After reading Olivia Senor’s commentary on “Emphasis on Excellence: Does Pushing Students to Succeed Foster Achievement or Cause Harm?” [Sept. 21, Xpress] and as a teacher myself for over 26 years, I want to congratulate her for getting down to the facts about what is not working in our present school system on the whole. Too much emphasis is put on the achievers, and so many children are left behind.
This being a multifaceted challenge to correct, I want to applaud Olivia’s experiential knowledge and compassion for all students’ differences and needs that need to be addressed differently in order to put an emphasis on “each child’s” needs. An impossible task it may seem to be, but extremely important to recognize and change within our programs called “educational institutions.” Thank you, Olivia, for your commentary, and hopefully the eyes who can make change will read this article!
— Claudia Green
Burnsville
Maybe just a “you did your best” certificate at age 18 and everybody move on?