Speak Out 12/8/09

T-shirt squabble

AS a teacher myself, I am dismayed at the lack of logic in the comment from a Central High School teacher responding to the "king" T-shirt issue. The teacher explained that the shirts had not been approved. Since when do individual shirts, worn by one person or 10 or any other number, have to be approved before being worn to school? I see students wearing the exact same shirt every day, and I doubt those students got approval. The school manual addresses the dress code, and these shirts were not in violation of the dress code. Yes, the code states that if a piece of clothing is distracting students can be told not to wear it, but I've seen some teachers and an assistant principal wearing more distracting attire. Central administrators and teachers need to get back to the job of teaching, of taking and keeping control of their classroom by using exemplary methods, and stop micromanaging and blaming their own failures on something as trivial as T-shirts. What's next? A banning of the T-shirts saying we're the best football team? I think not. Those are sold to make money for the school.

Partisan view

THE thesis of your Dec. 3 editorial was flat out wrong. Increasing money spent on education will improve public schools if you spend large amounts to reward teachers whose standardized student test scores merit it. In addition, states must be free to experiment with other concepts of school structure and function, like charter schools. And, yes, tenure must go. At one point your editorial argued that real school reform must be left up to teachers. That's ridiculous. Teachers are the biggest barrier to meaningful school reform. They are generally committed to standpattism. They vote in large blocks. To some extent, the Missouri GOP has made some inroads with rural teachers. Thus, your wrong-headed position is transparently exposed as politically partisan. For shame.

Pesky facts

I am one of the conservatives in the area who have taken the time to study all the data on climate change and decided that it is a hoax. We obviously know much more than the almost 2,000 scientists worldwide who have proclaimed it otherwise. Also, we have carefully considered the government health care systems in all the other industrialized nations and found that our for-profit system is the best. We obviously know that no one would go into health care for reasons other than personal profit, so we would have no doctors at all under a public system. You can't fool me with the facts.

Lonely life

THESE young guys who cheat on their wives haven't stopped to think what it's going to be like to live out their lives as old men -- all alone.

Pizza tipping

I'M calling on behalf of all the pizza drivers in Cape Girardeau and Jackson. Even though sometimes the pizza company charges for delivery, the driver doesn't always get it. So whenever we deliver pizzas and don't get a tip, I don't think it's fair. A lot of the pizza drivers don't even make minimum wage. Everybody should pitch in, because it's a service.

No stopping

I'VE been waiting in front of Orchard Elementary School in Jackson on Thursday afternoon for 30 minutes, and my friend and I have counted 21 people in cars running the stop sign at Orchard Drive and Springview. I'm not talking about rolling through, I'm talking about running the stop sign. Jackson police and the school district needs to get this stopped. This is dangerous in front of the school.

Politically correct

TRYING to be politically correct is going to ruin this country. People try to be politically correct because they are afraid they will be sued if they aren't. To those people who do the suing, I say stop and get over the comment. And, may I add, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Ramadan, happy Kwanzaa and happy (insert holiday here).

Fix the system

I wonder why our government doesn't fix the flaws in the Medicare system and then improve Medicaid for those who are without insurance. Lawmakers could quit their arguing and go home for Christmas. Keep what we've got.

Broadway lights

THANKS for the lighted garlands across Broadway in downtown Cape Girardeau.