Dear Editor:
Perhaps my last letter caught your attention. I hope so. I need to clarify one point before going on. By learning disabled I do not mean the physically disabled or the special needs student. In my opinion learning disabled is an entirely different thing. Learning disabled youngsters are the product of the failure of the system. A system which does not work to meet their needs. The basic skills are not sufficiently stressed. According to the latest FSA outcomes, about 20 per cent of our students are not given the tools with which to succeed. Those youngsters flounder.
When the other students move on, those students are left behind or dragged along in bewilderment, finally losing interest in a system that has lost interest in them.
These students are not stupid! These students need our help! That is what education should be about!
In my opinion closing schools and shedding teachers dedicated to helping the learning disabled student is the wrong approach. We should be expanding a variety of small school opportunities for these students. We should be hiring more teachers to help them! We should not be warehousing these youngsters in huge bloated facilities where they can be and are “lost in the shuffle."
We need to reevaluate our educational leadership.

Lin (LB) Wotton
Merritt