Grade schools need more focus on values

I know these are complex issues, but until we value raising well-rounded, caring human beings more than we value test scores, we will not lessen the violence that surrounds us.

In an attempt to raise test scores and compete with other nations (a fallacy), we have added more and more academics in our lower grades, adding stress and eliminating time for the arts, the humanities and the basic values of learning how to work together and get along.

Do we need to take a year to teach a subject that a few years later in a child's development could be learned in a month?

When you are 21 years old, does it really matter if you learned to walk at 9 months or a year, learned algebra at 10 or at 13?

Using the horrific example of the young boy who fatally shot a little girl because she wouldn't let him play with her puppy, think. His teachers are being evaluated on his test scores!

It doesn't matter how many laws we make regarding guns. Unless we go into our school system, especially in the early childhood and primary grades and, one, educate the whole child, including the arts, and provide opportunities in all different learning styles; two, nurture love of country, it's called patriotism; and three, make appreciation and respect for one another the cornerstone for the classroom culture, we will continue to be torn apart by senseless acts of violence.

These are the issues we need to discuss if we want a safe and healthy future.

Karen L. Meadows

Buffalo Grove