We should return to education basics
Regarding “What age is OK to start school?” (News, Feb. 9), certainly there are 5-year-old children who are not ready for kindergarten, whether they were born in July or December. Certainly, there are children in 8th or 9th grade who will never be candidates for college.
For years our school systems have been “fixing” curricula for all ages, with the results being revised shortly thereafter because results have continued in a negative direction. What would be wrong with teaching the essentials of “reading, writing, history, arithmetic and science”? What was wrong with starting school the day after Labor Day, and ending the school year in June — the way other states, with much higher educational results, have been doing all along?
HARRIS GOTTLIEB, DUNWOODY
Streetcar won’t fix our highway mess
Saturday, it took me five hours to drive from Jacksonville to south Atlanta. It took two more hours to reach mid-city. Road construction, events, accidents, uncontrolled traffic lights, little traffic coordination, cars going every different way to avoid congestion and creating more blockage. What a mess.
That $100 million spent on a streetcar line sure could have helped to create a traffic center with stoplight management. Companies moving their headquarters to Atlanta are going to rethink their strategy when employees are stalled on the Downtown Connector. Oh, I forgot — they can take the streetcar.
BRANDT ROSS, ATLANTA
Seek a little clarity on airport’s name
Regarding Bill Torpy’s column “Hartsfield Airport. What’s missing?” (Metro, Feb. 9), perhaps what’s missing is a little common sense. Maybe we need to put all the ego aside and rename our airport Atlanta International Airport. Concise and to the point, without ruffling any feathers.
KEN KIRKWOOD, JOHNS CREEK
Ala. should undo chief jurist’s edict
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, in whom the state Constitution vests “the supreme executive power of this state,” should countermand the unconstitutional order of Chief Justice Roy Moore, who is ignoring a lawful ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama and circumventing it with a judicial order based on his own personal feelings (“Alabama’s chief justice makes last-minute bid to block gay marriage,” AJC.com, Feb. 9). It seem Moore styles himself as a well-coiffed tyrant, for is not a man who enforces the law but is not bound by the law a tyrant? He has to date defied the federal courts twice, both for populist, prejudiced issues.
LANCE SULLIVAN, OPELIKA, AL
