I just read Nick Welsh’s illuminating piece about how he came to write the Angry Poodle column, which I found to be quite fascinating. Buried in the article is an interesting tidbit which I’m sure he didn’t think twice about. As he was explaining his experience with writing columns, he casually mentioned that “Catholic school teachers beat writing into me.”
I’m sure most people will just read over this without processing the significance of those seven words. But in reality, it might be the most important thing he said in the entire piece. Why? Because our public schools do a terrible job of teaching writing to our kids. I would venture to say a least half of the students graduating our high schools can’t write a coherent sentence. All you have to do is look at test scores to know this is true.
Nick was lucky enough to go to a parochial school where he obviously got a great education. Not true of the majority of our children attending public schools in our town. Why can’t they have the same opportunity to go to a parochial school or a private school as opposed to being stuck with a failing public school?
School choice funded with scholarships has been implemented in a number of other states with great success but has so far not been allowed in California. Why not? Well, that is a whole other article waiting to be written as to why. But in the meantime, and maybe Nick would agree with me, let’s give our children the same opportunity as he had to achieve his dream job of doing what he loves.
