Posted 1 month, 27 days ago in 
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I am a retired teacher of 32 years experience. I voted for the last school bond issue, but I am having difficulty supporting ballot measures 3A and 3B. Instead, the issue of valuing an education needs to come to the forefront as an attainable goal upheld by students, parents, teachers, school administrators and the whole community.
How can we do this… read, read, read with your child, know what your child’s homework is, help him or her with that homework and make sure it’s completed. Talk with your child about what is going on in school, help build confidence in your child by getting him or her involved in activities that are of interest, and praise accomplishments.
Furthermore, know where your child is at all times, know who your child’s friends are and what they are doing. Meet with teachers and school administrators about problems that you see and insist on responsible action. Don’t let peer pressure be the factor that forms your child’s character.
I know that there are many families who do value an education and that their children have a greater chance of becoming successful adults. However, I think realistically, times have changed, when I read of the deplorable CSAP scores posted in this paper and I hear of the lack of respect of many students for their teachers, their classes, and most of all for themselves. This HAS TO CHANGE!
It is vitally important to support our schools and especially our growing population for they are our future, but I believe that the focus should be on building a strong value system across all socio-economic levels first and that won’t cost a penny.
MARION FENNER
Grand Junction
2 Responses to “Schools should focus on building strong values”
Posted October 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
I believe if students learn what they need to learn and are able to do what they need to do, that is, students are proficient at the long established standards, then students will have the knowledge, the ethics, and the capacity to make good decisions that will make them good citizens.
I believe that falsely inflating a student’s self-esteem is simply setting that student up for problems, even failure later.
The best anti-discrimination, anti-poverty, anti-relying on someone else is a good sound education. A well educated student has a far more promising future in almost all aspects than a student who fails to learn. Education is the best self-reliance program available. So, please teachers teach.
Posted October 6th, 2008 at 11:43 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Schools are there to teach ’subjects’, not values. Values, real values are learned mostly at home. Academically, the first thing that needs to be raised is the standards. Then, we can start concentrating on the physical plants, and what needs to be invested in ordee to achieve them.
Now, while Ms. Fenner may be well intentioned, as most people are, perhaps we need to put ‘first things first’. Let us first determine what we are going to demand, and expect in return, for any investment the taxpayer is asked to make.
As I live in Delta, what the Grand Junction school district does with their money is there affair, just as long as they don’t move out and ask for state moniess because of their own mismanagement.
We have a request for a bond issue in Delta and, although a great believer in education, I intend to vote against it. The ‘local wallets’ are getting dry. So, it is about time that the children and parents of children start tightening their belts also, before they ask anyone else for subsidies.
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