Thank you to Orcas Island Education Foundation for lab tables | Letter

Published 10:21 am Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanks to a very generous donation by the Orcas Island Education Foundation, the rickety old lab tables in the Orcas Island High School have now been replaced with sturdy new ones. The old ones were not very high quality to begin with and were more than 15 years old. Despite the efforts of several science teachers and the maintenance crew, the legs were so weak that they were literally  collapsing. Were we to have an earthquake, I told my students that we will not duck-and-cover, we will flee the building!

But not now. The new ones are excellent. They are very well built and the students love them. On behalf of this year’s science students and on behalf of the many students who will benefit in the future, I sincerely thank OIEF for funding this basic, classroom necessity.

On the other hand, I fail to understand why OIEF should have to even be asked to help with such a basic, classroom necessity when it is our state’s primary duty to adequately fund schools. The lack of funds to replace these tables is not the local District’s fault. The state is not adequately funding school. In my opinion, as a teacher for more than 25 years, organizations such as OIEF should enhance learning by funding materials beyond the state’s responsibility, not instead.

Gregory Books

Science teacher