EDUCATION
How to eliminate the need for cheating
I have been volunteering at various public schools since we moved to Atlanta in 1961. I have observed different results in the teaching methods used, but none so blatantly unfortunate as those instituted since the “No Child Left Behind” dictum.
Since children develop at different levels — physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. — how can they be expected to excel at standardized testing? Teaching for testing (rather than for thinking) is an abomination. Let our educators educate, and there will be little need for cheating. Bettie Rechtman, Decatur
DEFICIT
Make all members of Congress feel the heat
President Barack Obama should immediately begin cuts. Number one on the list: Cut off air conditioning to the Capitol, and to all the offices of the members of Congress. This ought to get some of them to make progress on the debt ceiling. Jane Terry, Decatur
DEFICIT
Withhold pay until real progress is made
The act Congress passes concerning the debt limit should call for the salaries of the president, the vice president and everyone in Congress to be suspended until a law is passed that the Congressional Budget Office agrees will result in fiscal sanity by the end of the decade.
The salaries of the staffs should be reduced by 25 percent until a law is passed. They are playing chicken with our futures, while their futures are safe. We need to change the incentives. When the decision makers feel the pain, they will act. Bill Murphy, Atlanta
NASA
United States abandons its rocket scientists
I am 68 years old, and have seen the dramatic rise and now the decline of the American manned space flight program. The last shuttle flight marks a sad milestone for America. There are no clear plans to preserve the years of experience in this highly specialized field. A lot of people in the field are headed out the door. These jobs are, in fact, “rocket science,” and it takes experienced people to do them. It could take decades to restore a workable human space program again.
Some country in the world will lead the military space race and the human space race. Our place in the world is in decline in this and a lot of other areas.
Joel Smith, Stockbridge
POLITICS
You have to wonder if voters will ever learn
I was born the year of the Great Depression. My father lost our home and 400-acre farm. My parents loaded me up with Dad’s little apple trees and their yearling calf, and took us to 15 acres he inherited. There, he built a log cabin and planted the apple trees. Classes were offered that qualified Dad as a butcher at a local market. Mom took, and later taught, cooking classes through the Works Progress Administration.
As far as I can recall in my 81 years, it seems Republicans brought on depressions and recessions (from Hoover to George W.’s wars), and Democrats (from FDR to Clinton) managed to bring us back to balanced budgets. It’s time we learned. Susanne Dabney, Atlanta
