Genocide or Suicide?
Regarding Tara Servatius' article in the January 18 edition of Creative Loafing ("Educational Genocide?"): Although I generally agree with Ms. Servatius' well-researched presentations, this one is off the wall.
Quality teachers cannot save the failing CMS schools. It stands to reason that one cannot hope to create a quality finished product without first thoroughly examining the raw material with which one has to work. In the case of failing CMS schools, the unfortunate teachers are being told to educate uninterested, unmotivated, distracted, dangerously disrespectful and frequently violent young people.
The parents and unsafe neighborhoods of these blossoming hoodlums are responsible for their academic disinterest and their violent natures. When the parents and neighborhoods of these potential convicts are held responsible for their behavior, then, and only then, the failing schools may have a chance to improve academically.
The title of Ms. Servatius' article would more correctly read "Educational Suicide!"
-- Jerry R. DeYoung, Charlotte
Bombs smarter than students?
My response to Tara Servatius' "Educational Genocide?" was disheartening, to say the least. Mecklenburg County Schools are trying to fill a gap that has been growing exponentially. Despite a 90 percent increase nationally in real public spending per student, "over the past 30 years the US has made almost no progress in raising the achievement of elementary and secondary school students," according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The savage inequalities that have been plaguing our schools are now less about buildings and materials and all about the lack of people willing to teach in these areas. Ms. Servatius' article concluded what has been happening all over the country. The problem nationally and in Mecklenburg County is that teachers don't want to go where they are needed most, leaving us with a country that has smart bombs and uneducated children. The question remains, Why don't teachers want to teach where they are needed most? The answer is simple. Traditional education programs do not prepare new teachers for this environment.
-- Rick Fera, Charlotte
The issue Is Illegality
I think it is very ignorant for a newspaper editor to say that the case would have been brought to trial sooner had the driver been Anglo ("Charges Expected In Hit-And-Run," by Karen Shugart, January 11). Why do people have to play the race card and ignore the fact that these offenders that are illegal immigrants are exactly that -- illegal? I am not a racist myself, but they were not supposed to be here in the first place. Also, the article failed to mention that the man charged with killing the teacher has had previous drunk driving charges. I just get so sick of people of non-Anglo races blaming racism on everything these days. It is getting old.
-- Lori Aliane, Charlotte
Editor's Note: The article makes it clear that the driver involved in the December 11 hit-and-run was Anglo; the newspaper editor cited said that "he suspects charges would have been filed sooner were the driver Hispanic and the victim Anglo."