So what if mathematics and science education is so poor in Kitsap County? Why should we worry when there are so many unfilled jobs in Starbucks and in Wal-Mart? Why should we worry when there are so many Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, Dutch, Germans, Bulgarians, Singaporeans and countless other peoples who are ready, willing and able to fill the gap, to do the difficult jobs for us? Maybe we can trade some of our kids for theirs — but, please, not before they have graduated from high school.

Why are our kids unable to compete in the world of science and engineering? If you want the answer, ask your local politician/school board member. They are the ones who set the standards. They are the ones who don’t care.

If our kids can’t add and subtract, multiply and divide without a calculator by the time they get out of grade school, don’t blame it on the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Schools: blame it on yourselves. You, the parents, don’t care that your children can’t add or subtract: why then should your children. If you did care you would be attending school board meetings and demanding that you be heard. You would be writing letters to the newspapers, to your school board member and to the superintendent. You would be meeting with the principal of your child’s school and with her teachers demanding to know why your 10th-grade child can’t pass an eighth-grade WASL test. You would be demanding to be told why the student’s math text books are incomprehensible. You would be demanding to know why your son is allowed to play football or be in the band, and a good parent wouldn’t allow him to do so, when he doesn’t have time to study and can’t pass the WASL. You would be demanding that your child not be allowed or encouraged to use a calculator in grade school when he can’t add or subtract, when he can’t make change for a one dollar bill without one. You would be demanding to know why the school district is funding a swimming pool with monies taken from the high school library budgets.

The newspapers really don’t care either. They, lacking any interest in the subject, are afraid to offend the school districts: who would then write their articles on education. Besides that there is so little room in the newspapers for any real discussion about education, having dedicated whole sections to sports. And everyone knows, especially the failures, parents, students and teachers alike, that sports are really more important than education. A local high school is rated academically as one of the top 2 percent of high schools in the entire nation: the story appears a month later on page 10. A local high school loses a state championship game: the story takes up a complete page in the next issue. An athlete gets a big name scholarship, page one: a student is valedictorian of his class, a short note on page eight.

Why do kids from Singapore do so well on math tests and our kids so poorly? It is because their parents demand that they do well. They demand it of the students, the teachers and the government. Why do kids from Bainbridge Island do so much better than kids from Central Kitsap? Is it because they are smarter? No, it is because their parents expect it. Why do Asian kids do so much better than other minorities and the population as a whole? It is because their parents expect it and if expectation doesn’t do the job, they demand it.

So no excuses — get off of your butts and do something about it.

JOHN J. FARBARIK

Silverdale