As a follow up to my OEN piece "SOS to American Politicians: Save Our Schools!" I am writing an open letter to the Honorable Jerry Brown, the Governor of California, urging him to establish a national showcase multi-year program using Gary Simpkins' approach to reading instruction in the public schools in Oakland. John Rickford, the African American linguist at Stanford University, is familiar with Gary Simpkins' work.

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To: The Honorable Jerry Brown, Governor of California

Dear Governor Brown:

I recently published a 1,700-word op-ed piece online at OpEdNews.com with the title "SOS to American Politicians: Save Our Schools!" As a follow up to that piece, I am writing this open letter to you to urge you to undertake establishing a national showcase multi-year program in the schools in Oakland, California, where you ate one time served as mayor.

Now, as you may know, Pope Francis in his eco-encyclical criticizes what he refers to as the technocratic paradigm that dominates global capitalism today. In effect, the pope calls for a paradigm shift, even though he does not happen to use the expression "paradigm shift" (which, as you may know, is associated with Thomas Kuhn).

In my estimate, the technocratic paradigm prevails today in other arenas of discourse as well.

Please don't misunderstand me here. I am not, in principle, opposed to quantitative measures. For example, in my op-ed piece, I mention pre-tests and post-tests on standardized IQ tests.

However, when we turn our attention to testing in elementary and secondary schools, I am a bit wary of frequent testing.

In my judgment, the quantitative measures that should be monitored are the graduation rates and the dropout rates.

Now, in the fall of 1969, I was hired to teach writing in a national showcase program at the community college campus in the City of St. Louis. Over a period of ten years (1969-1979), I taught approximately 1,000 inner-city black youth in the City of St. Louis and in New York City (in 1975-1976).

The national showcase program in which I taught had the second highest per student cost on campus -- second only to the cost per student in the nursing program.

Joseph P. Cosand was the founding president of the community college district in the St. Louis area. He built the campus in the City of St. Louis, the two campuses in St. Louis County, and the administrative center in the City of St. Louis. (As you may know, Ferguson, Missouri, is in St. Louis County.)

When Cosand left St. Louis, he took a high-ranking position with the U.S. Department of Education.

Cosand and two other campus administrators (William Moore, Jr., and Richard C. Richardson, Jr.) did a lot to publicize that national showcase program. As a result, a steady flow of visitors visited the program. At the time, community colleges were opening across the U.S. at the rate of one a week. At that time, the community college district in St. Louis was considered to be one of the two top multi-campus districts in the country -- the other being Miami-Dade.

Now, in my view, Arthur R. Jensen of Berkeley focused with laser-like focus on IQ test scores.

In turn, I focused with laser-like focus on Jensen's work, although I did read related works about IQ.

There can be no doubt that certain kinds of year-long instruction can help students raise their IQ test scores. That has been established more than once.

But then "backsliding" (i.e., sliding back on IQ test scores) sets in.

So certain kinds of intensive instruction (immersion instruction) need to be used over a period of years.

As I say, Cosand, with the complete cooperation of the elected Board of Trustees, established a national showcase program that had the second highest cost per student on campus -- second only to the nursing program in cost per student.

As I say, faculty from new community colleges around the country visited that national showcase program.

That national showcase program was counselor-heavy. Alice M. Thelen did a number of studies of the program that may still be available at the ERIC database. She also did her doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin on the program, focusing on the counseling dimension of the program.

William Moore, Jr., also published a book about the program, Against the Odds (Jossey-Bass, 1972).

If you would like to learn more about the late Gary Simpkins' work, which I mention in my op-ed piece "SOS to American Politicians: Save Our Schools!" you should contact the African American linguist John Rickford at Stanford University.

Perhaps you could enlist Professor Rickford's services to help set up a national showcase multi-year program in Oakland, California, based on Gary Simpkins' work. Professor Rickford might be willing to help set up a national showcase multi-year program in Oakland.

If I'm not mistaken, one national showcase multi-year program using Gary Simpkins' work should do the trick, provided that it is effective and adequately publicized.

Best wishes for your work as Governor of California.

Respectfully,

Thomas J. Farrell, Professor Emeritus

Department of Writing Studies

University of Minnesota Duluth

Authors Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

Authors Bio:

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.

On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview

Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview