Clueless Dolts
I read Thomas F. Allen's Nov. 15 letter regarding the Tailhood judgment with a disbelieving shake of the head. I am continually amazed by clueless dolts who just don't get it.
Let's take it from the top -- again.
Women in the service of their country do not expect to become the sexual targets of intoxicated libidinous officers under the illusion that they are somehow entitled to take whatever liberties they wish with impunity.
The only "deplorable, despicable and total miscarriage of justice" is that it has taken this long to reach a satisfactory conclusion. The $7 million in judgments is just to make sure the message hits home.
Noreen T. Startt
Baltimore
Rush-mania
As your Nov. 27 letter writer confessed, she should fear Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Limbaugh is supported by a growing audience in the millions across the nation.
They are fed up with the country's failing welfare state which is more interested in its own power structure than pulling people out of poverty.
As a result of this misdirection, it's not safe to walk to the neighborhood mailbox after sunset.
Another reason for some to fear Mr. Limbaugh is that his expanding media empire, which the writer complains about, is breaking through the nation's decaying liberal media bastions (evidenced by declining newspaper and news magazine circulation and fewer TV news program viewers).
Mr. Limbaugh is a Republican, but his message is conservatism vs. liberalism. Like it or not, America's roots will not firmly attach to any government bureaucracy or special interest group when its main concerns are self-perpetuation or opposition to the free market system.
The writer confuses Mr. Limbaugh's sarcasm about certain leaders of special interest groups or minorities with having a lack of compassion or racial prejudice.
It is refreshing to hear a national media voice criticizing spokespersons who use others' misfortune to enrich themselves, Limbaugh's point being that failed leadership and failing programs should be challenged and changed.
In fact, part of his growing audience is from the groups he is accused of maligning.
Rush Limbaugh generates fear in some minds because the truth has never been so blatantly spewed out across America's airways.
The writer is correct that the whole Limbaugh phenomena will end one day. But one can only hope that when it does, the nation will be a little better because Rush Limbaugh told it as it really was.
Ron Walker
Baltimore
Exhuming Booth
As the two historians and two descendants of John Wilkes Booth who are leading the effort to have his alleged remains exhumed and examined, we feel compelled to respond to the Nov. 11 letter from the director of the Surratt House Museum, Laurie Verge.
Ms. Verge's contentions are mistaken. The materials she references do not, in fact, serve to disprove the Booth escape theory, but merely further convolute the matter and demonstrate the need to resolve this historical controversy.
We are particularly appalled that she stands behind the works of Henry Ford and Fred Black in support of her position. These are the same individuals who published the outright fraudulent and anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the findings of which purported to prove that the Jews were trying to take over the world.
The fact is that both relatives and friends who personally knew John Wilkes Booth attested that he lived past 1865.
And John P. Simonton, a former attorney for the War Department from 1877 to 1920 who had custody over the government's files on Booth, executed an affidavit stating that "the fact that John Wilkes Booth was captured could not be established before any court in the United States."
The Booth family has been anything but misled in their endeavor to ascertain the fate of their infamous relative.
In fact, they are incredulous that attempts by strangers are being taken to block our efforts at uncovering the truth. No matter what the result of the exhumation, historical accuracy will be ensured, the family will be content and a contribution will have been made.
Nathaniel Orlowek
Silver Spring
This letter was also signed by Arthur Ben Chitty of Sewanne, Tenn., Virginia Kline of Philadelphia and Lois Rathbun of Providence, R.I.
Kudos, Gov
Now that the gubernatorial contest has at long last been decided, it seems especially appropriate for those of us who have not always agreed with the outgoing governor to offer a special salute to an extraordinary man.
No Maryland politician in this century has given more of his life, his sincerity and his energies to the well-being of the people of Baltimore and Maryland than William Donald Schaefer.
Would that there were more of his character, stature and caliber in either party. Thanks, Gov. We will miss you.
Scott Ditch
Baltimore
Rotten Air
Did I miss something? Peter Jensen's article on new emissions testing (Nov. 27) was the first I'd seen on this program.
I didn't know the Environmental Protection Agency was unhappy with Maryland's testing program. I didn't know that you couldn't just change the parameters of the current test to make it more in tune with the EPA standards.
I didn't know the old testing facilities were unsuitable for the new program and we needed a $96.9 million dollar contract to make that right.
I didn't know that without referendum Mr. Rickert could double the cost of the test to automobile owners; increase the testing time by approximately seven-fold; and institute a procedure which can penalize the people of Maryland up to $450, a sum which lots of folks don't have, based on the competence of some minimally paid, minimally motivated workers operating highly complex, sophisticated data processors.
I don't understand where the elected representatives of the people of Maryland were when all this was going on. I don't understand why the state of Maryland didn't try to negotiate a better deal with the EPA -- obviously Mr. Jensen believes other states have.
I don't understand why we need to use state-of-the-art meters and fans to measure invisible pollution from our cars when we don't even question buses and trucks as they belch visible, vile pollutants into the air. (Or are they part of the new program? Did I miss that too?)
And I really don't understand why none of this came to light until after the elections.
Is there rotten air in Maryland? You bet! And I think we owe it to our children and their children to clean it up. But at this point I don't think all the pollution comes from gasoline engines.
Walter Abbott
Columbia
Why Schools Use 'Whole Language'
I write in response to the letter from Catherine Froggatt (Nov. 19), in which she accuses the Baltimore County Public Schools of neglecting our duty to teach children to read.
She knows why third graders have scored lower than usual on one particular norm-reference test: It's because of a teaching method called whole language. She can even trace the date when all this neglect began.
I wish explanations to complex issues could be that easy. However, to paraphrase H. L. Mencken, I have learned there is, indeed, a simple answer to any thorny problem -- and it's always wrong.
Quite simply, there is no magic date when, all of a sudden, teachers abandoned one method of reading instruction for another.
Teachers, just like parents, are not monolithic in their behavior. Neither are they, thank goodness, slaves to the educational trends they must endure annually.
To say that third graders' scores are low and fifth graders' scores are high because one group learned to read with whole language and one with phonics is not only naive, it is insulting to the teachers and to the students.
It also shows a lack of understanding of whole language and classroom practices. Whole language, which relies heavily on the teaching of phonics, merely states that children learn to read by a "whole" range of strategies, phonics included.
Whole language is a method of teaching reading that has children reading out of a wide range of books, from "basals" (what we used to call "readers" when we were in school) to challenging stories, novels and texts, depending on the age and abilities of the child.
Whole language has teachers prepare kids for reading experiences by motivating them with interesting discussions, encouraging the participation of all of them, teasing their imaginations, laying the groundwork, so to speak.
The class then reads the story, usually with the teacher, enjoying the book for itself, for its plot, for its thought-provoking ideas.
Then the kids complete, on their own, in small groups, or individually with the teacher, activities that improve their skills. Activities like phonics drills, among many others. Curriculum guides and teacher resources are full of them. Teachers create their own, too.
Schools use whole language methods because they are flexible, readily adaptable for students.
Schools use whole language methods because whole language recognizes that most people cannot learn to read without learning phonics, the sounds of letters and their combinations.
Despite what the simplistic commercials on AM radio tell us, phonics instruction is alive and well in classrooms.
Schools use whole language methods because educators, and most parents, are suspicious of any teaching method that claims to be "the answer" for all students.
If we have learned anything about how people learn, it's that all people learn in different ways, at different rates. Any parent with more than one child knows that.
PD The days of one method of instruction -- good for some kids, the
rest be damned -- are over.
Mrs. Froggatt has asked the school system to investigate its reading/language arts curriculum. We have done so.
She has asked us for background material. We have given it to her.
She has asked to meet with us. We did that, were impressed with her sincerity and have learned much from our discussions with her.
She has asked to present her opinions to the superintendent and his staff. We gave her that opportunity.
She has asked that we re-emphasize phonics instruction with teachers. We have done that and continue to do so.
We have, thanks to her heartfelt assiduousness, re-examined some of the suggestions in our curriculum guides.
We have provided teachers with additional materials about the importance of teaching phonics. We have intensified our staff development for teachers of reading. (All teachers, incidentally, are teachers of reading.)
We have analyzed our curriculum. It is balanced, research-based and appropriate. We will not abandon it.
It contains countless references to the teaching of phonics. Teachers know that they must use whatever methods are best suited to the children sitting in their classes. Whole language allows them to do that, without an unbalanced reliance on any one strategy.
We are as concerned about fluctuating test scores -- whether they're SATs, APs, CTBSs, MSPAPs, or any of the other acronymic assessments we must give -- as any of our parents, Mrs. Froggatt included.
Teachers work like mad to prepare kids for tests that assess a wide range of skills and abilities, from the rote (phonics) to the creative (whole language).
Mrs. Froggatt's mission to improve the reading ability of students is noble. Ironically, it's the same as ours. We only wish we could be as "scientifically" certain as she is. We have learned, though, that education is not a completely quantifiable science.
It may not even be a science, truth be told. Until it magically becomes so, we must continue to use lots of strategies to teach students the basic skills they need in life and to rely on parents like Mrs. Froggatt to keep us as diligent and single-minded as she.
Richard E. Bavaria
Towson
The writer is director of the Baltimore County Public Schools' Office of Arts and Humanities.
America's Heritage: Religion and Democracy
Lest anyone should be wondering why and how all of this controversy over the celebration of the holidays came to a head (news article, Nov. 23), let me take this time to give you some of its history.
Three years ago, my son was in first grade at Hillcrest Elementary School in Catonsville.
I was "room mother," as was the mother of the only Jewish student in the class.
Please keep in mind that Catonsville is an overwhelmingly Christian enclave and that Hillcrest has always been sensitive to the recognition of children of all faiths even though we have very few who proclaim other faiths. It was Christmas and time to plan the annual Christmas party in the classrooms throughout the school.
As in years gone by, the hallways and classrooms were decked " with secular recognitions of the season -- Santas, Rudolphs, candy canes and Christmas trees -- a reflection of the traditions of the majority of the community -- except in our classroom.
There were to be no Santas or Rudolphs -- nothing that would remind one of this special time of year. This was done only because of the "request" of the Jewish mother, who said her child became "depressed" at this time of year and therefore the celebration of Christmas should not be allowed in her classroom.
Never mind the other 28 students who would be denied their traditions.
From this classroom, it then spread to the rest of the school, where our past principal as well our present principal decided it was better to recognize the "rights" of over 800 children.
This goes much further than just the issue of how to handle the celebration of religious holidays in the public school system. It cuts to the heart of what a democracy stands for -- the majority rules vs. special minority preference.
Remember, that no religious "indoctrination," as some would claim, was taking place but rather the simple, everyday Santas and tinsel.
I would no more walk into a Pikesville elementary school and demand the sterility of their halls as this woman has done and has been allowed to accomplish for the last three years at Hillcrest.
These minority groups should always be recognized and be allowed to participate, but never should they be allowed to squelch the traditions and wishes of the majority.
Thanks to a group of parents that believe in their hearts that the fundamental principles of a democracy must rule, and the rights of the majority, which in this case is the Christian majority, this issue was not laid to rest.
School Superintendent Stuart Berger was forced to create a task force to study this issue, and it was given the mandate to create a policy that was subject to "no interpretation." That in itself was a recipe doomed to failure.
There is, was and never will be a resolution to this issue that would satisfy everyone, especially the one the task force came ++ up with -- to recognize nothing -- to make our schools void of any holiday reminders.
Dr. Berger stepped in and added his version, which was even more controversial than what the county already had -- some things would be permitted but others would not. After all, he was not going to be the Grinch that stole Christmas from the Baltimore County school children. I applaud Dr. Berger for this.
Thanks to word of mouth from concerned community members, local politicians, talk radio and the board members themselves, Dr. Berger's proposal was unanimously defeated. Score one for democracy!
It is now left up to the individual principals of the schools, many of whom waited with bated breath, as they did not want to be forced to give up their traditions and/or they were strong enough to stand up to minority threats.
Please insist that your schools reflect the community in their recognitions and celebrations in their recognitions and celebrations of the holidays. Recognize minority contributions and wishes but stand up for the democratic process -- the majority rules.
Genie Wiedel
Catonsville
The controversy over religion and prayer in the schools, along with anxieties about religious festivals and holidays, ignores one vital key fact.
Religion, for good or ill, reflects and also determines what a society treasures.
Every society in the history of the world has revolved around certain sacred truths. When Thomas Jefferson penned the immortal words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights . . ." he spoke as a child of the Judeo-Christian heritage.
No Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim would have found such truths to be "self-evident." Neither would a Communist nor a Nazi.
The truths Jefferson spoke of had been instilled physiologically in his brain when he was a child by his society.
The American ethos was given shape and form and substance in the first and second great awakenings that swept the new nation just before and after the War for Independence.
Circuit riders, priests, missionaries and rabbis gave structure and form to early communities.
Calvinism provided the philosophical roots for the dynamic capitalism that has made our country the most powerful and prosperous in history.
In a total distortion of the First Amendment, the public school goes blithely on in its pursuit of sociological ignorance.
To fail to acknowledge the religious heritage of our nation, or any nation, is like teaching math without numbers, language without grammar and vocabulary without phonics (currently under way with disastrous results).
Our present approach does not teach tolerance, but ignorance. The Baltimore County school board has really only one alternative available to keep religious contamination out of Christmas: Ignore Dec. 25 altogether and pick another day for the mid-winter festival.
Trees, decorations, the colors red and green, gift-giving, Santa Claus -- the whole panoply of Christmas is a religious holiday jam-packed with sacred symbolism. New Year's Day is a secular holiday. Christmas can never be one.
What the public school needs to do is to include the full rich contribution of all religions as a part and parcel of its curriculum.
Christmas and Easter are as fundamental to the American experience as the Fourth of July.
Instead of being neutral by pretending the "sacred canopy" that gave our nation its form and ethos does not exist, this canopy needs to be celebrated.
Tolerance is taught by knowledge and understanding, not ignorance. Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashana, Purim and Hanukkah should be acknowledged as well. Include Ramadan and Kwanzaa.
Tolerance and free exercise of religion needs to be affirmed from a strong base of mutual knowledge and understanding, not endless ignorance.
The human creature from the very beginning has struggled to find meaning in existence and form structures for cooperative social living.
This search has resulted in religion: The "sacred canopy" under which we all live. To ignore this in the name of "neutrality" is to ignore the "self-evident" truths upon which this nation was built.
Paul H. Wragg
Catonsville