Parent praised for criticizing grade inflation

This is a response to the letters from parent Mr. Kessler and retired teacher Ms. Kligman concerning the teaching of writing in Conejo Valley Unified School District.

We would have liked more details from Mr. Kessler, but will accept his anecdote at face value.

As retired teachers, we cannot recollect any instance in which a parent requesting a conference was ever required to submit questions in advance.

That might be appropriate if the parent had indicated hostility toward the teacher or implied that legal action was in the works. Such hoop-jumping indicates that some degree of wagon circling was afoot.

Mr. Kessler is indeed a rare specimen among parents in that he complained that his child was getting too high a grade. If you want to know how rare that is, ask any teacher.

Furthermore, Mr. Kessler's letter demonstrates that he's a literate and able communicator who would know whether his child's paper was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors and had received a grossly inflated grade of A.

The notion that giving high grades to poor specimens of writing will stimulate students' writing productivity might be valid if merely putting characters on a page constitutes writing.

Even if a teacher believed such a flawed technique, how about giving him a C, not an A, which is an indicator that his product is excellent. Having his less-than-exemplary product deemed excellent, where is his motivation to improve his spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, etc.? Ms. Kligman justifies the approach by pointing out that it is a pre-writing technique approved in the state standards. The fact that the Kessler paper received a grade at all indicates that it was a final product, not a work in progress.

Yes, Mr. Kessler did create a minor hubbub, but au contraire, Ms. Kligman, it did serve a purpose, and that is raising a level of awareness among parents.

Silence isn't necessarily golden.
Bob and Fran Dibble
Thousand Oaks