Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 20, 1994 TAG: 9410170013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This sort of thing happens all over the country; I saw it happen where I used to live. When I moved here last year, it was to escape the suburban/city life. Although I still wanted to live reasonably close to a good-size town, I wanted woods, mountains and privacy. Bradshaw Road offers just that.
I'd like to think that I can live in harmony with the domestic and wild animals, nature and my neighbors. After all, I moved into their little corner of the world. It's my job to blend in with them, not the other way around. It's a shame that people move into new rural developments and try to change the way older residents live their lives. A lot of city people nowadays want to move into the country, but want someone else to pay the price so that they can have their conveniences just like in the city. It should not work that way!
Everyone likes going to the farmer's market for fresh produce. What happens when farmers get pushed out of the area? What does this country do when we have finally destroyed all the farms, and can no longer grow enough food to feed this country's population?
These new developments are being put right in the middle of areas where the same family has lived for generations - before electricity, paved roads and running water in the house. Change is OK, and it's inevitable. But if you don't like what you see surrounding the new development in which you're planning to buy a home, don't buy there! Buy somewhere else, and stop trying to change the lives of people who were there first.
JOHN BLAZIER
SALEM
Truckers also want to get there safely
BEING A truck driver, when I read letters like the one on Sept. 6 by Charles C. Manning Jr. (``Expect more truck-related fatalities''), I wonder if he's the type person that comes down an entrance ramp onto the interstate not knowing what the word ``Yield'' means.
I wonder if he's the guy driving in the passing lane at 45 miles per hour. I wonder if he's the guy, when a trucker makes a sharp right-hand turn, drives to make one, too.
The truckers Manning is talking about make up about 15 percent of the trucking business. Eighty-five percent don't want to be killed, hurt or do the same to anyone else.
The Blue Ridge Parkway was designed for Manning and others like him.
ROGER L. SHELTON
SALEM
SAT-wise, Virginia is doing OK
YOUR AUG. 26 Associated Press article (``Math scores in Va. below average'') provides only surface information, and tends, unfortunately, to look askew at the fact that Virginia's Scholastic Aptitude Test scores remained stable from last year.
Virginia ranks ninth in the percentage of pupils taking the SAT nationally, but is in the top five numerically of U.S. students taking the test. Both of these figures have increased in the past decade. Last year, more Virginia pupils took the test than previously.
In Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina, scores have actually decreased. In education, when the enrollment curve increases, it generally follows that grades - in this case SAT scores - fall. Virginia students taking the SAT circumvented this national trend, which isn't a small accomplishment.
With introduction of the new SAT last March, three of the new tests - in March, May and June 1994 - were compared to the older '93 format. This, to some extent, invalidates the comparison because the new SAT appears to be more difficult than '93's.
The ``hard to explain'' students' performance last year, as some detractors have said, shouldn't be interpreted as a reflection upon dedicated educators and teachers. Rather, it's an indictment of the pressure placed upon high-school students by the entire SAT process of college admission. This is seen in test anxiety and stress in countless pupils. Certainly a solid, educator-endorsed SAT Improvement Course, such as Horizons offers, can help remedy much of this.
While there's obviously room for improvement in education, Virginia's students are far from being on the critical list.
E. NEEL EDWARDS
President
Horizons Education Services, Inc.
RICHMOND
Citizens back parole-reform plan
THE General Assembly began meeting Monday in a special session to consider Gov. Allen's parole-and-sentencing reform proposals.
Under our current lenient, liberal parole policies, the average violent felon serves as little as one-third of his sentence. Approximately two-thirds of our violent crime is committed by repeat offenders.
Allen's reform proposals would make violent criminals serve from 85 percent to 100 percent of their sentences. According to the Virginia Criminal Justice Research Center, his plan will prevent a minimum of 120,000 crimes over the next 10 years, and will save Virginians an estimated $2.7 billion. Victims will no longer see their assailants on the street after serving a short amount of time. And victims will no longer have to appear year after year in front of a parole board, pleading that a murderer or rapist be kept behind bars, and not put out on our streets.
We elected Allen on his promises to give us this type of reform.
ALIDEAN S. ROBERSON
STUART
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