Letters To The Editor

Wed., March 8, 1995

IN IDAHO

Let teacher make teaching decisions

Regarding the Feb. 25 article about classroom seating arrangements at Hayden Meadows Elementary, “A table for one,” I wonder who should make decisions about the learning environment in a classroom?

I find it distressing that two parents were able to force changes for everyone in a second-grade classroom because they felt their two children didn’t have enough personal space. These parents also seemed to feel that children sitting in rows, instead of groups, was a step towards getting “back to the basics.”

As a professional educator, I believe those decisions are the right and responsibility of the classroom teacher. The teacher is held accountable for the learning that takes place, therefore the teacher should have the right to choose the methods he or she feels best meet the students’ needs, within the bounds of accepted teaching practices in a school system.

Many teachers believe students need to learn how to work with others in a cooperative, collaborative manner. These skills can only be mastered if opportunities are given to practice them. Skilled teachers carefully plan groups and activities, and social skills, such as showing respect for another’s opinion, are taught. Also, most teachers recognize that a balanced day should include not just small-group activities but opportunities for independent study and whole-class learning.

I’m very pleased with the quality of education my two children are receiving in Coeur d’Alene schools. The basics are being taught by competent teachers who know that there’s more than one way to learn “reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.” Rhonda Ney Coeur d’Alene

Teachers know their stuff

I don’t like this. It isn’t right when two parents can change the furniture in a school. It’s a question of control.

The newspaper stated that the parents considered it a small victory “in their larger efforts to change education for the better.” What plans do they have for tomorrow? Who are they to dictate changes and decide what serves the educational setting best? I would like to see the research that supports their theory.

I’m very concerned that this “victory” will give momentum to more destructive things that are of greater value.

Some in our community think that educators concoct their own philosophy concerning how children learn best. The fact is, they have the same expertise in education as any college graduate has in his or her field. For every activity, demand or exercise, there is a purpose or goal. Tables weren’t chosen because they cheap. They are purposeful!

I trust my car mechanic, my doctor and my children’s teachers. If your trust is gone and you think you could do it better, maybe you should fix your own car, heal yourself and school your own children. Victor Campbell Hayden, Idaho

Puppy paid for master’s neglect

Sunday on Long Bridge, outside Sandpoint, a lovely walk turned into a repulsive finale.

I came upon a puppy that had been brutally killed seconds before I arrived. It was killed by bites and/or strangulation because of being tethered to other dogs.

Two groups of dogs were involved. They fought, one died and others were injured. The owner left the pup behind with a stranger to die with her watching.

Nobody had control of their dogs. Being on a leash or yelling doesn’t mean total control. Developing control means constant obedience training with love and attention.

Be a responsible master of your dog and train it so there is no doubt as to its response to your commands. Develop in it complete trust in what you ask of it. This takes time and effort. If you love your dog and for the safety of you, yours and others, you will do this.

It’s nice to see a dog obey his master, without wavering, when not on a leash, but when in public, a dog needs to be leashed for safety.

The leash was not this puppy’s undoing, it was the neglect of the owners involved.

Please be good masters to your dogs. Control them and the public will welcome you and your dogs for doing so. Sue McClure Sandpoint

Senior center pursues upgrade

The Post Falls Senior Center, 1205 E. Third, is launching a building expansion program to better serve seniors of the Post Falls area.

The planned expansion of about 2,350 square feet will add space for dining and other essential activities at the center. Two rest rooms equipped for the handicapped also are planned. Currently, only one is handicappedaccessible.

To help with costs, the senior center is applying for a federal block grant of $150,000. The grant requires raising matching funds, which can be in the form of cash, materials, labor or pledges of support. Any contributions would be appreciated.

The public may visit the center for lunch any Monday, Wednesday or Friday noon for a good “home-cooked” meal, to tour the facility and to become better acquainted with the services we provide to the senior citizens of the Post Falls area. Betty Dougall, President Post Falls Senior Citizens

Thanks for open-handed support

A gratifying outpouring of support from the community has enabled Big Brothers/Big Sisters of North Idaho to continue operation. In early January, the organization needed about $18,000 to get to its late-March fund raising event, the Bowl for Kids Sake. When things are at their bleakest, you really find out who your friends are. We evidently have quite a few friends in the community.

Thanks to many donations, an emergency disbursing of funds from United Way and a low interest loan from a local business, we now have enough money to operate. Tidyman’s grocery chain has even formulated a program allowing its customers to donate its Vision Value Points to BB/S, which can be turned into needed cash.

The community’s increased support has boosted interest in the bowling fundraiser to the point that a record number of teams is expected.

BB/S’s goal is to develop more and larger fund raising events so the program can expand the number of adultchild matches in North Idaho, currently at 38. Additionally, new members have been added to the board of directors, which adds to the organization’s fund raising abilities.

Anyone interested in giving to BB/S of North Idaho or in sponsoring a bowling team for the upcoming Bowl for Kids Sake event can contact Tina Keel at the BB/S office at 667-0975. Rollie Watson, president Big Brothers/Big Sisters of North Idaho

Reform tax system now

We hear that our government officials wish to balance the budget and reduce the size of government. This is great. But they refuse to start at the top.

Budgeting is not so complex. You have an income and an outgo. We, the American people, are asked to sacrifice every day. We budget every day. But our government won’t make the needed cuts that may hurt it.

What can our congressmen sacrifice? A reduction in wages to start. We pay them $125,000-plus a year. Their health and welfare packages far exceed ours. Their retirement packages far exceed ours. Their vacations and sick leave total up to 30 days a year at the start! They can buy a $100,000 life insurance policy for $17 a month. We can’t even come close to that.

Yet, we the American people, pay for all this. How gullible can we be?

Let us start with government waste and lawmakers’ perks. Then look at a fair tax system. We hear of a flat tax. I think that could be fair for all. I’ll pay 10 percent to the feds and 5 percent to the state.

Do away with capital gains. This tax affects everyone, not just the rich. And do away with property taxes.

Make the system fair for all. Mark Mattern Post Falls

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

GOP forking over to fat cats again

In the crime capital of the United States, the new House members are shoving through their legal version of the Contract with America, 80 pages of new rules and laws designed to relieve corporate America of most of the restraints imposed on it by our health, safety and consumer protection laws.

These rules are vital to the health and well-being of our citizens. The laws should be more specific and stringent rather than weakened or eliminated. We already have more toxic waste dumps than we can afford to clean up.

One GOP goal is to open public lands to drilling, mining, grazing and commercializing our national parks. The deceptively named Job Creation and Employment Act, HB 9, is not directed at providing jobs and the GOP is not returning government to the people; it is handing it to the corporations and the ultra rich, along with half a trillion dollars per year in tax reductions.

It’s time for every citizen to take notice of what is happening and, when injustice or corruption is apparent, to scream long and loud. If those in the 60 percent of the population who could have voted last November but did not would do this, even the echo should be deafening. P.J. Winkelman Spokane

Democrats do as they please

Did we, the American taxpaying public, get the message from our Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., last week, by the failure of the balanced budget amendment?

The message that the Democratic senators gave us, loud and clear, was, We don’t care about what you want, or what you say. All we care about is the Democratic Party and our president. We know that the overwhelming majority of Americans wanted us to pass the amendment; every poll showed that, your calls and letters showed it - but we don’t care! We know more about what is best for America than you do. You elected us, now we will vote as we choose!

Can we afford to continue going further and further in debt year after year, as the current administration is proposing? The president’s plan calls for budget deficits of over $190 billion from now until beyond the year 2000, adding nearly $1 trillion in new debt during the next five years. At this rate, what will we leave for our children and grandchildren? How can Sen. Patty Murray and other Senate Democrats ignore our requests?

Now that they have gotten their message across, let’s be sure that they get ours the next time we go to the polls. Greg Matney Diamond Lake

Good diet essential to learning

Good journalists research their subjects. While Mona Charen’s March 3 Opinion column gives lots of facts and figures, she fails to reveal the structure of how a school nutrition program operates.

Government subsidy for students who do not meet the free and reduced eligibility criteria is imperative to the continued operation of a school lunch and breakfast program.

Participation of non-free and reduced students is what allows school districts to offer nutrition programs to students. If students who do not meet the free and reduced eligibility are not subsidized, participation in the program will be greatly reduced, making school districts unable to continue this lunch and breakfast program for all.

Who suffers? All children, especially the poor. The article asks who benefits. The answer is clear: The children in the short term and society in the long term. Karen Bossard Spokane

ENVRIONMENT

Protecting aquifer not radical

I was appalled by the letter from Lincoln County Commissioner Bill Graedel, who termed “radical” the notion of protecting the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of Eastern Washington residents.

Three years ago the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute hired scientists to seek this protection upon reading a grant proposal from Lincoln County to the Washington Department of Ecology seeking that same protection for its residents. Lincoln County cited the need to protect the drinking water of its residents and the Department of Ecology was ready to write a $78,000 check to pay for it. The fact both of those entities now oppose sole source aquifer designation of the Eastern Columbia Plateau Aquifer System is more an indication of the politics of fright than any change in the scientific reality of the basalt aquifer system.

Commissioner Graedel is correct on one comment. The decision should be based on science, not politics.

U.S. Geological Survey scientists concur that the aquifer system meets all the criteria of a sole source aquifer and should be protected as the sole drinking water source. Scientists residing in Washington state - not Washington, D.C. - will make the final decision as to whether our drinking water is protected from federal dollars. This is not an issue for U.S. congressmen, senators, county commissioners or agribusiness organizations to decide.

Radical is the notion that federal dollars should continue to flow without oversight as to how that fact may contaminate our sole source of drinking water. Those politicians should rethink their position. Bruce J. Arbtin Pullman

Get burned trees out of forests

The U.S. Forest Service needs to get into the 4 million acres of burnt timber to salvage them as soon as possible. The timber already has bugs in it, and later this summer, when the dead trees are completely dried out and the bugs will have multiplied and left the burnt timber, where do you think they will go? They’ll move into the adjacent green trees and kill them.

It makes more sense to remove as many of the dead trees as possible before the bugs move into the green timber. It doesn’t take a nuclear scientist to determine what trees need to be removed; there are only three types: burnt, well-done and toast.

Sen. Larry Craig is not proposing that they ignore the environment. The Forest Service would prepare the environmental assessment - not a full-blown environmental impact statement - and it would also shorten up the appeals process. They need to get on with the program, and remove as much burnt timber as they can.

You can be sure that the Department of Lands in Idaho, the Department of Natural Resources in the state of Washington and the industrial forest landowners are well along with this program on the lands they manage. Frank J. Favor Coeur d’Alene

Letters To The Editor

Trial of security guard from Coeur d'Alene Republican town hall begins with debate on freedom to dissent versus freedom to 'command'

North Idaho flooding damages roads, prompts a rescue and forces evacuations

St. Maries woman dies in crash