In response to Steve Skutnik’s letters to the editor from Thursday, Sept. 3: Mr. Skutnik, might I make a suggestion?

Before accusing someone of having an inherent fault in their personality, (from which you are so righteously free) you may find it helpful to consider other alternatives.

You see, Mr. Skutnik, you did not go through the same school system as Jessica Bittner.

I went through the Council Bluffs Community School system and therefore have a much better idea of what Ms. Bittner was talking about than you do.

My senior year of high school, I took homework home once because I had a take-home test.

At that time, I was taking a full course load including such classes as second semester college AP calculus.

I also took AP physics, AP English and I was a lab aid for AP chemistry among other courses.

All in all, my last year of high school I came up with a grand total of 19 college credits which I transferred to Iowa State.

Not once did I do an assignment at home, have to study for a test or ever actually worry about anything related to academia.

In the Council Bluffs Community School System, this is very doable.

Now, I am not aware which of the three high schools in the area Ms. Bittner went to, but I can say this:

The difficulty she is experiencing in her first week at college IS the fault of her school system because I went through the same one.

Any suggestions for what I could have made of my high school education, Mr. Skutnik?

I didn’t have to work a single minute of my last year in high school and I still had a four-point.

When I got here it was a very different story.

Work to be done, assignments made, expectations existing.

You see, Mr. Skutnik, if the school system does not challenge, does not teach, does not encourage academics, does not create an environment conducive to learning, it is not doing its job.

Unless you have a different idea of what high school should be.

Maybe it is supposed to be one big Pep Rally?

If it is, I’m sure surprised.

How is a student supposed to know they are expected to work in two or three years when they don’t have to work at that moment?

I knew no differently in high school.

How was I to know that I would ever have to work hard?

I didn’t.

I had no reason to believe college would be different, and I had tremendous difficulty when I got here because of it.

So step off your “Holier than thou” pedestal, Mr. Skutnik.

And next time, before you lash into the character of someone you don’t know, do yourself and others a favor.

Consider that maybe, just maybe, someone else had it different than you did in your own little utopian society of “I can do anything.”

In many cases high schools ARE to blame, and not the students.

Perhaps you are correct.

Perhaps Ms. Bittner is a slacker, but having been through the same school system I don’t think that is a call which you should be making.

I think it is much more likely that Ms. Bittner went to a high school that did not do its job in preparing Ms. Bittner for post-secondary education, with a kangaroo court school board and high school administrators who had no spines.

So if in your second week here at Iowa State you find it necessary to appoint yourself The Character Judge and Jury at Iowa State, please stop.

Use the brain which you so praised yourself for using in high school and please try to draw from the vast pool of experiences from the people you meet here, instead of your own egocentric existence.

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Erik Edwards

Senior

Chemical engineering