Sunday, February 9, 2014
Regarding the editorial "Tennessee gets A+ for License Plan: Outcomes in education are really all that matters": Everything a child learns can't be quantified as an outcome. Students need to learn academics, but they also learn kindness, compassion, citizenship, cooperation, respect, and how to have fun and create and that they matter. Each child is unique, and all experiences away from school are unique. Teachers who come to work willing to attempt to meet the needs of 20 or more students with different styles of learning, different talents, different personalities, and from different situations should be applauded, encouraged, supported and helped. If you are the parent of more than one child, you know they hear differently, see differently, play differently, learn at different paces, enjoy different things and are delightful in different ways. Imagine the diversity of 20 or more students in a classroom, and thank the teacher. Don't support plans that consider any child a statistic.
JOANNE PHILLIPS, Retired teacher, Hixson
The American Bible Society and the Barna Group did surveys of 100 U.S. cities and ranked them according to regular reading of the Bible and belief in the truthfulness of the Bible. The city found to be most Bible-minded city was Chattanooga. The least was Providence, R.I. The American Bible Society noted that common geographic stereotypes were found to be true. The South is the most Christian region in the U.S. Numerous cities in the Northeast and in California were found to be the least Bible-minded. Researchers found having a large population decreased the Bible friendliness, while having a Christian college in the city increased the Bible friendliness. Some cities, especially in New York and California, have chosen to reject God's word and love and have gotten more evil and lead the country in abortions. Those cities and individuals that reject God's word and love get his judgment and wrath, and most won't be around in 10 years. For cities like Chattanooga that love God's son Jesus and his word, Jesus may make a city on a hill that may last 1,000 years!
DANIEL NAVE