Improve teaching, not facility

To the Editor: Last week you included a well-written and impassioned letter from Dr. Andrew Buchanan in your Viewpoints section. As a Sparta resident of 17 years, I have been following the Sparta High School facility discussion as long as it has been underway. That letter has prompted this reply. I attended a high school that was built in the mid 1800’s. Not 1900’s. 1800’s. Among its other physical limitations, it had no air conditioning. The building was past old and antiquated when I attended. It needed help. We didn’t have “Art on a Cart.” We didn’t even have a cart. The classrooms were crowded. What we had were great teachers and students who wanted to learn. I continue to teach at post graduate level. I am on the Board of Trustees of the Sussex County Charter School for Science and Technology (located in Sparta). The Charter School would love to get a new facility. It may or may not happen. The teachers there teach what needs to be taught despite the building’s shortcomings. They have come up with innovative solutions to the building’s challenges. The students learn despite the fact that the school has ongoing funding deficiencies, their classrooms have no air conditioning and the building needs to be improved (more so than the high school). If there is an education problem at Sparta High School, let’s get it remedied. If it is a problem with the students’ education - what is being taught or how it is being taught - correct the shortcomings. Pushing for a new school without dealing with the internal affairs first is like putting lipstick on a pig. Potential changes and/or additions to the Sparta High School building should be discussed in an objective, rational and carefully analytic manner. Information supplied to the voters should not be slanted in any way. If there is a need for change, clearly and fairly presented facts will convince Sparta residents. Scaring us (i.e. “if we don’t get a new school, student lunches will start at 8 a.m.”) is neither effective nor honest. One final comment. Dr. Buchanan, in his second to last paragraph, referred to providing the best education possible to provide our country with citizens prepared to “… defend it against those who seek to destroy the liberties we cherish.” When I was in high school the USA was engaged in the Cold War and fighting the Godless Communist Red Menace. It’s always something. Let the discussion continue without reference to fear or flag waving. Dr. Stephen Candio Sparta