energy; and

(9) Manufacturing and transportation; and

(b) Provide pupils with the opportunity to design, develop, maintain and operate technological systems in these areas.

3. The instruction required by this section must be made available to each pupil before his completion of the eighth grade. The board of trustees of a school district may direct that the course of study be given over a 3-year period during the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

4. The board of trustees in each school district shall incorporate into the curriculum the course of study within the limits of money made available to the district by the Legislature for that purpose.

There are fewer instructions for sign language, but the law definitely states that it can be used to fulfill a foreign language requirement.

I taught a semester of economics and a semester of U.S. government to high school seniors for several years. Somehow or another, following a fellowship on economics from General Electric Corp. at Claremont Graduate School, I was able to teach the subject without help from the Nevada Legislature.

About 16 years ago during the height of the Cold War, some Nevada legislators were crying "The communists are coming, the communists are coming" and passed the following law:

* Instruction in economics of American system of free enterprise.

1. The economics of the American system of free enterprise must be taught in all of the public high schools in this state.

2. The lessons must:

(a) Emphasize the benefits of free enterprise as compared to other economic systems;

(b) Teach the principles of the profit motive and competition and the way in which investments generate progress and growth in the economy;

(d) Provide instruction in personal finance, including the services available from financial institutions and the methods of obtaining and using those services.

3. Administrators and teachers who are charged with providing the instruction required by this section may communicate with persons in the community who are engaged in business, and with labor organizations, chambers of commerce and other service organizations to obtain speakers and other assistance in carrying out the requirements of this section.

4. The superintendent of each school district in this state shall determine the manner in which the instruction required by this section will be provided in the high schools of his school district.

Gosh, I don't know how qualified teachers have been able to get along without these important laws being passed. Probably, at the lower grades, they could have spent more time on basic education needs and less time trying to please legislative demands.

Nevada educators are now telling the legislators that enough is enough. Sen. Joe Neal, D-Las Vegas, told our reporter Cy Ryan that he read the report as telling the legislators to "butt out." I can just hear that deep chuckle coming from Joe's belly as he agrees with the message.