Letters To The Editor

Thu., March 7, 1996

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Shoestring budgets strangle future

As a Lewis and Clark High School student I am confronted with educational inadequacies every day. From the lack of a decent heating system to virtually ancient computers, our schools are in desperate need of community support.

For example, LC’s heating system is so old that it completely breaks down in some sections of the building, while other rooms are practically steaming. The halls are dominated by radiators, some working, others ice cold.

How am I supposed to concentrate in class if I’m simply trying to stay warm? On the other hand, I have been burned by some of these turn-of-the-century devices that are working.

I’m not saying this is a problem familiar only at LC. All public schools experience frustration due to lack of funding. Books become outdated far before schools can replace them. Materials are few and extracurricular activities barely scrape by.

Computers are so important in today’s society, and yet our generation has few chances to really experience this technology through school. Most computers open to students are outdated. Newer, more advanced systems sit in the seldom-used library, carefully guarded.

I watch the potential of these machines go down the drain because most students don’t have the opportunity to use them. When they do, privileges are restricted to the point where the students might as well be using the older computers.

Today’s students are tomorrow’s doctors, teachers and community leaders. Please do whatever you can to get involved with schools, and remember that you are helping the future. Rachel Finnegan Spokane

Candy sales to buy computers?

Recently a grade school boy came to my door wanting me to buy some candy, to provide money to purchase computers for Linwood School.

I think schools should stay current with technology, but don’t we taxpayers already pay for that? And wasn’t a replacement bond passed just a few weeks ago? Why weren’t the computers figured into the dollars required?

One of my school-age children is home schooled and the other attends St. Thomas More. St. Thomas More operates on a tight budget and we manage to stay fairly current with computer technology.

It appears public schools aren’t getting any better at spending our money. Remember this the next time we vote. Steve Haxton Spokane

Feel-good foolishness exposed ,

Three cheers for Doug Clark’s column, “Self-esteem: classroom fad we didn’t need.”

We’ve already lost a couple of generations to this misguided notion of promoting so-called self-esteem at all costs. It’s about time parents and educators wake up and realize a genuine sense of self-worth comes through genuine accomplishments.

Self-esteem is not a commodity that can be purchased, it has to be earned.

Let’s not expect so little from the problem kids that they are rewarded simply for being. It is time to raise our standards and expect great things from all children. The appropriate rewards will come in the form of respect, responsibility, knowledge, etc. Guilt, shame and remorse are powerful motivators - much more so than hollow rewards used to buy good behavior.

Children will live up to exactly what’s expected of them. It’s time to expect more. Diane Delanoy Cusick, Wash.

Back to what works well for all

Doug Clark’s column on the abysmal failure of public education’s focus on self-esteem and its concomitant abandonment of discipline is right on!

He stated, “What problem children need are heaping helpings of old-fashioned remorse, guilt and responsibility.”

Discipline, which holds children accountable, does not harm self-esteem. Rather, it inspires them to express the transcendent dimension of human life, namely, freedom fulfilled in goodness.

Public schools are producing moral illiterates because children are not taught the clear standards of right and wrong that have guided societies throughout history (instead, children are taught to decide for themselves). And, for the sake of self-esteem, they have eliminated natural consequences for wrong choices.

Anti-social, destructive kids have resulted because the common conscience we share, that moral inner logic that guides humanity, is deadened in many students. Their freedom has deteriorated into individual license and arrogance.

Teachers, administrators and school boards must reject the obsession with self-esteem to focus on true character development and natural consequences that ensure children will want to avoid wrong choices and, instead, choose the good.

Parents and educators must take their responsibility seriously to pass on the moral truths that make freedom possible.

Pope John Paul II eloquently expressed, “Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” Cindy Omlin Mead

Beware of trendy education schemes

Charter school and education voucher initiatives will soon come before Washington voters. On the surface, both proposals seem reasonable. Under the surface, both are seriously flawed.

These initiatives have two things in common:

They would require far less accountability as to how the money schools receive is spent than is now the case.

Under neither initiative would a school have to accept any and all students seeking admission.

It should come as no surprise that accountability costs money. Reports that must be filed take administrators’ time. Spending money there means less is spent on the kids.

Also not surprising is that some kids are more expensive to educate and require more effort than others. Those with special needs, behavior problems and parents who don’t provide support at home require extra effort in the classroom. That extra effort translates into either more money for aide time or less of the teacher’s time for kids who don’t have those difficulties.

When honestly looked at, it’s obvious these initiatives would create a two-tiered education system, with one tier holding an advantage over the other. This is wholly unacceptable. Andy James Colville, Wash.

Double standard revealed in N.H.

Pardon me, but I fail to see the distinction. Some New Hampshire teachers say they are stifled in their teaching efforts because their school board says they cannot teach about homosexuality, and that their First Amendment rights are being taken away.

They don’t seem to have that problem when it comes to not teaching about God. Weren’t the works of some of the great authors and playwrights affected by their religious beliefs? Some schools do not even allow the Bible to be taught as literature.

It seems to me hypocrisy to declare that one’s First Amendment rights are being stifled in one area and to accept that same censoring in another.

What does it say about us as a society and as a culture when the disordered becomes more acceptable than beliefs in a higher standard and purpose outside ourselves? Bonita Lawhead Tekoa, Wash.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Meet Smith and help with reform

Voters in the 5th Congressional District will have another opportunity to show their support of the bipartisan Clean Congress Act.

Rep. Linda Smith (R-Wash.), who introduced this bill, HR2566, in the U.S. House, will be at the Red Lion City Center Hotel on March 16. Smith will be in the Gifford Pinchot South Room between 3:30 and 5 p.m. to answer your questions and hear your ideas on how to clean up the system and get the act signed into law.

A companion bill, S1219, is gathering support in the U.S. Senate.

We need to convince congressional leaders that Americans really do care about this issue. We also must persuade Rep. George Nethercutt Jr. there is support for these reforms and that he should sign the discharge petition to bring this bill to the House floor for a vote.

This event is free, open to the public and affords us a chance to meet another member of the Washington state congressional delegation. If you’re unable to attend, call or or write Rep. Nethercutt, our senators and congressional leaders with your thoughts on this measure. Jon J. Tuning Spokane

Chenoweth effluvium boundless

Re: “Chenoweth calls for naval blockade of Cuba” (Handle, Feb. 28): “… what would Ronald Reagan do in a case like this when we look at what he did with Gadhafi?” “We haven’t heard a thing from Gadhafi since he (Reagan) sent those missiles over,” says Chenoweth.

Turn page, B4: “Moammar Gadhafi is building the world’s biggest chemical weapons plant.” “For years this man has been producing chemical and bacteriological weapons. The new plant would make him the largest producer of chemical weapons in the world…”

Major disconnect from reality, Chenoweth. But we have come to expect that from you.

It is disappointing that one who is representing me continues to be either greatly misinformed or intentionally dishonest. Chuck Lipari Priest River, Idaho

Buchanan - a savior for our time

Pat Buchanan is the only presidential candidate who can lead and save our government and Constitution from European desecration, and from becoming a one-world government deity.

Buchanan’s speech in South Carolina’s primary debate was tremendously prophetic, to shake and awaken Americans to the spoils of GATT, NAFTA and one-world government advocated by other candidates. He states that our sovereignty is being destroyed, as is our Constitution. The vultures have already entered our sanctuaries in Congress.

Bush proclaimed, “Read my lips.” I believe it was a foreign language.

I hear Buchanan plead: Open your eyes, open your ears, trust your heart. Your country needs to be saved as never before in history. Angela Eudaley Spokane

Buchanan - Democrats’ hole card

I am a young woman who is scared to think of all the rights I would lose should Pat Buchanan take office - the right to choose what I do with my body and free trade with other countries, just to name two.

I’m not worried, though. If Pat Buchanan is the best the Republicans have to offer, the Democrats are sure to win. Lesli Cornell Spokane

Government types invite hostility

Two stories in the March 2 Spokesman-Review caught my attention: “State seizes boys’ savings for dad’s debts” and “Marshals cited for courage during Ruby Ridge standoff” Both provide classic examples of how arrogant, overbearing and disdainful the government has become toward the people.

Is there no end to what government employees will stoop to? When state Department of Employment Security employees confiscate the savings of 8- and 11-year-olds, something is grossly wrong. When U.S. marshals shoot a 14-year-old in the back and get awards for valor, something is rotten.

In addition, we have Spokane City Manager Roger Crum trying to slip raises through the City Council for himself and his cronies. We have Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley ignoring a citizens committee’s recommendations on the Critical Areas Ordinance and trying to ram through what he wants.

Is it any wonder that Americans treat those in government with distrust, disdain and fear? You wonder why militias are being formed? You wonder why so much government-bashing is going on?

If these government employees and officials continue this type of irresponsibility they are going to be in for one rude awakening. Wayne Lythgoe Colbert

Public’s ineptitude a factor, too

What happened to the electorate? Have we simply stopped caring about the government or who governs? After the 1994 elections it was widely reported that only 37 percent of the electorate voted. Yet one group accepted that as a mandate - quite a stretch.

The apathy some of us feel - probably justified - still begs the question of who governs. It has been noted that after the 1994 elections we elected individuals who were hated immediately for winning the office.

The current complaint centers around presidential candidates not discussing issues of substance.

Within each party there are political clubs that meet once a month for lunch with speakers who are allowed to dribble for 30 minutes - after the across-the-tables chit chat - on appropriate subjects. Where are the “issues of substance” here? If these items are not discussed at the grass roots level, why do we expect the candidates to do so at the national level?

The list goes on and on and leads one to wonder whether we want anyone elected. Is the problem the people or the parties? Edward Thomas Jr. Spokane

Letters To The Editor

Downtown Spokane stadium groundbreaking set for Tuesday

Pandemic project: Dental lab owner Robert Carnell paints pop art abstracts of celebrities

Gardening: Bird feeders safe to hang this winter after salmonella epidemic in 2020