David Broder’s Monday column on school dropout as a silent American academic epidemic states that a study finds: “The challenge of a tough curriculum, backed by skillful teaching in small classes and plenty of personal counseling, can be a path to success.”

No “study” was needed to know this. It is also the path to a major elevation in American education at all levels and aspects of the enterprise. It would enhance immeasurably the joy of doing the work not least for teachers but also for the youngsters.

It would go a long way toward reducing the need for so many administrators. It would eliminate the shortage of competent teachers in “certain” fields of expertise, and make unnecessary the clumsy apparatus of No Child Left Behind.

John Lyman

Orono