I read Mr. Aderhold’s letter to the community about his vision. The actions he is taking are misguided and moving our schools toward mediocrity. They are harmful to many children and to the property values of WW-P homeowners.
We want our WW-P schools to be among the best public schools in New Jersey. We don’t want our schools to be dumbed down.
Aderhold’s plan is to dismantle the best parts of WW-P education. The superintendent has already cut many ESL classes, Algebra 1 in 9th grade, and finals and midterms in middle school and high school. He clearly wants to cut A&E math in grades 4 and 5. He states that every student should experience music, but he wants to take music lessons out of the school day and make kids stay after school. There is no benefit to these actions for students.
Students who are too stressed by high school need to drop some AP classes. They should also cut back on extracurricular activities. Parents need to be ok with this and realize that their kid will still get into college. It is important for students to find the right fit for them for each course and have a healthy balance in their lives. My kids dropped a level in some classes in late September, had better teachers such as superb Mr. Fields, and happily learned the material with less stress. Studies have shown that it’s difficult to learn when you are stressed out.
Parents also need to stop sending their kids to Peddie in the summer, to take a class they will have at South in the fall. This seems like cheating to me. At the least, it is a huge no confidence vote in your child, and will set them up to be bored all year in that class. If they can’t handle the course without taking it twice, they should be in a lower level class.
The consultants hired by Mr. Aderhold will produce a report endorsing his views. This is how consultants always work — they always agree with whoever hired them.
The majority of residents in our two towns are Asian. Of course most of the kids in any class will be Asian. My daughter was one of two girls in her A&E fourth grade class. This was fine and not a problem.
Betty Sherman is a teacher who knows exactly how to test and select third graders for A&E math. It’s fine to improve all math classes. But students need to learn the fundamentals of math. Students who are several years ahead will not be served by regular math classes.
Bright kids can lose interest in school if they are not engaged in school. Our schools should be challenging our kids and helping America keep up with the world in science and technology. My kids exhibited unusual ability and love for math as toddlers. This is not about tutoring.
When my kids finally reached fourth grade, it was a huge relief to have interesting work in A&E math. In my daughter’s fourth grade A&E class, there were at least three geniuses. One left South at 16 to go to MIT, one wrote his first symphony when he was 9, and one read Moby Dick in fifth grade. The rest of the class was very bright and are now graduates of the top medical schools and PhD programs etc. These kids learned from each other in A&E math. WW-P is making a colossal mistake in thinking that anything less than A&E math in grades 4 and 5 will serve this group of kids.
We all ooh and ah when a child is a talented singer, artist, or athlete. Why are kids talented in math called “entitled”? We should stand and applaud every kid’s talents, and our schools should encourage academic pursuits, especially in elementary school.
WW-P needs to wake up! There are many bright kids here. The cute, quiet kid you overlook may be super smart.
Make no mistake, the reason WW-P has so many high achieving students, which result in high test scores and glory for the schools, is because bright kids’ parents move here for their child’s education. They move here trusting that the schools will meet the needs of their kids in every way, including A&E math in grades 4 and 5.
At NYU law school, there is no assignment until the final exam. The grade for the entire course depends on the final exam grade. This is the real world. The elimination of midyear and final exams in all our schools does not prepare students for the real world. WW-P kids are now at a competitive disadvantage to kids from other high schools that have finals.
We feel, along with virtually every other resident, that taxes are way too high and absolutely must go down. We would have appreciated a refund check for the excess funds from a charter school that didn’t open. No way should that money have been used for new $13 million offices.
Lots of money could be saved by reducing the number of administrators and supervisors in the schools.
Taxpayers, students, and parents need to speak up to the superintendent and the school board responsible for these horrendous changes.
Carol Herts
West Windsor
