LETTERS: KINDER GETS C-MINUS FOR QUOTING OUT OF CONTEXT

To the editor:

Peter Kinder's recent commentaries on public education have been, as I am certain he intended, both instructive and illuminating.

Some of us, though, wish Kinder would try a little harder to exemplify the spirit of excellence in education, which he so obviously favors.

Kinder asserts, for example, that Mao Zedong was fond of saying, "Let a thousand flowers bloom." What Mao actually said in his 1957 speech was, "The policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science."

In Kinder's rendition, a hundred flowers become a thousand. Is this attribution of over-generosity to a known Communist foreigner an example of the new math, Outcomes Based Education, multiculturalism or just sloppy research?

Mao, incidentally, went on to say that this policy was "designed to enable a socialist culture to thrive in our land" -- very much a different context, as Kinder concedes.

Kinder also quotes "some European statesman" as having said that "war is too important to leave to the generals." Kinder got the gist, if not the wording, of Talleyrand's aphorism correct, but I can't help wondering at his reaction if an editorial were to refer to him as "some Missouri politician."

I'm afraid that if Kinder's latest offering were handed in in my class, it would earn no more than a C-minus for quoting out of context, inaccurate citations and lack of attribution.

Perhaps journalism is too important to leave to the journalists.

GORDON HEITZEBERG

Cape Girardeau