How do we get students to learn?
The left side editorial Thursday says again how vouchers will undermine the public school system. You also say that we should, through the governor and tax dollars, "double-down for the long-term on pre-kindergarten and before- and after-school mentoring programs, and serious parental out-reach and mentoring."
You further say these low-performing schools have "too few teachers, resources and catch-up programs" to effectively inspire those students to learn the skills they need to compete in the job markets of today.
I believe the problem is how to get the students to effectively learn, not how to get the teachers to effectively teach. Teachers are doing a very good job, especially given their resources. The question is how to get the students to want to learn.
The answer is suggested by the saying, "it takes a village to raise a child." Until all Chattanooga and Hamilton County people and organizations work together to inspire low-performing students from undesirable backgrounds to want to learn, and to work hard to learn, the good results we want will be elusive. It is more than just a parent's job, although they are the number one resource. More mountains of money will not do the job.
JOHN HUBBARD
Be more specific in weather reports
Is there any reason why our meteorologists, when announcing where weather conditions are in such and such county, they can't tell what city or town is involved"
Pity the tourist traveling through our area. Like me, they wouldn't be aware of what county they were in.
Same way with mentioning mile marker 306 or 308. What specific area is that?
HELEN MAHN
Conservatives lean toward extremism
What has happened to the conservative movement in America?
We claim to be "pro-life," but we cannot accept a ban on assault weapons, whose only purpose is to kill lots of people in a hurry.
We claim to be "pro-family," but some of us want to quickly deport everyone who entered this country illegally, even though many of those people are just hard-working folks who came here out of desperation, trying to give their families a fighting chance.
And even though we all know that compromise is an essential ingredient to any healthy relationship, our political leaders will not even consider this approach when dealing with their government counterparts on "the other side."
I'm afraid that in the process of opposing liberal extremism, we have become extremists ourselves.
DAVID THOMAS, Signal Mountain