Re: your May 11 article, "Open classroom debate":

Both of my children attended open classroom. One is now a college graduate, sigma cum laude and starting her first job, the other is in his first year at Cal Poly. Open classroom worked well for my children and myself. Here are some ways we benefited.

My children became independent thinkers, able to solve problems on their own.

My children became self-directed in their approach to their assignments in middle and high school requiring much less of my own oversight.

My children went from no grades (they don't' get them in open classroom) to honor roll and, for my daughter, the career of her dreams.

My son went from asking me to kiss him goodbye in the parking lot of his preschool to sitting in my lap in magic circle.

My children knew how much their father and I valued their education; they saw it every week because we volunteered.

My children heard "I liked it when " on a regular basis from their teacher.

My children were treated with respect.

My children learned alongside some student with disabilities, valued their strengths and considered them friends. They have a totally different mind-set than I do when meeting someone "different."

I watched some awesome teachers teach and learned how it felt to be treated with that much respect.

I learned something about empowering students and not needing to take credit for their accomplishments.

I had many moments of being inspired, enthralled and touched deeply in some way.

I got to be a part of my kid's life and see the world they were in when I was away.

I knew their friends, their friend's parents and their teachers.

I have also heard some painful rebukes directed toward this program, the most undeserved was the middle-school math teacher who ridiculed the program with "What did you do, count beads?" (A remark to my daughter the first day of middle school in response to her wish to answer a question about what math book she had used.)

I am saddened that Pleasant Valley School District decided to dismantle its open classroom program. It is sad that this program that works so well for many children needs to endure the opposition of school boards who either have not learned to empower programs without needing to take credit or who are so fearful of losing the money these students bring to the district that they would rather deny the needs of these programs or destroy them in order to retain their own power and control.

It is my belief that the needs and the best interests of the students should come first, whatever the difficulty, hardship or outright unrecognized hard work of administrators.

Reta Tyree lives in Ventura.