Your Feb. 22 editorial from the Scripps Howard News Service compared our schools with the schools in Europe and depicted how our children were falling way behind other children of the leading nations of the world. It noted that parents should be alarmed and do something about the situation.

The editorial went on to report that a study made by The National Center on the Education Quality of the Workforce, in conjunction with the Bureau of Census, showed that many employers refuse to hire young people fresh out of school and demand several years of work experience before they will consider a prospective hire. The editorial portrayed a very dim view of U.S. schooling.To all of this, I most heartily agree, but I would like to offer a solution to parents and educators:

Remove all current activities from the curriculum that don't pertain to true educational goals. One little country in Europe does it this way: Driver's Ed is taught out of the schools by private corporations. All band, orchestra and choirs are taught out of the schools by private foundations that are funded by donations from the public that are given tax write-offs.

All sports are handled likewise. There is no competition between schools. I observed that the children of this nation are well-served by this system, and they love it. The sports and music foundations are well funded by this method, and there were no students who wanted these activities but went without, as they were able to obtain them without paying for it out of their own or parents' pockets.

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No students were allowed to drive cars to school. For gymnasium classes, such as swimming, they were bused to centers. Individual high schools did not have their own swimming pools. When students reached 13 or 14 years of age, they were encouraged to choose a career. They were then bused to the school that would promote this career. Even the colleges and universities of this country did not have competitive sports.

Our schools have become the vassals of the sports entertainment world. Football, basketball and tennis professional sports have profited immensely from our system, and they give nothing back. The taxpayer foots the bill for all of it, and as Scripps Howard News Service says: Our children are being dangerously shortchanged.

John M. Limburg

Murray

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