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The Money is in the Grades

      We've all heard it before: Mr. X is a bad teacher, he only cares about grades, he doesn't teach the material. Then it shouldn't be surprising that this is pretty much the general attitude of the entire faculty and the administration itself. Education is the process of learning to increase skills and general knowledge. In this definition, there is nothing written about grades. That's not to say that grades should be eliminated altogether: they provide important motivation for the students to continue work. However, the primary focus of a high school was and always should remain education, not grades. You may ask why the school would be so concerned about grades? For one, monetary influence exists. The better that the students perform on tests, the more money the school gets. This money can be used towards new technology, and old programs. At first glance, this may seem like an innocent idea to increase learning and gain money for the school. However, if the school is concerned about raising students' grades, there is little left for true education. Students are taught materials intended for generic testing situations and not things that can be applied in real life. How many times have you been able to apply a concept that you
learned in an advanced math course or physics to a real life situation, even if you did get an A in it? Chances are, none. Why? It's not that you did not learn the material, but it's the fact that the material is taught in a way to be memorized for for a test, not to be applied to life. How many times have you been told to show your work? Not using a calculator may increase your mental mathematical abilities, but what good is knowing how to do things in your head or on paper when you don't even know what to do in your head or on paper because the teacher was too focused on teaching testing material and not teaching the real material. A similar situation exists with the STAR and other standardized testing. Students spend weeks in classes preparing for tests, which are actually meant to be taken without much preparation so as to properly analyze the student's general scholarly progress. And what is the point of the tests again? How does it help the students? It doesn't. This time could easily be used to learn to apply concepts that were taught in class. This would yield students who are better prepared for college and better prepared for life. An increase in learning applicable ideas and concepts and a decrease in the menial labor of getting up your grades and memorizing facts would be a step in the direction that all schools are supposed to be headed towards: education.

- Lithium 

Where is the Outrage? 

This editorial was part of a correspondence between Beverly Underground Newspaper and the Masry & Vititoe law firm. The writer does not speak on behalf of the firm, but rather about his own feelings regarding the case.

      Irony abounds in the BHHS oil well case; parents who work long and hard to earn enough to live in a city that offers itself up as "the best of everything" including its schools come to find that the city and school district were willing to knowingly expose their most precious and vulnerable assets (the children) to toxic contamination in exchange for a few dollars a year. The LAUSD abandoned Belmont, its crown jewel, behind much lower toxic readings than BHHS rather than take a chance on exposing any of their students. This is what has struck me about this - where's the outrage? Why is everybody so complacent? Is it the public's perception that BHHS kids are an unsympathetic group of victims because their parents can afford to live in Beverly Hills? Having lived in other parts of the United States, I know from personal experience that if this had happened in some other place, the parents would have done the following:

1) Stormed the school with sledges and jackhammers and knocked it to the ground, then

2) Torched the unified school district headquarters, and

3) Run rampant in City Hall until the National Guard could restore order.

      Nothing even close to that is happening here - barely a whispered "isn't it terrible the school is being sued?" over cappuccinos along Canon Drive. J-Lo and Robert Downey get more press coverage. 

      Everyone associated with this deal should be held accountable for their actions in a court of law. We intend to do our part and let a jury decide what the victims are entitled to according to proof. We are fighting against a "Dream Team" of lawyers and firms defending the city, the district, the oil companies, etc., along with their highly-paid spin doctors. We are buoyed by our belief that our cause is just and that we are seeking to protect kids and the environment from irreparable harm. The other side's cause is.....what is it again? That it's okay to risk the safety of the students and teachers for an annual stipend in an amount less than what it costs to buy a Bentley?

- Bob Roselle, Masry & Vititoe