ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996 TAG: 9604220001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
REGARDING Jim Puzzanghera's March 13 article, "Colleges swap desks for beanbags":
I'm very frustrated with the computer classroom "being praised as a model for the future" on college campuses. Marjorie Ford says that "her creative-writing students at Stanford University think more freely in the comfort-oriented Flexlab."
All that computers will provide students are speed, ease and quantity. And that is if you know how to work them. The insidious computers do not provide imagination, nor do they help with eyesight. Students will not learn to write or think better because they know how to flip the laptop.
My generation has no attention span. The faculty pushes all this flashy multimedia on students to try and keep them interested. Whatever happened to hard work?
I'm computer illiterate, but I hardly have any motivation to become part of the computer future.
Is our society even conscious of what it's doing by accommodating itself to the computer? The computer only produces what we put into it. It doesn't reveal a new insight or teach a life lesson.
ROBERT BASHAM
ROANOKE
Playing politics with workers' pay
YOUR March 26 article (``More pay ... less often ... What gives?'') portrays perfectly what happens when political hacks mess around with people's paychecks. Gov. George Allen's experts think state workers are ``paid in advance of actually performing work.'' In reality, the first paycheck doesn't come until the beginning of the second pay period. Like most others, state workers work first and then are paid.
The only real problem from an accountant's point of view is that salaried workers' ``time sheets'' aren't turned in until the end of that first month. Thus, the first paycheck doesn't accurately reflect those numbers. If this is the problem, state workers should turn in their ``time'' every two weeks, starting two weeks before the first check is issued, thus getting the system in sync. This is simple, doesn't delay anyone's pay, fits the state's twice-monthly pay system and fixes the problem. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow for the kind of political games being played with state workers' pay.
The governor's folks decided to ``fix'' a nonproblem by skipping one official pay period and replacing it with a ``bonus'' check. Everyone would be back at pre-``bonus'' pay next year, and would supposedly recall the governor's benevolence - never realizing their total pay was unchanged.
The legislature, not to be outdone, decided to give a ``real'' raise. But not wanting to spend real money, lawmakers figured how they could give a raise and take it away at the same time. By taking away one payday, state workers will get a pay increase that equals 4.2 percent. The consolation prize is at retirement time, there'll be one more paycheck somewhere out there, which will be 4.2 percent higher than the one that should have come two weeks earlier.
Yes, the legislature's plan is slightly preferable to the governor's, because its effects on retirement and future raises will compound over the years. Nonetheless, every 16 or 17 days state employees will be reminded that they're pawns in others' political games. It must be the thought that counts, because the reality sure doesn't make much sense.
JIM MARCHMAN
BLACKSBURG
Garland's column was a real trip
THIS LETTER to the editor is to say thank you to Ray L. Garland for his wonderful column on April 4 titled ``Sailing below the mast: Wish you were here.''
Yes, being on a sailboat is a wonderful, natural high. My husband and I love sailing. In the past, we've enjoyed sailing in our beautiful state (Smith Mountain Lake, the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads). After reading Garland's column, I felt as if I, too, had taken an exciting sailing adventure. Thanks for the trip.
PAIGE LEWIS
MARTINSVILLE
Attempt at humor missed the mark
I WAS disappointed in Ben Beagle's attempt at humor in his column titled ``Greta, you're one sharp dresser,'' which concerned the O.J. Simpson trial.
My question is this: What's so funny about a double homicide? Tragic? Yes. Humorous? No.
PATTI LOOP
BLACKSBURG
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB