To the Editor: To the school district superintendent
Editor’s note: The following writer sent this letter to Rockford School District Superintendent Dr. LaVonne Sheffield and decided to share it with us.
Doctor Sheffield,
I’m a taxpayer in Winnebago County, having lived here my whole life, graduated from West High School. When taxpayers get to be 65 years old, there should be no school taxes; they are too high, and the board only finds more ways to waste your money. These fliers that you sent out, telling of the “Wonders” of the Rockford School District, are a waste of our money. If a person has relatives, neighbors and friends in this district, they tell a different story than you do. I don’t know of one teacher in our district that sends their child to a public school here. It sure tells me something. I’m a volunteer with RSVP and work all over town. One day I was at Flinn Middle School for a reality check, what a sad day. These kids couldn’t subtract 300 from 500 without a calculator. I told one boy that in the real world, you had to know math. He said, “No, all you need is a weapon.” I never saw such ignorant kids. They can’t talk without using foul language, can’t walk without holding on to their penis, and the girls see who can show more of their breast. This town used to be a very nice place to live in. Too many people had to change too many things, and they were not for the better. I will never work in the Rockford Schools again. This district has hit rock bottom. If you can’t put your foot down, then you should retire, along with the police chief, mayor, and Alice Saudargas. We had a very capable superintendent, Linda Hernandez, and she did quite well. What’s wrong with you?
Ruth Crowdes
Rockford
From the Aug. 4-10, 2010 issue
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One Comment
To add to the problem, the school district is ruining English classes!
It has come to my attention that Rockford Public School District will no longer allow teachers to teach full novels. The teachers are forced to only read parts of novels because full novels take up too much time. This is completely ridiculous. I do not understand what this district plans for the future of our children!
Having our children actually sit down and read will help them in numerous ways, including knowing classic literature – which will prepare them for college. Reading is an active mental process – reading makes readers use their brain. While reading our children would be forced to reason out many things which are unfamiliar to them. In this process Rockford Public School students would use the grey cells of the brain to think and become smarter. Reading also improves vocabulary: Remember in elementary school when we learned how to infer the meaning of one word by reading the context of the other words in the sentence? Our children would get the same benefit from reading a WHOLE novel. Reading gives an insight into the diversity of ethnicity of people, their customs, their lifestyles etc. Our children will also improve on their concentration and focus: Unlike magazines, Internet posts or e-Mails that might contain small chunks of information, books tell the whole story. Reading,helps you stretch your memory muscles. Reading requires remembering details, facts and figures and in literature, plot lines, themes and characters .Reading about diversity of life and exposing our children to new ideas and more information helps to develop the creative side of the brain as it imbibes innovation into their thinking process.
This bad decision needs to be thought through thoroughly! Our children will not benefit from reading parts of novels. When they go off to college, how are they going to succeed when forced to sit down and read a novel when they never have? Our children will not have the mental state to actually get through a novel unless taught now! Think this through RPS205! What will benefit our children – excerpts of classics, or the whole novel? A novel does not waste too much time! What type of example are we setting?