To the Editor:
One of my readers of my op-ed pieces is a high school principal in South Jersey. He has been reading my column for years, and he asked me if I would substitute for one of his high school English teachers about to become a mother. I didn’t need a second to turn the request down.
I’m 87 years of age with enough energy to stay away from doctors, but kids don’t need a guy like me today in their troubled lives. My principal buddy would be hit with homework complaints in a week. There would be collateral reading for all my students going from ninth to 12th grade. My homework assignments would probably force too many kids to quit their part-time jobs at McDonald’s.
I once handled my own discipline problems by forcing my kids to either come in one hour in the morning before school or stay one hour after school. There would most probably be as many A-pluses as there would be E-minuses.
No, public education has no need for an old-timer like me who believes deep in his heart that nothing in a kid’s life is as important as the quality of the education he is getting in school, which will eventually make the kid or limit the kid in life.
SAM ALFONSI
Diamond Beach
