To the editor:<\/p>\n
Catching up on my end-of-season correspondence:<\/p>\n
First, kudos to The Breeze for its April 10 editorial calling out Gov. DeSantis\u2019 latest overreach in the guise of protecting us Floridians by creating an authority to designate any organization critical to his administration as \u201cterrorists.\u201d Really. The editors accurately compared this legislation to the McCarthy era witch hunts.<\/p>\n
Next, a letter by George Starner (April 3) objecting to The Breeze coverage of a presentation by former ambassador Peter Galbraith, which was critical of our current (undeclared) war in Iran. The writer warned readers that because Ambassador Galbraith is a \u201clong-time dyed-in-the-wool Democrat\u201d his opinions are not unbiased. Who holds an unbiased political opinion today? No one I know, including myself; certainly not the letter writer, who refers to \u201cObama and Biden\u2026 incompetent attempts to buy cooperation with pallets of cash.\u201d Quote Fox propaganda much? The writer also claimed Galbraith \u201cadmits the U.S. succeeded in eliminating Iran\u2019s nuclear program.\u201d Not so much: Galbraith actually said Trump succeeded \u201c\u2026like Bush eliminated Iraq\u2019s weapons of mass destruction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, in her March 27 letter, Karen Davis opined that a resurgence of play-based learning in pre-K classrooms is questionable as this type of instruction is inferior to \u201crigorous academic content\u201d\u2026 such as \u201cworksheets and structured routines\u201d purportedly backed by research. I was unable to find any. In contrast, there is a wealth of research supporting the positive impact of student-centric education pioneered by Maria Montessori over 100 years ago.<\/p>\n
The letter goes on, \u201c\u2026returning to a play-based learning style\u201d\u2026in which \u201cchildren learn naturally\u2026(where) thematic play centers foster development through hands-on experiences\u2026does not \u201cmirror the academic focus and structured routines of elementary school, which may leave children blindsided when they move on.\u201d\u00a0Perhaps the problem lies with traditional post pre-K instruction? <\/p>\n
The writer does note \u201cintegration or balance\u201d between the two approaches is desirable because \u201c\u2026 preserving ample time for play and relationship building is essential for young children.\u201d This implies \u201cplay\u201d for young children is unstructured \u201crecess\u201d and not the actual vehicle for learning. The Florida Office of Early Learning clearly disagrees stating: \u201cPlay is a child\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking at the current Florida Educational System websites\u00a0we find state spending is 44th in the nation, with teachers paid $15,000 a year\u00a0below the national average. Although Florida does have Voluntary Pre-K it is limited to 4-year-olds, three hours a day, serving only 65% of eligible children.\u00a0There is no Voluntary Pre-K funding for 3-year-olds. For the fall 2024 school year only 43% of ALL entering children were deemed \u201cready\u201d for kindergarten level instruction. In contrast, 72% of the children who attended only one year of preschool were \u201cready.\u201d Not ideal, but better.<\/p>\n
Looking at the other end of Florida\u2019s public education, the 2024-25 high school graduation rate was 92%. On the surface this sounds great. However, looking at the \u201ccollege readiness\u201d of that graduating class 59% were proficient in English language skills and 29% were proficient in math.<\/p>\n
These are the results for Florida\u2019s current teacher-centric education system. If you are satisfied then sail on. If you think we should be doing a better job of educating our children then get involved. Beware: It\u2019s going to cost more.<\/p>\n
Billy Herman\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cape Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Catching up on my end-of-season correspondence: First, kudos to The Breeze for its April 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-236131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}