Cheating on School Tests - Los Angeles Times
- Select a language for the TTS:
- UK English Female
- UK English Male
- US English Female
- US English Male
- Australian Female
- Australian Male
- Language selected: (auto detect) - EN
Play all audios:
Your naive editorial “Test of Honesty” (Sept. 20) testifies to your ignorance of our “esteemed” educational system. Teachers are well-educated, dedicated, underpaid professionals who, in
most cases, serve at the whim of their principals. In large school systems, like Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers can be moved around like pawns on a chessboard. In independent
schools, teacher can be fired in an instant, and have no right of appeal. The reasons teachers remain in the classroom are far too complex to analyze here. Suffice it to say that they gain a
sense of fulfillment from educating and inspiring young people, which they still manage to do despite everything. When you blast the policy of teaching test-taking, you must be very careful
as to where you place the blame. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that students do not automatically lose their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse door. But in many
instances, teachers in that school do lose those very rights. You should also bear in mind that most high school students study test-taking in preparation for their Scholastic Aptitude Test
exams. College students take practice graduate school admission tests. Attorneys enroll in review courses to practice test-taking for their Bar exams. The policy of teaching test-taking is
deeply entrenched in our educational system. Please direct your blame elsewhere than upon the overburdened shoulders of dedicated teachers. BETTY RASKOFF KAZMIN Los Angeles MORE TO READ