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Spend More Time Teaching Children

Editor, News-Register:

The thesis in the June 26 editorial “Make Academic Success Priority” was misplaced.

The solution to improving academic success in Ohio County Schools is not throwing more money at the problem but actually throwing more teaching at the problem.

Rather than middle school principals complaining about and the Board of Education coming under scrutiny for an actual creative solution to the mostly neglected middle school athletic programs, a fair examination would be to look at how much classroom time is absolutely wasted in Ohio County’s middle schools. A good 10-20 percent of the academic year is spent preparing for the WESTEST and then doing literally nothing for the last 2-3 weeks of school after the WESTEST is over.

I would prefer my children catch up on the latest DVD releases on their own time rather than watching these movies in school.

My childrens’ class time can certainly be better spent learning more advanced math skills than watching yet another faculty versus student basketball or volleyball game.

How many hours of classroom time are being wasted with fundraising assemblies or any of the number of other manufactured reasons not to actually teach the children?

Want to improve test performance? Spend more time actually teaching the academic disciplines in middle school. Our children should not be missing days of actual classroom time throughout the school year to practice at the Performing Arts Center for a 20-minute band, chorus or strings concert.

I don’t believe any additional funding will improve academic performance in Ohio County middle schools. I believe more time spent teaching in the classroom will.

David Delk

Wheeling

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