Letters

NEA Today, Jan 2002

VA, PA DESERVE SUPPORT

On September 11, I stood with my second grade students and watched smoke pour out of the Pentagon. I wept when finally I was able to turn on the television to see the events of the day at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania and New York. I grew up in Arlington. My home has been the target of a terrorist attack.

It crushed me when I got the November issue of NEA Today and read the headline, "We're All New Yorkers." I am not a New Yorker! I am a Virginian. I know that what New York has to deal with is horrible. I just wish Arlington and Pennsylvania weren't forgotten.

Annemarie Glover

Arlington, Virginia

TERRORISM,AND HISTORY

Thank you to Elaine Akagi for her article about the parallels between the terrorist attacks and Pearl Harbor (My Turn, November). As a social studies teacher, I taught my students the comparisons. However, I also taught my students that we must learn from the internment of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor. My students were able to see that our government was wrong, history cannot repeat itself, and that we cannot judge someone by how they look or where they came from. I encourage fellow educators to be sure to bring this perspective into the lesson when teaching these parallels.

Dianne McGee

Lewisville, Texas

CLEARING THE AIR

Thank you for publishing "Breaking the Mold on Air Quality" (News, November). I am on permanent disability with hypersensitivity pneumonitis after exposure to mold and dust in my classroom. In my district, at least 20 of the 35 schools have reported "hot spots."

One of the primary causes has been carpeting used in classrooms and elementary lunchrooms as well as inadequate ventilation systems. Nevertheless, administrators continue to put carpeting in classrooms instead of tile. And even newer constructions have poor ventilation.

I cannot walk a block without stopping to breathe several times. Two of my colleagues retired and continue to enjoy hiking and jogging. My golden years will not be very golden.

Elsie Cadena

Mead, Washington

CHILDREN'S CLASSICS

I enjoyed your article on children's classics ("What Makes a Classic?" November), and I'm glad to see Eloise on your list. It is a classic.

What disturbs me is the discriminatory marketing of the book Eloise and related licensed products. Every new book and every product is drenched in a nauseating shade of hot pink. By slapping a "For Girls Only" color code on Eloise you effectively bar future generations of boys from enjoying this classic. We should, instead, be encouraging boys to read books with girls the main characters, especially plucky girls who break traditional feminine stereotypes.

I urge librarians, teachers, and parents to seek out older copies of Eloise without the pink covers.

Cathy Taylor

Glenside, Pennsylvania

I always look forward to my copy of your publication to read about new trends in school.

Your list of "the best of classic books" was very interesting. Although I agree with your choices, I must say you left off a great classic series by P.L. Travers: Mary Poppins (not the Disney version).

This series was so full of gentle imagination and magic, as well as teaching proper behavior under the guidance of that perfect, often too-- strict nanny.

I started reading these when I was a third grader and just last year purchased a newly published set of the four Poppins books (Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Comes Back. Mary Poppins Opens the Door, and Mary Poppins in the Park).

What a treat to reread those delightful stories.

Marguerite Brockway

Amherst, New Hampshire

POEMS FOR THOUGHT

I found the article about Poet Laureate Billy Collins in NEA Today very interesting (Innovation, November).

I like the idea of giving high school students a poem a day.

I think high school is a bit late to start, though. I teach second grade and my second graders have already memorized four poems. They love doing this and their favorite so far is Life by Paul Lawerence Dunbar.

I'm teaching my students to read using a phonics-based language arts program, and I've already seen incredible growth.

Once they are able to read fluently, I'm sure they will be more interested in memorizing poems on their own.

Harry Onickel

Femdale, Michigan

MARRYING FOR MONEY

Velma Stewart's strategy for teaching money management by "marrying" students (Innovation, November) is new and inventive? Funny, I know family and consumer sciences teachers that have been using this same strategy for years! However, when the FACS teachers used this strategy, they were ridiculed and told that their curriculum wasn't "academically challenging." Now the push in education is making curriculum "revelent to the students lives." Family and consumer sciences have always been perceived as the bastard child of education. But if you want to see the next trend in education, look to your FACS teachers.

Loretta Schuler

Bedford, Indiana

CONFRONTING TERROR ABROAD

On September 3, 1993, 1 was awakened at 5:30 a.m. by a telephone call: "Terry, there's a bomb about to go off beside the school!" By the time I got there, the once-beautiful courthouse in our city of Armagh was in ruins and my school nearby was virtually uninhabitable.