Massachusetts public school officials don't want new charter schools in their state, and they allegedly put their students up to a letter-writing campaign. Unfortunately, these "educators" either didn't bother to spell-check the letters, or didn't know how to spell themselves:
All the proof state Board of Education member Roberta Schaefer needed to OK controversial new charter schools were the letters before her from public school students. Schaefer ridiculed the letters against a proposed school in Marlboro for their missing punctuation and sloppy spelling - including a misspelling of the word "school'' in one missive.
"If I didn't think a charter school was necessary, these letters have convinced me the high school was not doing an adequate job in teaching English language arts,'' Schaefer said.
So these are letters from high school students who can't even spell "school"? Who helped devise their language arts curriculum, Gayle Cowley? And could there be a more effective refutation of Ms. Cowley's insistence that spelling is not a "critical skill?"
Despite the letter-writing campaign, which Schaefer said was orchestrated by school officials, the Marlboro-based Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School as well as new charter schools in Cambridge, Lynn and Barnstable were approved yesterday.
Opponents vowed a renewed campaign against the controversial public schools, which compete with traditional districts for state education dollars.
"We're going to pursue this legally and through the Legislature,'' said Kathleen Kelley, president of the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers.
Ms. Kelley, please put that time and energy into teaching kids to spell. We'll all be better off. Kids who can't spell turn into lawyers who can't spell, and that makes everybody crazy.
(Found via Best of the Web.)
Posted by kswygert at February 27, 2004 03:46 PM