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To the editor:
Despite the statement to the contrary in your editorial of August 18 concerning the “miserable smorgasbord” of electives in our local high school, I do know exactly which courses are required and which are electives. Moreover, I know from personal experience in every classroom what is taught in those courses and what is not taught. Do you?
I have complained for four years on and off the school board about our children being allowed—nay, encouraged—to “elect themselves out of an education.” In recent weeks, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, members of our/State Board of Education and Dr. S. John Davis, state superintendent, have publicly joined in the same complaint. Perhaps we are all wrong and only you are right. Our readers must decide that for themselves.
As I left the school board on June 30, ninth graders had four required courses, one being Health and Phys. Ed 9, along with ten electives. Required courses for tenth graders dropped to three of which one was Phys. Ed. 10, and there were 24 electives offered them, 14 at RCHS and 10 at Piedmont. Eleventh graders had three required courses, one of which was consumer math (with confusion as to whether it was a required course or not) but now the smorgasbord table contained 33 electives, 18 at RCHS and 15 at Piedmont. The twelvth graders (the seniors with their last shot at a formal education if they were going out to bale hay, etc. and their last year of preparation for college, if headed in that direction) had exactly two required courses—English 12 and U. S. Government. But these same seniors were offered a total of 35 electives, 21 at RCHS and 14 at Piedmont!! And in July, several more electives were added, in
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