Don’t add more for overburdened teachers

To the editor:

    I totally agree that there are problems with the Common Core, the main one being that teachers are being held so accountable from the get-go for a learning style with which the children, unless they started it in kindergarten, have no experience.  A teacher of the Common Core related to me that it  is a better learning method but it takes some getting used to.  I believe in standards and accountability but ones using rubrics based on more than test scores.
    I totally disagree with the practice of individuality in the classroom.  Most classes are about 30 children. Having taught for 44 years and running a lab-based program I can affirm the fact that one person cannot be as accessible as students want/need with six or eight groups, never mind 30 individuals.  Also it is impossible to monitor 30  individuals working independently to ensure that each is indeed on task.
    Total individuality is a Utopian concept.
    Teachers are over-burdened, underpaid and generally not respected sufficiently for what they do.  Let us not demand the impossible on top of the overwhelming task they already perform.

JANE KREISWIRTH
New Rochelle, N.Y.