Pandemic revealed students need in-person classes
Teachers consistently push back on society and legislators’ mindset of teaching to the test, that only academics matter and that creativity and personality don’t belong in the classroom. So, how interesting is it that the pandemic gave many parents and policymakers exactly what they wanted: an academic, impersonal educational environment driven by curriculum and outcome. How boring. And now what do the same people want? “Kids in school! They need to be with their friends, their teachers!”
During the pandemic, teen suicides increased. They need more people and fewer screens in their life. Evidently, teachers were right; school is more than books and tests and asking students how their day went matters. Seeing them as people and not information compartments is life-changing.
No teacher quits because of the kids; it’s because of the adults or the robotic paperwork-driven CYA system imposed on teachers. The pandemic showed us it’s time for a change.
MICHAEL BUCHANAN, ALPHARETTA, RETIRED TEACHER
With help, Georgia Power can plan for clean energy future
Re: “Georgia Power plans to close coal plants by 2035″ (News, Feb. 2) and invest in batteries used to store solar-generated power. Great! But the plans include increasing natural gas generation. “Groups question new investments in natural gas.” Rightly so, because using any fossil fuel increases greenhouse emission levels that raise climate temperatures.
Wildlife species will disappear and sea levels will rise, flooding coastal communities. Food production will decrease and hazardous extreme weather and wildfire events threaten lives and destroy homes!
How do we help Georgia Power plan for a clean energy future? By increasing fossil production costs and demand for non-fossil sources.
If senators Warnock and Ossoff work with colleagues to pass an annual rising carbon price that uses the revenue to provide cashback payments for low-income communities and funds job retraining for fossil-fuel workers, then Georgia Power could plan to eliminate natural gas plants and support citizens with the transition.
BOB JAMES, ATLANTA
