Dear Editor,

It’s troubling that an accomplished individual would be leading the charge to expand his organization’s ‘carbon footprint’ in the Florida Keys. Particularly, when such action is based upon antiquated data and pernicious principles governing the manner we educate our students.

Florida Keys Community College President Jonathan Guevara is pushing for an expansive, unnecessary and ill-advised construction project, which will significantly add to the erosion of our fragile aquatic ecosystem.

The massive compilation of concrete, asphalt, glass, noise and pollution; which Mr. Guevara desires to amass on Key Largo is superfluous, without merit and significantly behind the times. Constructing a behemoth warehouse style of a school building , along with a proposed dormitory, is not an answer for our underperforming students. Education and student achievement in this nation ranks last and near the bottom, when measured against our world counterparts.

This out of touch approach, does not appropriately face the needs of 21st century students; while it will crush and compromise the quality of life issues that many hold dear. FKCC’s meaningless and costly misadventure is a nightmare in the making.

Excessive power, water, trash and sewage usage generated by the many thousands, who will regularly traverse the Keys to attend this imprudent blight on the landscape; will create stress, hardship and expense for Monroe County residents.

Traffic congestion, toxic fumes and litter will increase, while our lives and communities are made to suffer from this reckless folly.

Having served as an Adjunct Professor at this college, while being identified as a “distinguished and outstanding educator” via the “Mayor Stephen Clark Children’s Award”; I know that Mr. Guevara’s ill-conceived project will not make one iota of a difference in the quality of instruction rendered unto the students attending said college. It’s the depth, brilliance and creativity of a teacher that stimulates and nurtures student achievement. Not the trappings on the wall, nor the stone, wood or glass structures enveloping the students in their classrooms.

Internet computer instruction and classes, along with a bookless curriculum and classrooms without walls, are the direction in which our world counterparts are proceeding, as they outperform and eclipse the American educational system.

Old and worn out ideas pose a threat to modern education. Those seeking enlightenment and an advanced way of life will no longer settle for rigidity and stereotypical designs of darkness.

Raising consciousness and awareness, while redirecting the focus of our attention upon instructional strategies that will positively impact student achievement and development, are no longer luxuries we can do without.

Let’s at least start by abandoning pricey archetypes and paradigms, which have proven to be ineffective and destructive.

John Donnelly