Other Religions
In response to Myles Livingston's letter (Dec. 12) decrying religious observation in public schools, I submit that the learning of other religions is not disturbing to students.
I grew up attending Pikesville Elementary and Pikesville Senior High Schools, where I was one of the few Christians in a predominantly Jewish population. I learned all the words to "Hava Na Gila," how to make and play with a dredel, all the meanings and symbols of the different Jewish holidays.
Sometimes I was even invited to share in a home meal with my fellow Jewish students, where I might be taught the proper way to prepare a traditional Jewish food, or enjoy the telling of an old story.
It was very educational and enjoyable to me. I never felt that my Christian beliefs were jeopardized in any way, nor did it change the way I felt about my own religion.
I was glad to share the traditions and heritages of the children around me and to teach them about mine.
Learning about other religions and what is going on in the world around me did not hurt at all.
What did hurt was when the teachings from "home" included keeping one's distance from those who did not share the belief, and the inability to share became a wall of isolation.
Georgia Corso
Baltimore
Pikesville Halls
For the edification of some of your readers, significant numbers of Jewish children attend public school in Owings Mills and Reisterstown, as well as Pikesville.
The vast majority of us send our children to a pre-school affiliated with a synagogue or the Jewish Community Center, and then to either afternoon and Sunday religious school or Jewish day school.
That is where, in addition to the home, they learn about and celebrate the Jewish holidays, not in the public school.
If, indeed, it were ever mandated that holiday decorations be removed from Baltimore County public schools, our "Pikesville" elementary hallways would be far from sterile, as your "Catonsville" letter writer from Hillcrest Elementary School has suggested (Dec. 3).
In fact, the walls are always covered with student artwork, writing samples and projects that reflect the curriculum. We wouldn't have it any other way.
Karen Teplitzky
Baltimore
Phonics the Key
Dick & Jane/ Run, Spot, Run/ Look Say/ Whole Language can all be tossed into the same brainwash chaotic stew being forced on the children to dumb down and cripple beautiful young minds.
How teachers and educators can condone and cooperate in this depredation is beyond the pale and will inevitably give rise to malpractice suits.
Catherine Froggatt (letter, Nov. 19) wrote a factual, intelligent, disciplined and common sense letter about this critical situation.
She has been answered with nothing but smoke and mirrors (letters, Dec. 3, Dec. 12). Nevertheless, all the people cannot be fooled all the time (as witness the Nov. 8 election). And phonics, the key to intelligence, will again rightfully reign supreme.
Margaret Resh Tinkler
Reisterstown
Pandering
The middle-class tax cut being proposed by President Clinton is a sell-out to the "Republinik" tide sweeping this country.
It just shows that the president is more concerned with his own popularity than with fiscal prudence.
We need to continue to look for ways to trim government waste and make government leaner. But a tax cut now is nothing more than irresponsible pandering to our own greed.
Where are Mr. Clinton's true convictions?
Thomas M. Stack
Towson
Slippery Slope
Persons arguing for or against euthanasia or its equivalent, assisted suicide, should proceed gingerly and very carefully. They are already on the ethicists' "slippery slope."
Peter J. Riga found "the footprints of death all over the landscape of America" ("The Culture of Death", Opinion * Commentary, Dec. 13) that mark our downhill sliding on that slope.
Especially in the name of mercy, we must never legalize a killing of patients but not their ailments.
We must continue even more vigorous searches for relief and protection of those who suffer, as well as for cures and primary prevention of fatal conditions.
John B. De Hoff, M.D.
Cockeysville
Irresponsible
Is there an insidious type of undetectable air pollution in Washington that causes our congressmen to go off half-cocked and talk about tax breaks when our country is staggering under a massive deficit?
Why this irresponsible jockeying in both parties to be the first to satisfy the wrongly perceived and media-fanned lust for a tax break at this time?
The interest on our national debt is killing us. Any act of legislation that might add to this would be nothing short of criminal.
Katherine S. Lenfestey
Baltimore
Fun at Hopkins
As you report in "A study in boredom," Dec. 7, Inside Edge magazine doesn't think Johns Hopkins is a fun place to go to college. But we must at least look like fun.
The opening spread of the magazine's story carries a picture it identifies as No. 1 fun school Georgetown. Nope, sorry; that's a picture of Johns Hopkins.
You may draw from that what conclusions you choose about the accuracy of the rest of the Inside Edge story.
Dennis O'Shea
Baltimore
The writer is director of communications and public affairs at Johns Hopkins University.
I would like to make a few comments about "A study in boredom." I am very disappointed in the tone Jean Marbella took in portraying student life at Johns Hopkins.
Rather than reporting the facts of how Inside Edge compiled its disreputable and irresponsible survey, she falls into the same step, thereby supporting the asinine pulp that has marked that particular piece of "journalism."
I had hoped that a legitimate newspaper would be able to rise above such MTV-style reporting and stick to the facts.
Although there was absolutely no scientific validity to the methods used, this fraud will continue to influence and impact upon the decisions of high school seniors nationwide.
Ms. Marbella virtually ignores this fact and jumps on the negative bandwagon, rather than coming to the support of one of the finest institutions in this city.
I can personally attest that Johns Hopkins University was a fun place to attend, and while not being on the scale of some of the largest states' schools, it certainly held its own.
One thing vitally important to note is that Hopkins is a small, private university in a residential setting. It is an intense learning environment, without the benefits of a social center on its doorstep.
The students are some of the brightest and most motivated individuals from around the country. It is perfectly understandable that they would rather forsake lesser pleasures now for successes down the road.
Any griping you hear, as cited in the article, is merely a momentary regret that they had chosen, with maturity and foresight, this particular and less popular heading.
They could have easily attended a university that featured the proverbial "underwater basket weaving," a course no doubt offered at some of the higher-ranked schools in the survey.
If a patchwork of drinking, parties and sloth is sought by the typical college student, then there are many choices.
If one is seeking a first-rate education, with numerous opportunities for research, and more responsible extracurricular and social outlets, Hopkins proudly fits that bill better than most.
I contend that "fun" at Hopkins is much more permanent than the transitory pleasures offered by its competitors.
It pushes the student to encounter the surrounding community with all that it has to offer.
If college prepares one for life, you will find almost universal agreement on the success of Hopkins.
Matthew Grygorcewicz
Baltimore
The writer is a member of the Johns Hopkins class of 1994.