ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 9, 1996 TAG: 9604090029
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
WITH NINE awardees, Blacksburg High School has a greater number of National Merit Scholar finalists than any other comprehensive public high school in Virginia. Lisa Applegate, in her March 25 article (``9 out of 12 Merit Scholars ain't bad''), attributes this outstanding accomplishment to the high-school faculty, its excellent program of honors and advanced-placement courses - or maybe the water in Blacksburg.
There's little doubt that the honors/advanced-placement program plays a large role in enabling Blacksburg's fine students to excel. However, I believe equally important is the attitude of the administration and the guidance offices, which encourages all students to enroll in courses as challenging as they can manage, regardless of the nominal grade level of the course. At Blacksburg High School, it isn't unheard of to find freshmen enrolled simultaneously in biology and chemistry (usually sophomore/junior courses), or sophomores taking advanced-placement physics and calculus. Indeed, this philosophy extends down to Blacksburg Middle School, where seventh graders seeking academic challenge can be found in first-year high-school Latin, and sixth graders have been known to take algebra.
Not so many years ago, such precocious behavior would have been discouraged or forbidden, with the attitude that middle-school students should take middle-school courses, high-school freshmen should take the first-year curriculum, etc. By encouraging students to challenge the limits of their abilities, the administration has created an environment that has led to Montgomery County having perhaps the premiere high school in the commonwealth.
WILLIAM GREENBERG
BLACKSBURG
Indoctrinating kids with cynicism
THE EDITORIAL overlords of The Roanoke Times recently launched another broadside against the Christian church, its teachings and, most importantly, all school-aged children in the March 14 editorial, ``Teach kids real science.''
What these pundits of secular humanism cannot seem to grasp is that creationism isn't inconsistent with the theory of evolution. To think that an infinite God couldn't provide for evolutionary change in the ``creation'' is absurd. Obviously, a humble appreciation for the mysteries and complexities of existence isn't the editors' forte.
Worshiping at the altar of man, they offer salvation through scientific theory and the dogma of public educrats who use our own tax dollars to indoctrinate our children with religious cynicism and radical egalitarian liberalism. These are largely responsible for the social disintegration and incivility so universal today.
WAYNE D. CARLSON
CLAYTOR LAKE
Gay marriages are the devil's work
REGARDING an article (``Hundreds of gay couples tie the knot'') and picture you printed on March 26 about the 200 couples in California getting so-called married:
This is an offense to me, and a social and moral disgrace. Are we trying to wreck our country and become morally corrupt without values or good sense? I love America, but I am becoming ashamed of some of our leaders and our people. Seems like we're allowing Satan, with all his schemes and tricks, to seduce and degrade us.
Don't these 400 people realize the minute they became "married" that they were guilty of adultery and fornication before God? Why do you print such junk in your newspaper? I'm sure it was printed all over our country. It's upsetting to me, and I'm sure it is to most Americans.
We need to promote the America as we want it to be now and in the future, or else we'll one day wake up to an America in shambles!
CLARENCE G. STINNETTE
HUDDLESTON
No gray areain abortion debate
IN RESPONSE to your March 12 article, ``Can faith affirm right to abortion?'':
The Rev. E.T. Burton danced around the idea that he was for abortion rights, but felt he wasn't pro-abortion. Well, from the article I read, it was very clear that he's pro-abortion or pro-choice.
It's either black or white. There's absolutely no gray area on this issue. Burton said that he would not be involved in abortion himself. Well, when you sit on the board of Planned Parenthood, and you make the decision to offer abortions at the Planned Parenthood clinic, you're as involved as is the doctor who is performing the abortion procedure.
Our children no longer live in a culture that teaches an objective standard for right and wrong. Truth has become a matter of taste; morality has been replaced by individual preference. And our youth have been affected.
REBECCA TAYLOR
RADFORD
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB