Eagle Nation thanks supporters in wake of tragedy
Last week, as we learned about the tragic loss of five students and the injury of two others, our community was shocked and devastated. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families and friends of these students. While Eagle Nation is still in mourning, and we are still hurting, the university continues to be comforted by an overwhelming outpouring of thousands of notes of love and condolences from the state of Georgia and beyond. Words cannot express how much your expression of sympathy has meant to the entire Georgia Southern community. On behalf of all of the students, faculty and staff at Georgia Southern University, I would like to offer my heartfelt appreciation for the overwhelming support shown to us last week as we began to cope with this tragedy. We are immensely grateful for your comforting words and acts of compassion. Please continue to keep the families of our students and all of those affected by this heartbreaking tragedy in your thoughts and prayers.
BROOKS A. KEEL, President Georgia Southern University
Listen to teachers’ views on testing
(“Heed teachers’ views on tests”, April 25, Saturday opinion) should be required reading for Georgia elected officials. Our political leaders have cut $8.3 billion from state support of public education under Gov. Nathan Deal’s tenure. Yet we want to label teachers or schools as failures? It is imperative to heed teachers’ views on tests and educational practices. We are a society that has learned to trust physicians, attorneys and other professional groups, including teachers, to best provide the professional services in their field. We must not trust private test developers who have only a monetary interest to dictate educational practice. Likewise, we should not trust elected officials to dictate professional practice. The tests that are used statewide in Georgia are very effective in creating “failing schools” where none exist and are ineffective in helping students learn. Democracy clings precariously to the promise of free public education for all its children.
BERT O. RICHMOND, ATHENS
Pollen’s no predictor of climate change
An April 19 letter writer, who identifies with the Heartland Institute, advises that he knows climate change/global warming is not occurring. He offers as evidence the fact that, due to a later pollen season, he has had to delay the opening of his pool for the last three years in a row. I am reasonably certain the 97 percent of the scientists who take another view are using more accurate and sophisticated scientific instruments and methods than an observation of pollen accumulation in a swimming pool. I have to hope that Rust was perhaps giving a wink and being a bit tongue-in-cheek with his comments. If not, I have to hope that he will seek out someone who has no bias and is qualified to explain the difference between climate and weather, and I have to hope that he will pass that information on to the Heartland Institute. If the Heartland Institute relied more facts and less on bias, they might pass out better advice in the future that has been their tendency in the past.
BEN DOOLEY, ATLANTA
