Education

focuses too

much on

standardization

I see students from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia having a much stronger educational background than the students from West Virginia.

It seems that we cover more information in a week at WVU than I learned in my four years of high school. While the out-of-state students understand the professor, the in-state students are left scratching their heads, wondering what they missed.

I do not fault the teachers for my poor education. I had some excellent teachers in high school who really knew what they were doing and cared for the students. The administrators in this state have become obsessed with standardization.

Why should an administrator, who knows little about education, tell a teacher with a master's degree how to run his or her class? It's like a wealthy businessman telling a general how to win a war.

Education in West Virginia is dull and boring. It focuses on performance on standardized tests, not on fostering curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The curriculum is slow-paced, and far less than challenging. I made near straight A's and graduated fifth in my class, yet I had to put in very little effort.

After I graduated and went to college, I still felt something was missing -- as though I had been cheated out of something. We need to light a fire under the students, not push them along in a little red wagon.

I had some of the best teachers in the world in high school. If the administrators would let them teach, instead of telling them how to teach, this state would be much better off. The system is due for an overhaul. Let's do it now, before it is too late.

Patrick M. Rebrook

Clarksburg