This is not to second guess the Gustine Unified School District Board of Trustees’ decision to reduce the math requirement at Gustine High School. They know their resources, budget, staff, schedule, students, parents and voters.

The decision does put the ball in the students’ and parents’ court, and to some extent the community’s.

I would ask the students to look at the courses they are choosing and ask themselves why they are choosing them. Are they the easiest courses? Are they going to insure them a job right out of high school? What about 10 years after high school?

My father, John H. Jensen, read a lot of Western Story magazines when he was homesteading in the Bare Gulch on the Garzas Creek in the ‘30s. The country was working its way out of the Depression. Ad after ad in those magazines was for self-help “courses” to improve job skills.

Even if you are not planning on college now, are you sure you will never have to retrain for a new job? Open a college handbook and flip through the pages looking for the word “pre-requisite.” You’ll find that math is often the “gate keeper” for many subjects.

You may not need Algebra II right now, but one thing the next math class always does is build on and review the skills you learned in the last class. My son, a graphic designer, did not need trigonometry to get into Cal Poly, but it helped him with the SAT and with other courses once he got to Cal Poly.

The choice is yours now. Choose with care and then work hard in the courses you choose.

Gertrude Jensen Sheffield

GUHS Class of 1963, Retired Campbell Union High School math teacher