Letter: Schools should stick to the education basics

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2002 | 9:04 a.m.

Those whining about the need for additional monies for education should take a closer look at how the current resources are being spent.

I was raised in the Kansas City, Mo., school system during the Second World War. During that period we completed our elementary education with a strong foundation in reading, writing and arithmetic.

High school provided further strength in the three R's along with specialized electives in areas of music, art, athletics, shop and history. During this period the schools did not have numerous counselors to hold a student's hand when he couldn't deal with life in general or exotic courses that had little relationship to reality or the needs to survive in either college or the working world.

My observation is that parents today expect the schools to perform all the parental duties so that the parents can maintain multiple jobs in keeping with the have-it-all-now mentality.

If the schools would return counselor duties back to the parents and require all students to speak the national language in school, I suspect the budget needs that are currently available would be adequate. It is not how much money can you get from the system, but rather how that money is allocated.

Businessmen should run the school system, not educators who are in a dream world. At least if the schools would return to the basics, we would not have too many illiterates graduating.

RICHARD L. MASTERS