Jared Gets Published

In the newspaper, anyway . . . .

"The Morning Sentinel," our Maine newspaper, is overtly anti-Winslow High School, and I believe guilty of muckraking and sensationalism. They reported inaccurately on the alleged "strip search" that "occurred" at my school, and they have published just about every chintzy letter to the editor from a myriad of anti-Terry Atwood people out to seek their vendetta against him.

A few weeks ago, on October 24th to be exact, they published a story about some "research" done by the University of Southern Maine, asserting that the Maine Laptop Initiative was to credit for the increase in Maine students' writing scores on standardized tests. You can google the news story if you want--I wont bore you with details. Anyway, this upset me a great deal; lately, it seems as if teachers have been nothing but lambasted for everything that goes wrong in education. I wrote a letter to the editor explaining my frustration, and, although 3 weeks or so later, it was published. You can go to http://www.onlinesentinel.com/ and click on "opinion" and scroll down to see my letter. OR . . .you can just read below.

************************************

This letter is written in response to the Oct. 24 article "Laptops aid pupils' writing." The article forwards the idea that giving a laptop to every middle school student is leading to better writing scores on "standardized tests." As an educator, I find this article both upsetting and disrespectful to my profession.

Technology -- of any type -- is merely a tool; it is not the "be all end all" of anything and it certainly shouldn't be praised for supposedly raising writing scores. How about crediting the teachers who work incessantly "in the trenches," so to speak, as the reason for the increase in writing scores?

In the media, it seems status quo to blame the teachers for when things go wrong and scores are low. Finally, there is good news and the laud goes to an $1,100 computer (which, by the way, high school students don't have -- and let's not forget it's the high school juniors who take these ridiculous state-standardized writing tests in the form of the SAT).

Crediting a laptop for producing better writers is just silly. Simply running spell check does not a better writer make, and the "grammatical suggestions" a computer gives often befuddle the modern conventions of English. There simply is just no substitute for having a teacher's professional expertise (human expertise) when instructing students, of all grade levels, how to write well. My colleagues and I work tirelessly to produce better writers, and I think it's time we are recognized.

Jared Goldsmith M.Ed.
Teacher of English
Winslow High School