Letters
Failing schools need tough, not military, discipline
The picture on page 1 of the July 27 Monitor of young black children dressed and lined up in military fashion was chilling. It was even more so when I discovered in the related article ("Public school tries out military-style discipline") that the children live in Oakland, Calif., not in some warring African nation.
Oakland's Mayor Jerry Brown thinks this military school is going to be the panacea for all the troubles in the local public schools - and it is going to cost only $20,000 per kid.
I have a message for Mayor Brown. As a California teacher for the past 16 years, let me suggest a cheaper solution. Allot all of the schools $12,000 per student, allow them to demand that students wear uniforms (as at his new school), and permit the schools to throw out those students whom they find are "not serious enough to continue at the school," just as his new school did right from the start. I'll bet that all schools will then have improved test scores and better-educated kids.
It is really difficult to teach anything when even a small group of kids is very disruptive and "not serious about learning." Now our schools have no option except to keep disruptive students or send them on to another public school. Would that we could send them to Mayor Brown's Oakland Military Institute.
Jean Nebel Riverside, Calif.
The Aug. 1 opinion column by Doug Bandow, "Let in the Mexican Trucks," was very one-sided. Mr. Bandow should try living near the border, as I do, to get a better perspective of NAFTA and the amount of truck traffic that it brings. The truck traffic since NAFTA is changing the remote and unique little towns along its path into "truck stops," complete with bypasses and strip malls, taking business away from our downtowns and turning our communities into nothing but franchise colonies for international corporations. There is something to be said for quality of life.
Sure, the increased trade is an economic "boom," but for whom?
It is, of course, a boom for the bottom line of corporations, taking advantage of cheap labor. And that increased employment that Mr. Bandow speaks of consists in large part of minimum-wage jobs at corporate franchises. On the Mexican side, before drawing the con that employment is up, one should visit the maquiladoras and see the shabby working conditions of the workers who don't make high enough wages to feed their families.
And let's not forget the increased pollution that these unregulated factories emit.
Mr. Bandow also failed to mention the tremendous strain the trucks will put on inspectors and law enforcement.
Tom Curry Alpine, Texas
Regarding the stalling of the Irish peace accord as reported in the News in Brief on July 16, the Good Friday Agreement has been endorsed by the Irish people both North and South, yet the British have failed to honor their commitments to police reform, demilitarization, and human rights. The IRA promised to give up its weapons last year only in the context of British promises being fulfilled. They have not, to date.
Kenneth J. Pyle Ocean City, N.J.
"The end of the world as we know it," (July 27) was correct when it proposed that MTV has radically changed the way we watch television. We no longer do.
Mary Lotspeich Lewisburg, Pa.
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