This is in response to a guest column by Richard Sabine, “Time to get tough with educators” (Feb. 15).

He should be aware that social promotion is not up to the teachers’ discretion. Research shows that students who are retained are much more likely to drop out of high school than students who are socially promoted. Schools really are doing what is best for the students when failing students are socially promoted.

Research also shows that he is incorrectly laying the blame of low test scores on teachers. The amount of time students spend learning has dramatically decreased in the public schools in the United States during the past 10 years. The amount of time spent on test preparations and the taking of tests has reduced the amount of learning each student does by about 25 percent per year. Therefore, every four years, students lose an entire year of instruction due to testing. That loss of instructional time is not something that teachers can control.

Sabine stated that “during contract negotiations, instead of helping students, school committees consistently vote to financially benefit teachers and improve their working conditions.” Sabine seems to lack an important connection — students learn where teachers work. When we improve teachers’ working environments, we are also improving the learning environment for students. Therefore, improving working conditions really is in the best interest of students.

The failure of education lies in the attempt to standardize students and their educations. We cannot expect students to all grow at the same rates, any more than we can expect all apple seeds to grow trees at the same rate. Some trees will grow more slowly, but will eventually grow to the same height as the best trees. Some trees will always be shorter than the best trees. All trees will eventually produce apples. It is the same way with students.

It is unrealistic to expect all the students to meet the same expectations and it is damaging to punish students for not meeting expectations. Very few students will excel at every subject, but we are expecting all students to be experts in multiple areas or they are failures.

All of our students will be able to produce even if they are less successful in some content areas in school.

I’m sure Sabine wasn’t an expert at every subject in school, either.

Alicia Woody, Hobbs, New Mexico

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