Dear Editor:

I visited the Boothbay Region Elementary School last Thursday and had the opportunity to spend some time in two classes. I spent time in Hildy Johnson's fifth grade, where I watched kids doing a variety of projects in Social Studies and Language, and later spent time in Sandy Wheeler's eight grade math class where kids were working in teams on math problems. In both classes I watched experienced, patient, careful teachers working one-on-one with students according to their needs.

Is your image of public school that old-fashioned one where the teacher stands up front and lectures while students sit passively in class? If so, that image would be mistaken. In today's public school, the classroom is all about individual attention and as much variety in instruction as possible, including, of course, the use of computers and the internet. The classes I saw well reflected this kind of approach.

Public schools are under attack by well-funded corporations and political right-wingers who seek to dismantle the public schools, replacing them wherever possible with privately governed charter schools, often run as for-profit institutions, using your taxpayer dollars to do all this. As an example of this attack, President Trump has nominated a billionaire charter school advocate to be the national Secretary of Education. It's time to get behind our public schools and support them and to work with them and others in the community who want to help make them better.

I urge my fellow community members to learn more about how the schools are doing these days, and to join the conversation about making them even better. Our public schools welcome visits, welcome questions, and will be glad to talk with anyone with ideas or questions.

Bruce MacDonald

CSD School Committee

Boothbay