In his letter (Feb. 19), Douglas Ludewig offered his concerns with standards-based education. As an educator, I would like to offer a voice in support of it.

As he pointed out, standards-based education will set aside “traditional methods of instruction” used to educate students since the late 1800s. That is exactly why it should be embraced.

Today’s world requires a different skill set from that of 120 years ago, yet we continue to attempt to revise and amend an outdated educational model meant to prepare the best students for college while allowing for failure of a certain percentage of students who could subsequently find jobs in a growing industrial work force.

Standards-based education requires active student participation. Students must demonstrate understanding of real world concepts with creative thinking skills, not simply memorization of facts.

In a traditional educational setting, time is the constant. Students have a limited amount of time to “get” a concept because the curriculum requires that the teacher move on to cover everything in the syllabus.

Standards-based education requires mastery of concepts where learning becomes the constant, and time the variable. A student doesn’t “move on” until he or she is ready to move on.

Standards-based education frees “industrial age teachers” to become professional “real world educators” in a constantly changing environment.

Students of today need to learn skills to cope with the issues of tomorrow. A standards-based education allows for that to happen.

Arthur Feeley, Auburn

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