Letters

Wrong Number
Lynn Bonsey’s article “Dial T for Teacher” (My Turn, January) sent a chill up my spine. Not only would I never give out my home number to my students, I don’t even let them know the name of the town that I live in.

Maybe Surry, Maine, is like the idyllic Mayberry RFD, but I teach in a large suburban school district just outside Washington, D.C. Twenty years ago, as a new teacher and single mother, I moved to an apartment just a few blocks away from the high school where I was hired. I wanted to be part of the community and have my two children, then three and eight, grow up in the town where I worked.

I laughed off the first incident when a carload of students came by on a Saturday night and yelled out for me to come party with them. I even tried to ignore the obscene phone calls.

But the day after report cards came out, I discovered someone had thrown a brick through my bedroom window, flattened the tires on my car, and spray-painted obscenities on my front door. I recognized the handwriting and the mis-spellings.

I moved to the next county. Ever since then I’ve paid to have my phone number unlisted. With the advent of caller ID I don’t even call parents from my home phone.

Margaret Bartley
Montgomery County, Maryland

Way to Go!
Congratulations to Barbara Morgan (Interview, January) for her strength and perseverance in becoming not only a teacher, but an astronaut in training.

Southwest Wisconsin teachers had the opportunity to hear Marsha Ivins, a veteran of four space flights, present a stimulating recount of her experiences.

Educators should sit up and take notice of these professional women in space, but so should our up-and-coming future—the children in our classrooms.

Marcia Chambers
Lancaster, Wisconsin

Bytes for Beginners
With a little care, the modern searcher has a tremendous advantage because of the search engine, as explained in Bits & Bytes (January).

Search engines are a funny breed. They are mechanical in their routines, but they seem almost human in their quest to make sense of a user’s request. Following the rules presented in the article will reduce a user’s time considerably, but I would like to offer one tip that has helped me immensely.

When I first started searching on the Internet, I simply typed in a keyword that I was looking for (on Alta Vista), not realizing that the engine would produce any and everything that has this combination of letters in it.

I soon found that limiting my search by adding quotation marks quickly produced better results. I’m not sure if this works with all search engines, but it has been very beneficial for me.

Albert Baggetta
Agawan, Massachusetts

The “Good News for Reading” article (Bits & Bytes, January) was an eye-opener for me. It’s great to know that “CNN Newsroom” offers a Web site with lesson plans that can go along with our educational program.

As a teacher, I’m always interested in finding new methods to improve my students' reading skills and to better meet the needs of all my students. Getting students to enjoy reading is very important.

In order for students to be successful in reading, you need to build a strong reading program. Using a variety of resources will do that.

I would like to thank Wanda Zamorano for this information.

Judy Pounds
Durham, North Carolina

21st Century Schools
Our goal for public education in the next century should be more than survival (Debate, January).

The time has come for us to overhaul our outdated educational system before outsiders do it for us. After all, the current factory model of education, where we warehouse children in buildings that resemble prisons, has changed very little over the last nearly 100 years.

Yes, we have tinkered endlessly with the system, but the basic institutional structure of school has changed negligibly over that time.

The first thing to change is the idea of Carnegie Units where “seat time” equals learning. Education is not a function of time. Education should be about what one can do, rather than how long someone “has been exposed to learning,” quietly sitting in seats listening to others.

The belief that all students a certain age need to learn the same thing at exactly the same time and rate is ludicrous.

Most adults would agree that much of their education was meaningless—and, at times, mind numbingly boring.

Yet our schools have changed little, and we wonder why our children loathe going to school for 12 years and set “getting through” as their primary purpose for being there.

If we do not set about improving education as a priority for the 21st century, we won’t have to worry about much else.

David Fiore
Bend, Oregon

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
In regard to the response from Renae Hanson (Letters, January) on paraprofessionals, I don't think the issue here is whether teachers should receive a duty-free lunch while the “aides” relieve them. The issue is a matter of respect!

While the teacher probably receives at least one duty-free prep each day, the para is off to another classroom enriching and reinforcing the learning of yet another group of students. No break for her!

While we’re comparing (paralegals to attorneys), let’s look at the percentage of dues compared to the salary of both paras and teachers. The para pays a whole lot more!

Paras do not profess to be teachers. But they are human beings. And as for you “having” a para, you do not have a para. The para is there to assist and enhance the lessons, working alongside the teacher—not for her!

Rachelle Hafey
Howell, New Jersey

About the E-Rate
I take exception to your praise of the E-rate as discussed in your November issue (Interview).

First, the E-rate is a tax, imposed mostly on businesses (I know: Besides teaching full-time, I own a business), and cleverly disguised on our monthly phone bills.

Second, the E-rate is oppressive to Internet service providers. One of the owners of a local ISP told me recently that he could provide the 15 schools in our district free Internet access on his system for less money that he is paying as a tax, on his phone bills, to support the E-rate!

Third, your reference to learning more about E-rate using www.fcc.gov is incorrect. There is no reference to E-rate anywhere at that site.

Alan Kent
Sebring, Florida

Editor’s note: The background on the E-rate appears on the Web at www.sl.universalservice.org.

Academic Freedom
I have been an active member of NEA and the Georgia Association of Educators for 16 years. I have just finished re-reading your November 1998 article, “Academic Freedom Takes a Hit.” I cannot believe that it laments a higher court’s rejection of the use of profanity and R-rated films in America’s public schools.

How sad it is that people think like this today!

You should be glad we have some strong limitations on these practices where our young people are concerned, and you don’t have to worry that there’s going to be too much censorship—we Americans have very little of that once we graduate from high school.

If public schools don’t start teaching more of what is right and good, our nation is going to end up with many more adults whose consciences have been seared—and some of them might become your next-door neighbors!

I believe the Holy Bible is right when it says, “Raise up children in the way they should go, and they will never depart from it.”

You should believe it, too.

D.S. Wesson
Doraville, Georgia

On Gun Control
In a letter in the November issue of NEA Today, an Iowa teacher compares the death toll of guns to that of automobiles. Such a comparison needs to be examined more closely.

To drive a car, a person must pass a test, which, for many people, is the most difficult test they will ever take. Perhaps we should do the same for guns. Every vehicle must be registered every year with the state, and in some states must pass inspection every year. Compare that to guns.

Dozens of safety devices are featured on automobiles, many required by law. The NRA will not allow even one safety device to be required by law on guns.

Hundreds of thousands of laws govern every aspect of the use of motor vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers spend much of their time enforcing these laws. By comparison, the laws governing the use of firearms are miniscule.

Every vehicle owner must pay hundreds of dollars per year for insurance, in case the vehicle is in an accident or is misused.

Shouldn’t we do at least as much for guns?

A more complete comparison would also include the basic purpose, or function, of motor vehicles and firearms and their relative contribution to society.

Eugene Carlson
Mitchell, South Dakota

Out of Place
While I wish the best for all peoples, the article about sweatshop child labor (News, November) was incomplete and misplaced. As my daughter asked, “But what will 12 cents buy in China? Perhaps a lot.”

Please don’t try to apply American standards to other countries. And the article, while compassionate, does not belong in a publication that serves American professional educators. Perhaps the editorial section of the Sunday New York Times would be a more appropriate place.

Gary Wilson
Northeast, Maryland

Faulty Comparison
Keith Ensminger’s comments about the meaningless comparison between American and Asian school systems (Letters, November) were right on the money as far as homework and instructional duties are concerned, but there is much more to be said about cram schools and other factors.

Over half of all Japanese junior high and high schoolers attend cram schools (private, for-profit test-preparation institutions) on evenings and weekends, in hopes of achieving higher scores on high school and college entrance examinations.

Cram schools teach students how to take standardized tests and instruct them in accelerated versions of the national curriculum for math, science, and language arts. The Japanese invest tremendous amounts of time and money in cram schools because, in Japan, one’s alma mater determines one’s career choices to much higher degree than in the United States.

Anne Hooghart
Battle Creek, Michigan

NEAT Redesign

As I read magazines, I find that NEA Today is too tall, a little flimsy, and more difficult to control (on the order of a newspaper). Have you noticed?

Donna Fredrick
Grand Island, Nebraska