DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708090007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  138 lines

LETTERS TO EDITOR -- THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

EDUCATION

Pay good teachers

a good salary

Democratic nominee Don Beyer wants to hire more teachers to cut class sizes. If he is interested in making schools more effective, he should pay the good teachers the salaries they are worth and cut technologies rather than trying to micromanage classroom head counts.

The age of information technology will be the workplace of today's student, and it demands that we focus our efforts not on improving the process of education but on improving learning. The sooner we start educating toward this reality and measuring school effectiveness by the ability to prepare students for real career opportunities, the better off our children will be.

Brian Kirwin

Virginia Beach, Aug. 1, 1997

Take a positive

approach to learning

The reason for children's low scores on standardized tests in many cases is low expectations. If a child is poor, from a poor neighborhood, or black or from a single-parent home, that child is not expected to be lovable and capable. Most children, given the right learning environment, can overcome serious obstacles to becoming successful learners.

If people would join together in focusing on these children's potential and help education administrators see that it's about positive expectations, education would experience a dramatic upswing.

Oust the naysayers and employ positive people who love children, believe in their infinite possibilities, have their best interests at heart and are willing to make them successful learners.

C. Glenn Allen

Chesapeake, Aug. 4, 1997

MILITARY

VMI women should

get equal treatment

Your July 30 editorial on VMI (``Co-ed era commences'') is troubling in its ignorance of the school. The point is made that it is ultimately up to the upperclass cadets to deal with the change of co-education in a manner that would epitomize the school's dedication to producing citizen-soldiers. I wholeheartedly agree.

However, you add, ``If those young people fail to extend the respect due to the newcomers, they will bring disgrace upon their school.''

You obviously feel the ``newcomers,'' or women, should be afforded special respect because they have broken through the bastion of masculinity that VMI embodies. Or maybe it is the sole fact that they are female.

Virginia Military Institute is blind to whatever accomplishments or respect-deserving attributes one may have before entering the gray ranks of the rat line. The first year is one of our nation's purest examples of equality - all are reduced to the same level of nothingness in a grueling six-month breakdown of selfishness and pride. By definition of the system, none are given the respect due to them, neither females nor males. We would be doing the women a great disservice by changing now to a system of inequality.

I am confident that my fellow classmates will act in a way consistent with the ideals of the school and will thereby show themselves exemplary.

Ben Kincaid

VMI, Class of 1999

Richmond, Aug. 1, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

Recycling bins are

too small for townhouses

Most townhouses in this area house families of two or more. The recycling bin size relegated for our use is virtually useless. With papers, soda cans, food containers and paper products used daily, the 18-gallon container will be full after two or three days.

Is there any way to change the decision? Would a write-in campaign do any good? Everyone I have talked to who lives in a townhouse is disgusted. Recycling will probably not be worth the effort with such a small bin.

Monica MacDonald

Virginia Beach, Aug. 5, 1997

CAMPAIGN

Look at GOP ties

to Christian Coalition

The voting public needs to look at more than Jim Gilmore's popular goal to eliminate Virginia's personal property tax in his platform and at the other candidates for the Republican Party. Look closely at the ties that the Republican Party has to the Christian Coalition. A vote against the Republican ticket in Virginia is not a vote against God and Christianity.

God has given us free will, and our Constitution has given us freedom. Remember that it is not God's desire to be associated with a group that prides itself on misleading men and women of faith by exploiting their beliefs for the self-aggrandizement of a company that has been formed to further the ambitions of businessmen.

It is time to recognize the maneuvers of the Republican Party. Remember that when you go to the polls and see its candidates on the ballots this November.

Lori Wright

Chesapeake, Aug. 5, 1997

SAFETY

Jet Ski injuries

worse than softballs

Regarding the July 26 letter ``Regulate Jet Skis? How about softball?'':

We are members of an orthopaedic surgeons group covering the emergency rooms of five local hospitals in the Hampton Roads area. To equate the injuries in softball to those of personal watercraft users is misleading. While the number of softball injuries may be greater than the number of Jet Ski injuries, the severity of the latter is far greater.

Softball injuries often consist of jammed fingers and sprained ankles, while Jet Ski injuries often are severe limb-threatening injuries due to the high speed and forces involved. This type of injury will more than likely result in profound, long-term consequences for those involved.

Based on the number and severity of the injuries that we see, some type of instruction or qualification for the operators of these crafts would seem prudent.

R. Brick Campbell, M.D.

Patrick W. O'Connell, M.D.

and associates

Virginia Center for Orthopaedics

Virginia Beach, July 29, 1997

JAMBOREE

Maybe Scouts' honor

will inspire Clinton

In 1993, I was disappointed that our newly elected president failed to make an appearance at the national Boy Scout jamboree during his first year in office. The visit, a presidential tradition, is something that, until 1993, every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt had made. The event is held every four years, and this time Clinton made it.

At first, considering the revelations of the president's personal history over the past four years, I was disappointed that he did go. What a sad example for the youth of America.

But look at it this way. It's never too late for an old dog to learn something new. Maybe this time around, some of the strong values the Boy Scouts have maintained for almost a century will rub off on the president who wants to lead us into the 21st century. Something about keeping ``morally straight''. . . .

Scott Buxman

Virginia Beach, Aug. 2, 1997

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