The Reader Beware

To the Editor:

A wise lady once advised me, “Be wary of people who almost know what they are talking about.” Oscar Berendshon, in his letter to The Bee on September 30, titled “Newtown and the NFT,” asserts his “demand” that class sizes must be 35 students. This he does for the sake of the taxpayers in Newtown.

In the next issue of The Bee on October 7, with a letter titled “The Privilege of Teaching,” Mr Berendshon again opines with vitriolic expressions regarding teacher salaries, pensions, and tenure. Mr Berendshon states his credentials as an engineer to gain credibility for his arguments.

If Mr Berendshon presupposes sound logic becoming of an engineer to arrive at the magic number 35 students in all classes, then the average person will undoubtedly ask, “Why not 40 or 50 or even 100 students per class to save the taxpayer money?” As altruistic as I may want others to believe I am, I might even “demand” that the local brain surgeons perform five operations per day rather than the usual three in order to save on spiraling medical insurance costs. After all, I am a teacher and “one of my functions” as a teacher is to assess performance.

Contracts and unions aside, I would like everyone reading my letter to ask two questions in the first person regarding kindergarten class. Number one: How would it have been if my own kindergarten class was 35 in number including me? Number two: Would I want my own child to attend a kindergarten class with 34 other students?

Now depending on how you answered the two questions posed, you may or may not come to the conclusion that Mr Berendshon “almost knows what he is talking about.” If so, I respectfully pass on the wisdom of the lady who said, “Be wary of people who almost know what they are talking about.”

Donald H. Ramsey

Teacher and Newtown Citizen

3 Prospect Drive, Newtown                                       October 7, 2011