Schools' focus should be learning, not self-esteem

Schools' focus should be learning, not self-esteem
EDITOR:
Today I heard a representative of the Ohio Education Association say on the radio that proficiency testing "takes the joy out of teaching and the joy out of learning."
As a teacher, an assistant professor of internal medicine at NEOUCOM, I can assure you that the real joy of teaching is in the learning. If our students don't learn, then we've done a very poor job of teaching; and in that there can be no joy. There is no greater joy than to have a student graduate with honors or display excellent clinical skills.
As for the student, the joy of learning is learning. No real student wants to be frustrated in the course of study. The proficiency tests tell both teacher and student whether they should have joy, or instead, return to the books and correct their deficiencies.
This teacher from the OEA is really saying, when you test us and show our deficiencies, you take away the self-esteem of both teacher and student.
Unfortunately today, our educational systems are more geared to improving self-esteem than knowledge and the capacity to feel rather than to think.
The result of this pseudo-education is a whole population of high school graduates who feel really good about their ignorance.
Proficiency testing done early enough in the process will make students feel bad about their ignorance and then, hopefully, encourage both student and teacher to do something to change their direction in life. That might include some home schooling or transferring to a private institution.
On the other side of the coin, when found through the testing process to be proficient, students will gain the confidence to further expand their knowledge base. Therein lies the real "joy" of both the teaching and the learning.
C.H. McGOWEN, M.D.
Warren
Police chiefs go on record opposing concealed carry
EDITOR:
The school violence that occurred around the country recently has reaffirmed the position held by the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police that Ohio does not need more guns. If the Ohio General Assembly passes legislation that would allow Ohioans to carry concealed weapons, more guns is exactly what we will get. In other states that have enacted concealed carry laws, more guns have been one of the consequences. Chiefs of police in those states have reported that their citizens bought more guns because the ones they owned were too large or too heavy to fit in a purse or strap on a leg. Therefore, they began buying smaller guns -- guns that will easily fit into a purse.
The more guns we have, the greater the possibility of kids gaining access to them.
This is just one of the reasons why the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police is opposed to any legislation that would allow Ohioans to carry a concealed weapon.
How many more reasons does anyone need to be convinced that Ohio does not need a concealed weapon law?
Having said this, the association wants to firmly state that it is not an anti-gun organization. In fact, the association believes that individuals have the right to possess and own firearms. The association also believes that reasonable restrictions may be imposed upon these rights.
GENE ROWE
Richmond Heights
X The writer is president of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police and chief of the Richmond Heights Police Department.
Region should support Traficant and his efforts
EDITOR:
You can say what you want.
You can believe what you perceive.
If the proof is in the pudding, we need to applaud our congressman.
When it got tough in Warren, Jimbo went to work for us. Guess what, it might work for us.
Just think, Jim, if it could happen a couple more times, a few people might get the program. I think that instead of kicking sand in the box like a certain editorialist, he can take his toys and relearn how to play or just take his toys and go home wherever that is.
It's time to rally around our congressman. Maybe then he can use his vision on new tech programs that we need to catch up on instead of being incised by whiners and stale-cheese balls.
BILL TURNEY
Youngstown