Dear Spartan Speaks,
First of all, we’d like to say that we are supporters of your newspaper, and we understand the time and commitment it requires to put together the finished product.
We are writing to you today, however, in regards to the recent Spartan Speaks newspaper article about the math department and honors courses. We feel as a math department that the article missed certain topics (which in our eyes are extremely important) and was misleading. We see the article as very one-sided…students who are not in honors math classes who want in. However, we noticed that no honors student or honors teachers were asked to respond; is there a particular reason as to why? Or, why wasn’t an honors teacher or even a counselor interviewed about our entry process or who/how/why we recommend or do not recommend students to take honors?
There is a reason to our process for students to enter into the honors level math classes. Our honors classes use different books, and therefore, they cover more material. They also go more in depth on topics that are needed to be successful in the next honors class. This is why we require students to take a test to get into honors. We need to make sure that you know those topics because those concepts will be expanded on in the next course. Our honors classes also move at an extremely fast pace, and the material you are learning is difficult. We want to make sure that students are put in the correct math class where they can be successful and learn the needed material to do well in the next level. Students should not feel dumb because they are not in an honors level math class, and that is never our intention as a math department. Math is a hard subject for most students, and if you asked most of the math teachers here at Orono, we were not even in an honors level math class when we were in high school. Just because you are not in honors, doesn’t mean you are bad at math and can’t be successful in the subject. The seven of us would be proof that statement is false.
Again, we feel as a department that the article was misleading, which could have been avoided if the student who wrote the article would have asked either a math teacher to read the article before it was sent to print or interviewed students who are on the other side of this situation.

Sincerely,

the OHS Math Department