Many teachers cry.

• Position: Letter to the editor

Susan Hobart's assessment of the No Child Left Behind idiocy is a sadly accurate description of the impact the law has had on what happens in my classroom ("One Teacher's Cry," August issue). Hobart is absolutely correct when she decries the absurdity of a "one size fits all" approach to education. I also agree that the implicit assumption of the current Administration is that privatizing education would be preferable to a fully supported system of quality public education. It is precisely because of public education's ability to be the great equalizer in the country that the current Administration has worked so diligently to assure its failure.

I encourage Hobart to continue to measure her effectiveness in terms of her students' successes, and I encourage teachers everywhere to do likewise.

Llewellyn Boyle

Turlock, California

I can only echo what Susan J. Hobart stated in her recent article. The U.S. educational system aggravates the usual obstacles to becoming well-rounded citizens capable of making informed decisions about their lives and the lives of their fellow citizens.

Creativity is killed in both teachers and students by an oppressive bureaucratic structure that grossly misunderstands learning processes. Politicians who create laws of accountability themselves are not accountable for their actions when they impose requirements that are not based on research. Having been an educator for more than four decades, I know that children need freedom to learn more than anything else. Witness actual experiences by students in Montessori schools, Waldorf schools, Pillsbury schools in the thirties and forties in Santa Barbara, and other progressive venues. I just returned from visiting the Loris Malaguzzi school in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and the creativity...