Country's teachers have an important job to do

This is an open letter to the children and parents of Sandpoint. For the past two months I have been substituting at the middle school and high school in Sandpoint. First, let me say that the kids around here are great kids. These are excellent schools. Still, I hear the same comments from kids that I have heard from the early seventies: "Why do I have to learn this? I'll never need to know that."

I have an answer that is hard for kids and some grown-ups to understand. In middle school and high school, students are really still learning how to learn. Algebra and foreign languages are new, real challenges, requiring that students be patient with themselves.

They may have to study the explanations for some time before they understand them. One great thing to do is to learn to trust that your own mind can learn. Remember, it is really only at the Ph.D. level that one is expected to be able to tackle difficult new information and theories on his/her own.

In classes where I found the students being disruptive, it was often because they really didn't understand the assignment. I found myself working very hard at the beginning of each period to be sure students understood what to do.

In some cases it became clear as I went around the room that nothing I had said had gotten through with a particular student. The student may have learning problems or be over-anxious. As each student understood what to do, the behavior problems stopped. Now I address this need for understanding first.

I tell the students once each has settled down to work how relieved I am that they now know what to do. I also tell them how much I want them to succeed. Our teachers have an important and complicated job.

RUTH RAHIMI

Priest River