Letters: Parents matter most in education

I began formal education in 1941 in a two-room school a mile from my home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. My brother and I walked to and from school each day. It was not uphill both ways, but it was a long walk for short legs, especially when cold weather intervened.

There was a pot-bellied stove at the front of each room. Our water fountain was a bucket carried from a neighbor’s house. We brought lunch from home. The parents of three of my classmates worked for a local farmer and lived in a house on his property; when there was farm work to be done, those children did not attend school.

My fifth-grade teacher graduated from high school the spring before she began teaching; she had attended teachers’ college during the summer. I had one high school teacher who was eminently unqualified to teach the geometry class consisting of five boys; we taught her.

I am not confident that different classrooms, larger gymnasiums, better athletic facilities including scoreboards and maybe a press box will enhance learning.

I do firmly believe that children whose parents take an interest in and encourage learning can attain higher educational success than those children who are not similarly blessed.

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 2:28 PM.