Who's teaching our kids to write?

As the father of a student at Westlake High School who was experiencing difficulties, I became concerned that my student was getting the same high grade regardless of the quality of work that was turned in to the teacher. I asked for and received copies of my student's work and found that the work was below par. This particular assignment was not of sufficient length, was not grammatically correct and should not have received a "C" grade much less the "A" that it did earn.

I asked for a meeting with the teacher to discuss this and was told by an assistant principal to submit a list of specific questions before the meeting that I wanted to ask this teacher. I refused and also requested that the teacher be prepared to discuss in broad terms, with all other identifiable student information removed, how many students receive A, B, C, or D grades and why this teacher would assign an A grade to a paper that was barely literate.

For those who think that Westlake is this paradigm of excellence, hold on tight. The teacher said that he didn't care about grammar or content, that the paper was okay and he just wanted to get the students writing. And as for my simple question about grade distribution, the assistant principal would not let this teacher even answer the question.

I hope this brief anecdote was informative because whatever your perspective or view there is clearly something terribly wrong with our educational system. A recent report showed a large increase in the numbers of students enrolled in remedial math and English classes in our state colleges and universities.

The national media constantly report on school failures to properly educate our children and show how, in the last few years, from a macroeconomic perspective, we have lagged the world in basic scientific research. Paul S. Kessler Thousand Oaks