Not placing blame where it should lie

I feel compelled to remark about your March 17 article about school testing.

It is so indicative of today's society to excuse the factors truly responsible and blame the peripheral. I was especially irked by your subhead, "Educators say there are problems in the testing system, not students."

I don't know what educators to whom you are attributing this feeling, but after 42 years as a teacher, I firmly disagree. A good portion of the reason students don't perform well in school does lie with the students. Many of them believe the "good life" is going to be given to them by the government or their parents, or who knows what, so they don't have to work hard to gain it. I wonder where they acquired such an attitude?

Another portion of the problem belongs to the parenting occurring today. Over the years, I have seen parents, and school districts, because of parental pressure, demand less and less from the younger generation. This change has occurred partly because they are so concerned about Johnny's "self-image."

They refuse to allow him to experience trials in his life. Failure is not an end. It is a lesson to be used to succeed. We are creating a society of non-resilient people who will not be capable of overcoming challenges because they have been insulated from them.

A portion of the responsibility does lie with school districts. They have allowed themselves to be bullied by the state into compromising good curriculum for good test evaluation in order to look good in the newspaper. Many schools are sacrificing instructional time to teach how to pass the ISATs or ACTs.

The problem is not the tests -- or is it?

Charles Peraino

Cary