To the editor:

Anyone interested in the education of our youth and the future of our country as a thriving democracy should read Gary Rust's Nov. 19 column, "Computers at school." In the column, he quoted Michael Bloomberg who stated, "For all the purchases of computers in the classroom, our children don't read as well as before, have a worse sense of historical perspective, know less geography, possess fewer mathematical skills and have reduced exposure to the great literary achievements of mankind. ... Not only can't Johnny read, he can't speak grammatically correct either. ... Interaction with a sympathetic, understanding teacher can't be automated. For young children it's the only way to teach the basics."

Bloomberg's prophetic comments are accurate as to the educational dilemma that is blighting our nation's educational institutions. Because of the philosophy of certain educational theorists and educators and the watered-down curriculums in today's schools, Johnny can't do simple math procedures. Neither does he have any comprehension of how to find a percentage or how to compute fractions. The situation is so bad that young clerks at fast-food places or at stores can't make change without a computer. Grammar skills have also reached a pathetic low. Whole language and grammar taught by reading have proven disastrous. Yet we follow these programs in our schools despite the fat that they have been scrapped as failures in others parts of the country.

Who are the culprits of the dumbing down of American students? They are the education and English professors in our local universities who scoff at teaching the basics. They champion abstract math, whatever that is, which teaches no basic rudiments, and they laugh at those English teachers who still try to teach traditional grammar. Their pet teaching technique is cooperative learning, which has little individual accountability or instructional value. Another source of the problem is the use of standardized tests and state scores to assess a student's knowledge. A student is no longer evaluated by what he truly knows but by a score on a test which is watered down and evaluated by politicians and pseudo-educators.

Yet school administrators, aware of the poor skills of students in math and English and knowing these students are illiterate in history and traditional literature, do not attempt to solve the problem. Instead, they try to placate the public by endless awards, programs of meaningless recognition of students and media hype. Any thinking person recognizes this as a sad smoke screen for a serious educational problem.

W.G. REED

Cape Girardeau