Speak Out 10/26/06

Valuable lesson

MATT SANDERS has learned a valuable lesson: Few people take criticism well even if the criticism is constructive and valid. He has also learned how downright mean people can become when they or their efforts are criticized.

Making comparisons

AN INTERNET commentator had it right when she said President Bush is correct in refusing to compare our situation in Iraq with the one in Vietnam. In Vietnam, only half the country hated us.

Eternal guide

SOMEONE SAID if you go by the Bible, you'd be living in the Stone Age. On Judgment Day, God may say, "You didn't live in the Stone Age, so get behind me for I never knew you." The Bible is the same today as always, and it is our guide to eternity. I live by it daily and pray that you will too.

Teacher's concerns

THANK YOU, Brian White, for summing up so well what we teachers feel. Next year I will be entering my fifth year of teaching and have been having the same fears. I decided to become an elementary teacher so that I wouldn't face many of the problems White mentioned and have been shocked to see those problems every day in young students. These students have already had experiences that I can only hope never to experience. This has made their spirits hard and sometimes unreachable. As for the meetings, amen. Each meeting that is supposed to help me feel more focused only seems to leave me feeling more helpless and hopeless. Every day we hear about our schools failing our students. What about society and No Child Left Behind failing our teachers?

Use it or lose it

HOW DO you define being a citizen? You may not be a citizen if you have never called a local, state or federal elected official to express an opinion. Or you have never attended a school board or city council meeting. Or you have never made a campaign contribution to a local, state or federal candidate. Today more than ever citizenship is a "use it or lose it" deal.

Scaring the voters

WITH ALL the negative ads for the political races, I wonder whom it really hurts? Our children see these ads and wonder if they are being hurt. I say yes. Our elected officials or those aspiring to become one should never use the political pathways to scare the public into voting for any reason. And those who do are not fit to hold public office, let alone run.

Billfold returned

I WAS shopping at Wal-Mart in Jackson, and on my way home to Cairo, Ill., I stopped in Cape Girardeau to get gas and found my billfold was missing. I went back to Jackson and asked if someone had found my billfold. Sure enough, my billfold had been tuned in by the young man who had checked me out. I want to thank him for being so honest.

Boring lessons

BRIAN WHITE may have failed to mention that one reason schools fail is that they are mind-numbingly boring. Other than the necessity of teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, a lot of what goes on in school is so dull that the real test of students is to see whether they have the wherewithal to stay the course.

Manana

TODAY'S BUMPER sticker: "If you can read this, thank a teacher." Tomorrow's bumper sticker: "Si usted puede leer esto, agrandezca un profesor."