Letters: Outside In

Credit: Edutopia

From the Outside In

As a professional educator nearing the end of his career, I was utterly dismayed by your interview with Alvin Toffler ("Future School: Reshaping Learning from the Ground Up," [1] February 2007). Toffler (and Bill Gates, to whom he refers in the interview) gives an outsider's point of view concerning the current state of our public school system. He, and others like him, revel in the turmoil they can cause by issuing such ill-informed opinions. They are not, and have not been for many years, part of the education system, so they cannot possibly know enough about it for their opinions to have any validity. They are comparable to a first-year medical student telling a neurosurgeon with fifteen years of experience how to operate on the human brain.

Would you like to know who has the information needed to make the changes necessary in our educational system? Get out of your world, and the world of make-believe experts such as Toffler and Gates, and get into ours -- into the classrooms, hallways, gyms, parking lots, labs, and cafeterias, and even (gasp!) into the central administrative offices. That's where you will find the experts you need.

Don't just visit for a couple weeks, and don't come for a week or so every month or two. Come and stay with us. Work with us. Live with us. Listen to us! We can tell you what needs to be done to fix the elements of the current system that need fixing. You would be amazed at how many of us can think outside the box of the current system(s).

Dean Thompson

Things haven't changed since I wrote the poem below shortly after the publication of Future Shock. I wrote it while listening to Alvin Toffler speak at the Chautauqua Institution during Education Week sometime in the mid-1970s.

Positive Futures

Is Future Shock
New Doctor Spock
Or
The senseless stupidity
Of changeless rigidity

Why do so many say
That tomorrow
Will be less
Than today?

I want instead
To rush so ahead
That I'll ne'er
Get hit on the ass
With the hand
Of the past!

Dr. Allen Schmieder

Future at Home?

I was intrigued by Alvin Toffler's description of the ideal school. Matching the age of starting school to the child's actual development, integrating the curricula, letting the school day suit the child -- the more I read, the more I realized he was describing the school day my children already have. I wonder whether he realizes that his ideal school is a near-perfect description of home schooling?

Denise Weldon-Siviy

Linked Librarians

In regard to Sandy Moltz's letter [2] in the February 2007 issue, as a middle school library media specialist, I would also like to see more coverage of library collaboration in other than library journals.

Here in western Kentucky, more than ten years ago, an innovative and dedicated group of librarians formed a consortium to collaborate and coordinate library services among public and private K-12 schools, plus colleges, public libraries, churches, and hospitals. We meet each month, organizing conferences for our colleagues, programs across our client groups, and support for ourselves. Our focus has changed with new technologies and library services, but we always work together.

Betsy Fusco

Chin up, Linda

I read Linda Ellerbee's very interesting Pop Quiz [3] (November/December 2006) about not learning multiplication tables past seven. As a thirty-year teacher (kindergarten through college), I want to pass on to her that the multiplication tables past the sevens consist of only three facts: 8 x 8, 8 x 9, and 9 x 9. Now, she can be assured that the low point of her schooling was never what she imagined.

By the way, we enjoy reading each issue of Edutopia from cover to cover and are always looking for useful ideas to spread literacy around the world through Rotary Club projects.

JoAnn Stevens

Got Jobs?

I am a recent subscriber to your magazine, and I have found the information interesting. I hope you can include tips on finding the elusive teaching job. Though I am a highly qualified teacher (with bachelor's degrees in elementary education and psychology and a master's degree in special education), living in small-town New England, I find it impossible to find work. School districts say, "We'd love to hire you, but we can't afford you." Would I move for a job? Definitely, but lack of finances prevents it. I've been working with autistic children as a one-to-one aide for three years. Any job insights would be extremely helpful -- perhaps your magazine can be part of that.

Sarah Oliver

Letters to the editor are a vital part of the conversation. Send your thoughts, corrections, or even complaints to letters@edutopia.org [4], or Letters to the Editor, Edutopia magazine, P.O. Box 3494, San Rafael, CA 94912. Be sure to include your name, affiliation, and contact information. Letters may be edited for length and clarity prior to publication.