The quality of my 6th and 4th grader’s educations is a prime and constant focus for me. The excellence of the WW-P school district was one of the prime factors in my family’s decision to move to West Windsor in 2008. However, I am getting increasingly alarmed by the constant changes being introduced in the school curriculum in the recent past.
I have attended numerous board of education meetings in the past year where it has been impossible to get any answers from the board or the school administration. One gets the feeling that none of parents’ concerns matter. There are better ways to deal with student stress, and clipping the wings of our childrens’ educations is not the way to do so.
I care about what my children learn in school and that there should be ample opportunities to further their learning by expanding/enriching it bit by bit. It is this very fabric that is being threatened by the curriculum changes that have been made/are being made.
Some of the arbitrary restrictions, e.g. on the number of science subjects a high school freshman can take, make absolutely no sense, and there are no good explanations offered either. Also, changes like allowing Chromebooks to be brought home with children, and the focus on collaborative learning instead of proper teaching to young children might work well at college level, but not in elementary school.
Carol Herts and Deborah Marinsky have been a long-time West Windsor residents. Both of them have seen their children flourish and excel when the curriculum was truly excellence oriented. Carol served meaningfully on various PTA committees over the years, and Deborah retired as a librarian from High School South a year ago.
It is my firm belief that given Carol and Deborah’s passion for education and their experience, they will serve the community very well as independent reviewers of school district administration instead of the current rubber stampers.
Prabhat Tomar
West Windsor
