No time to teach between tests

To the editor:

I am appalled at the recent headlines about middle school and high school students flunking the Clark County School District math tests. As a teacher, I know how hard teachers work. I also know how busy parents and students are. Many parents don't have time to help their kids between work and life. Many students try the best they can on these tests, but because of the incredible amount of curriculum that is shoveled down their throats, they can't digest anything at all. There is seldom time to teach subjects in-depth due to the exorbitant amount of yearly testing.

One test, which took two weeks to administer, was given in February and was meant to cover a year's worth of curriculum. As soon as the students finished that test, the next one was waiting in our mailboxes. When are we given time to teach?

Then teachers are blamed for the deficiencies, suggesting that they aren't covering the material. One friend explains it like this: "When you take your child to the dentist, do you blame the dentist for the cavities? What if the dentist has been teaching the child the proper brushing technique for years? Who's to blame for the cavities?"

Teachers are caught between covering topics as quickly as possible for the tests and teaching topics in-depth, so that students will actually retain the information. Teachers are doing the best they can within this crazy, testing-happy system.

We live in a fast-paced culture where children often expect to be entertained and parents expect schools to raise their children. I wonder if the critics of public education could pass one of these math tests? If so, are they volunteering their time to help tutor a struggling math student?

Before we blame teachers for low math scores, we need to take a look at our society. We all have a responsibility to make education a priority.

Jolie Carter

LAS VEGAS

Tracking doctors

To the editor:

Thanks for posting photos and addresses of the new endoscopy clinics former colleagues of Dr. Dipak Desai are opening ("Ex-Desai colleagues open new offices," April 19 Review-Journal). It seems the only protection the public has following the valley's hepatitis outbreak is the news and our own ability to recognize these new locations.

Please continue to post photos and addresses. We need all the help we can get.

There seems to be no effective regulatory authority overseeing these physicians. Teachers and police would at least be prohibited from working with the public until legal hearings were over. Nurses involved in the unsafe practices that spread the disease have already given up their licenses. Is there no legal precedent to stop these doctors from practicing at least until a hearing?

Paula Carnes

LAS VEGAS

Waste of water

To the editor:

In response to your Sunday Sports feature on the best 18 golf holes in Las Vegas: They sure are pretty. Very green, very lush. Very laden with water hazards.

How much water does it take to keep these greens, fairways and roughs green? How much water does it take to maintain the levels in the water hazards? I'm blasted with commercials and billboards to reduce water usage, convert my lawn and set my watering clock. Yet I see golf courses lush with pristine grass, full water hazards, lots of trees and sprinklers on at all times of the day. Sounds like a double standard to me. Maybe if I golfed with the mayor, I'd see things differently.

Shame on the Review-Journal and Sports Editor Joe Hawk for running such an article, knowing we are in a water crisis. Water conservation ads in one section, an article encouraging excessive water use in another. Make up your minds.

Jason Wagner

LAS VEGAS

American burqas

To the editor:

In order for Utah to become a state, the Mormons living there had to abandon polygamy, the practice of men having multiple wives. Fundamentalist sects now living in compounds such as the one raided in Texas do not accept this restriction.

Not only can they illegally have multiple wives, but many young girls are alleged to have been forced to marry much older men. As I watch these women and girls in their ankle-length dresses, no makeup and unflattering hair styles, they remind so much of Muslim women forced to wear burqas and made to comply with strict Muslim law.

All praise to Texas for enforcing the laws there and investigating this sordid practice. I hope Arizona and Utah will follow suit.

Richard J. Mundy

LAS VEGAS