Dear Editor:

Critics of the public schools are fond of repeating, usually with scant direct evidence, that our public schools are failing. My own views come from recent direct experience with our local Boothbay/Boothbay Harbor schools, and my conclusion is just the opposite: they are succeeding. Schools are largely a reflection of their communities, and I know there are major differences; I am talking about our particular schools, though, I suspect, there are general lessons to be learned. The enterprise of public education is huge! On any given day in America, some 50 million kids from age 5 to 17 are in schools across our country.

Here in Boothbay and the Harbor we play our own part in that large pageant, every day. And every day, most of us drive by, perhaps only vaguely aware of the good things happening up on the rise from Route 27. To get a closer look, Georgia and I spent time in the high school last week, in Mr. Brewer's Geometry class and Ms. Hammond's English class.

In geometry, kids were learning how to prove that an idea about parallel lines might be true or not. This got them into thinking scientifically about the problem; a new idea, relating that idea to something they already know, showing how that idea relates, and concluding that if they do relate in a certain way, then the beginning idea can be said to be true. A lesson for problem solving in life.

In Ms Hammond's class, kids were analyzing poems they had chosen, and small excerpts of prose, and a deep discussion ensued, with 14- and 15-year-old kids discussing human relationships in a poem, "Marriage," by Lawrence Raab, and Greek and Christian imagery in Poe's "The Raven."

Deep thinking, kids growing up, teachers there to help. Public education, here in Boothbay and the Harbor; something to be valued, and fought for.

Bruce MacDonald

Boothbay