It was very disappointing to read your article about the lack of curriculum in so many schools [“Widespread lack of curriculum in core subjects,” Nov. 3]. As a longtime UFT and CSA member over a career of almost 50 years, I can honestly say that I never began teaching a class without a curriculum and I never asked teachers in my math department to teach a class without supplying them with an appropriate curriculum in advance. 

Sending a teacher into a classroom without a curriculum amounts to educational malpractice and asking teachers to create their own curriculum or write one as they teach the class is indicative of a form of buck-passing that shouldn’t be happening in schools, with the possible exception of obscure electives. 

At the end of my career, as I visited schools, especially small schools, I found that unfortunately no curriculum or curriculum created by a novice teacher was the rule rather than the exception. Textbooks were also in short supply, with teachers copying from a single textbook and distributing the material to students piecemeal on duplicated sheets. Most of these problems could easily be solved if there were real department supervision. 

Possibly, then, it is time to reconsider the value of small schools and the need for real subject-area supervision. One principal can’t do it all. 

Howard Brenner, retired 

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It takes time to look at, interpret and create “curriculum” by looking at the standards. And time is something not many teachers have. Teachers should not be responsible for writing curriculum with all of the other things they have to do.

Deborah Mercado, PS 1, Brooklyn
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