LETTERS: PERSPECTIVE ON COOL

To the editor:

This letter is in response to Marc Powers' Sept. 6 column, "Classroom air conditioning isn't a necessity."

I happen to disagree with Mr. Powers. Let's go over, point-by-point, what I disagree on.

OK. People are spoiled. Point one for you, Mr. Powers.

Cellular phones, televisions and microwaves all are quick and easy ways to communicate and cook. After all, they sure beat drum and smoke signals. While you're making the fire for the smoke signals, cook a good lunch too. That should only take a couple of hours. That is the same amount of time it takes the school cooks to fix lunch now. You tell them that they have to work night and day to feed an unappreciative mob of children because the things they cook with are unnecessary.

Mr. Powers, can you tell me when schools a couple of thousand, or even a couple of hundred, years ago started? After the fall harvest was gathered. By that time the weather was rather nice, if on the cool side. If school did start earlier, school was outside, for a small number of kids or for kids with their noses to high in the air they were frostbit and usually by themselves.

Another thing, buildings are much better insulated than they used to be and are a lot more crowded. All that insulation doesn't always keep cool air in when it is supposed to. Go back to second grade and do some addition. That equals a very hot room. It isn't melting that we have to worry about in these rooms. It is dehydration and heat exhaustion. We're not made of ice, and if we were we would have the same chance as a snowball. We can't go get a drink of water every five minutes and then, after playing, come inside and relax in cool air like we can at home.

When students go to school, you have heat humidity, lots of sweaty bodies and no air conditioner. That equals a lot of kids who lose concentration and become grouches. This starts off the year with a bad start. They don't learn the things they need to get throughout the rest of the school year that you learn in those first few weeks.

Finally, I am a student at Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School. Marc Powers is a staff writer sitting in an air-conditioned room and doesn't know how bad it is out here.

And don't say, "But I went to school too." This August was the second hottest with very little rainfall and high humidity. So before you say "They don't need air conditioners" be sure your are in a position to say it.

GELANIE LOCKHART

Cape Girardeau