Regarding the Rowan-Salisbury School System:

Has anyone thought of segregation? This has nothing to do with race but identifying students that care and want to learn and then establishing a trade-school system, much like those in use in Europe, for those who just don’t care enough to study and, in the process, drag the rest of the class down to their level. Have a cut-off level of 85 or better on all subjects. For those with an 84 or lower, segregate them into the trade schools. By the same token, it would give those who care a better chance at college-level work without sitting there wondering what in the world the professor is talking about, because the student would hopefully remember what they learned in high school.

Race has nothing to do with my thoughts. It is to separate the ones who care enough to crack their books and read and learn from those who will not do it but want the world to hand them their education and everything later in life on a silver platter. Maybe it will create enough concern for them and their parents to push them to at least study and get their grades out of the pits of the quagmire they are in, sinking lower and lower with each year of school.

This should start in the first three grades. Get back to the basics of learning — reading, writing and arithmetic. If they don’t do well on grades, then hold them in during recess until they do it right. Cut out the calculators and let the students learn the basics like we did in the ’40s, ’50s and before then. Yes, this will put a hardship on the teachers, but pay them well enough so that they will have a reason to teach properly.

— Don Bland

Salisbury