Letter to House Education Committee on HB 1671
As a constituent and taxpayer living 75 years in NH… and as a retired educator with a Master’s degree in Science from UNH and 36 years of teaching experience…
I respectfully ask the House Education Committee to defeat HB 1671 and maintain the core academic domains as part of a strong public education.
Having 10 years of my teaching experience involving not only Biology and Physical Science, but also Media Production, and coordinating a Gifted Education program where students who sometimes were not the top students in class, demonstrated remarkable skills when working on projects involving computer programming, electronics (building and repairing electronic devices on circuit boards), studying for and passing their FCC Amateur Radio exams earning their Amateur Radio licenses, researching and producing documentary videos on local history, environmental science, music, performing arts, etc., … the value of programs such as art, music, physical education, drama are vitally important to motivating many students to succeed in their educational experience.
Removing programs like those mentioned above is a short-sighted, weak, and uninformed decision. I worked with approximately 4500 students over my 36 years as a jr high and high school educator. (125 x 36). I took graduate courses at UCONN in the teaching of Gifted Education and what I learned was able to be applied to ALL students. When a student finds a purpose in school… When a student finds success in reaching their goals… When a student gets recognition for their work… and if all of that comes in one of the areas that HB 1671 seeks to remove from Public Education in NH, you are making a huge mistake!
Ask yourselves… What you remember most about your school careers. I would be willing to bet that most of you who participated in one of the areas referred to above, will remember something related to those areas before you will remember a particular lesson in English, Math, Science, Social Studies. If you as a student felt good about yourself through participating in a sport, playing in the band, acting in a play, building or creating something in Industrial Arts, having a drawing, painting, or photo that you created in an Art or Photography class displayed in an Open House, library or museum… AND as a result of that feeling of success and achievement went on to work harder in the basic curriculum classes so that you could ALSO participate in these other programs… then you know what I am talking about.
It will be an egregious mistake to remove these programs from the Public School system of NH. I cannot believe that Commissioner Frank Edelblut is proposing or in any way supporting such a move. If he is, he is wrong!
If he can tell me after working 36 years with about 4500 students, that the conclusions I have drawn from experience in the trenches are wrong… I will simply believe that he does not know what he is talking about and has some ulterior motive for the proposal that he is making.
Please defeat, kill, remove…. Whatever it takes …. HB 1671.
Respectfully Submitted,
John Lovering, BA, MST
Dover, NH 03820