Letter: Smithtown opposes Common Core
Smithtown High School East. (Feb. 20, 2012) Credit: Erin Geismar
Kudos to the Smithtown school board for taking leadership in the worthy fight against standardized educational practices and unfair and unfounded teacher evaluation methods .
In a time when many school districts on Long Island are selling the well-being and passion for learning of their students and teachers for federal Race to the Top funds -- much of which will never make its way to Long Island -- a handful of strong and proud districts is speaking out against the state and federal education departments that are trying to bully them into compliance.
Smithtown has built a school culture of which it can be proud, and it has a right and an obligation to preserve it.
We need more school districts to follow the lead of Smithtown to show the federal and state governments that our children and our teachers are not for sale, and our communities cannot be fooled or bought.
Eric Shyman, Bohemia
Editor's note: The writer trained as a special education teacher.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
