STEM education good for all students
Re: “Expose all minority students to STEM” (Insights, Oct. 22), Dr. Stuart offers excellent advice, but all students should be exposed to STEM, not just “minority” students. This exposure should take place and be encouraged by parents before the child becomes a student. My great grands are learning their letters and numbers before they enter the 1st grade, and they will be exposed to STEM as soon as their comprehension allows it. Basics first, though; numbers, spelling and word recognition and civil behavior.
If the concept of STEM is taught early enough, the child will not enter high school and college behind. It shouldn’t be a “catch-up” program; it should be instilled when their minds are fully adaptable and not cluttered with online junk. When my mother was still here, she’d tell me that I knew the alphabet and my tables before entering the 1st grade. That was a long time ago, before TV and the internet.
JACK FRANKLIN, CONYERS
U.S. forsaking global leadership on climate control
The patient is sick; his habits are making it worse. Prince William’s Earthshot awards are wake-up calls and tonics for earth and us, but the patient won’t take the medicine. Selfish corporations and governments talk about remedies for climate change, but as Greta Thunberg says, it is mostly “blah, blah, blah.” We are in cruise control toward health, economic, environmental, and planetary disasters, but where are the brakes? The Biden administration’s attempt to resolve the climate crisis is mired down in politically sensitive social programs and greed from politicians whose power stems from fossil fuels. Whiners complain that other countries are the problem, but the United States forsakes its global leadership. We need a price on carbon (returned as a dividend to our populace for palatability), and we need a border adjustment tax so that China pays for its carbon emissions. When our children suffer from extreme heat and economic stress, how will they think of you and our generation?
JOHN W. SHACKLETON JR., ATLANTA
