voices oct

8/14/2019 Voices Oct

1/17

B1003SA021PBB1003SA021PQ A21 _ 10-03-2009 Set: 18:24:29Sent by: jrush Opinion BLACK

The Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com _ Saturday, October3 , 2009 21AVIEWPOINTS

Iknow how to make half thepeople reading this columnimmediately dismiss everything

that Im about to say. All I have to dois state my political leanings.

In todays American culture,knowing where someone standspolitically allows those on the otherside to ignore anything that personsays, has said or will say. Suddenly,anyone who has an opinion that isdifferent from yours is wrong.

Forget the facts. Forget the histo-ry. Forget discussion, discourse,dialogue or debate. Today, the opin-ions of one side are categoricallycorrect, and anyone who disagrees is

just plain wrong. So wrong, in fact,that those on the wrong side can besummarily dismissed without justifi-cation.

An example. Recently, Gov. RickPerry made his first comments onthe possibility that the state of Texasexecuted an innocent man in a casefrom nearby Corsicana. Perry, aproponent of the death penalty,dismissed a five-year study conduct-ed by people who know more aboutarson investigations than he ever

will.In his dismissal of the facts, Perry

said, Im familiar with the latter-daysupposed experts on the arson side ofit. To punctuate his dismissal, Perrymade quotation marks with hisfingers in referring to the supposedexperts.

Who was Perry dismissing? Justseven of the nations top arson ex-perts who found no evidence that thefire was set intentionally. The authorof the study, a renowned scientist,strongly accused the investigators

who handled the case of misreadingthe evidence and basing their conclu-sions on a poor understanding offire science.

But these seven arson expertsdared question a Perry political

belief, so they had to be dismissed.Worse, this week, just days before ahearing was to be held on the case,Perry pre-emptively replaced threemembers of the Texas ForensicScience Commission, forcing anopen-ended delay in the airing of the

facts of the case.That sure is a lot easier than

having to discuss whether an in-nocent man was executed.

My personal favorite dismissal isreserved for those who criticize themedia. Despite scores of researchthat has proven otherwise, a majorityof Americans say the media is politi-cally biased. According to a surveyrecently released by The Pew Re-search Center, 74 percent say newsorganizations tend to favor one sideor the other when it comes to politi-cal and social issues.

This idea of media bias didntbecome universal until the early1970s, when President RichardNixon created the White HouseOffice of Communications, devel-oped his enemies list of anyone

who disagreed with him, and dis-patched Vice President Spiro Agnewto accuse the media of liberal bias.

The belief in a liberal mediaultimately led to the creation of theFox News Channel and an AM radiodial that is crowded with conserva-tive communiques, thus givingliberals something to dismiss as well.

The ultimate loser in all thisdismissing is our country. Instead ofsolving problems collectively bylooking at differing viewpoints,listening to differing opinions andexamining facts from differing sourc-es, we dismiss anyone or anythingthat doesnt automatically agree withour pre-determined position.

Perhaps we could learn fromPresident Abraham Lincoln. Hefilled his Cabinet with people who

were opposed to him, and Americasurvived its most precarious momentin its history. Great minds may thinkalike but opposing minds make itright.

Eric Van Steenburg

of Dallas is the

former executive

director of the

Friends of the Katy

Trail. He is also a Community Voices

volunteer columnist. His e-mail ad-

dress is [email protected].

Were too quick to dismisseach other out of hand,says Eric Van Steenburg

Honor thedifferences

among us

Is Thomas Jeffersons famouswall of separation betweenChurch and State still relevant

in modern-day Collin County?I wonder.Earlier this month, the Collin

County Commissioners Court metin special session to hold a budgethearing and conduct other busi-ness. They did not meet in their newJack Hatchell AdministrationBuilding. Instead, they went tochurch.

The meeting was held at FirstBaptist Church in Melissa.

I find the choice of a churchtroubling, when there are manyother suitable government build-ings in northern Collin County. AndI find the choice of First Baptist

especially troubling.Since 2002, the Rev. Trey Gra-

ham has been the pastor of FirstBaptist. Graham, a social conserva-tive, broadcasts a talk show on aChristian talk radio station thatcommingles political and spiritualthemes.

For example, a recent programfeatured a discussion of PresidentBarack Obamas health care planand the upcoming race for Texasgovernor.

Grahams blog, Faith Talk, oftenincludes interviews with govern-ment officials and questionnairesfilled out by candidates for localoffice. It also takes a stand in local-option elections. During the lastpresidential race, Graham wroteseveral articles praising Sarah Palinand criticizing Obama.

In 2006, Graham wrote on hisblog: As a pastor, my calling is tohelp others find God and find a

place of service in Gods kingdom.My desire is to persuade followersof Jesus Christ to live for the Savioroutside the walls of the church,letting their faith guide their poli-tics. I believe our county, state andnation would be well served byhaving faithful Christian believersin positions of political influence.

Last year, the CommissionersCourt appointed Graham theircounty chaplain. It also paid himto moderate workshops designed toformulate new mission statements.

You dont have to be a knee-jerkACLUer to be concerned that theCommissioners Court is meeting atFirst Baptist. Its led by a politicalactivist who advocates the electionof faithful Christian believers and

who has worked hard to influencepolicy on local, state and nationalissues.

The relationship between thischurch and the county is becoming

too close.I would be equally concerned if

the commissioners scheduled oneof their meetings at the headquar-ters of any other political group

be it the NRA or ACORN.Graham is welcome to his politi-

cal views; he has a right to them.But the county government repre-sents all Collin County citizens, inall their diversity.

It must keep its affairs separatefrom any church.

Bill Baumbach is a

Wylie resident and

has previously run

for a seat on the

Collin County

Commissioners Court as a Democrat.

His e-mail address is bill@baum

bach.org. A version of this column

appeared on Baumbachs blog, The

Collin County Observer, www.baum

bach.org.

Why is our government meeting in a church?Commissioners Court is

too cozy with right-wingpastor, says Bill Baumbach

Since we are in the middle of HispanicHeritage Month, it is the perfect time for we

who call ourselves Republicans to take along-overdue moral stand. Even though Ive beena member of the GOP ever since I had the chanceto vote, I often disagree with those of our party

who oppose immigration reform for ourneighbors in Mexico and Latin America. It is hightime for our party, and our nation, to rectify thesituation.

Former President George W. Bush took anunpopular stand while in office, proposing atemporary-worker status to address the illegal-immigration problem. He also proposed reducingthe wait time for citizenship to six months. Theopposition he faced from his own party is some-thing the GOP has yet to atone for.

The issue has become so politicized that wehave lost sight of the core issue: We as Americanshave a moral obligation to make the freedoms weenjoy accessible to all.

As an Oak Cliff resident, I, like many others ,know that the characterization of illegal im-migrants as malevolent hoods who scoff at ourlaws is incorrect. And immoral. Most only seek toprovide for their families and enjoy a life thatmost of us were blessed to have at birth and nowoften take for granted.

Oak Cliff is a prime example of how Latinoculture can better a community, and yet too manyhere are forced to live in shadows and fear. Wehave a moral obligation to change their situationfor the better.

Bush once said: Family values do not stop atthe Rio Grande. Immigration is not a problemto be solved; it is the sign of a successful nation.New Americans are to be welcomed as neighborsand not to be feared as strangers.

The recession now forcing Americansto re-think our priorities has been a reality in Mexicofor years. The situation is so dire that many haveno choice but to come here by any means poss ibleto provide for families back home.

Would we not disregard borders to provide forour own?

Allowing temporary work visas and reducingthe wait for citizenship would decrease the num-

ber of illegal immigrants, ensure that they paytaxes and follow the law, and make it easier forthem to integrate into society. It is ironic that theconcept of life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-ness is defined in our Declaration of Indepen-dence as unalienable, yet many today seek to denythose rights to aliens.

My family has called Texas home for fourgenerations, and yet they have seen the strugglesLatinos new to this country have endured.

As a young girl, my mother and her familymoved to a small town near Flagstaff, Ariz. Onenight, their neighbor, an illegal alien who workedthe nearby fields, came looking for help for hispregnant wife, who had labor complications buthad been turned away at the local hospital. The

wife delivered the baby, a little girl, stillborn athome. With no other options, my grandfatherhelped them bury her at the foot of a mountain.

Nearly 60 years later, the situation is better.After all, it is illegal to deny emergency care toillegal immigrants.

But working toward more positive changesshould not be a Democratic or Republican posi-tion; it is a moral one.

Until we realize that freedom comes withoutstrings attached, we do not deserve to call our-selves Republicans. Or Americans.

Victor Medina of Oak Cliff is a

freelance travel and sports writer

and a Community Voices volun-teer columnist. His e-mail address

is [email protected].

Immigrationreform is

a moral issueMy fellow Republicans, it is timefor us to embrace an adequatelymoral solution, says Victor Medina

The other day I was watching a rerun ofan old show calledForgive or Forget.The basic premise of the now-canceled

series is to bring on someone who has causedsome sort of conflict with a former friend orrelative, hear out their story and then ask theperson they hurt if theyre willing to bury thehatchet.

At the end of the show, a large door to theleft of the stage opens. If the person who washurt is standing behind it, it signifies that theyforgive their offender. Sometimes it works outand they reconcile, but other times the pain is

just too deep. The heart can only take somuch.

Ive often wondered what it would be like ifwe took the shows format to a new level andplaced some more widely familiar namesagainst the hurt they have caused. Im nottalking about famous criminals or divisivepoliticians, but something a little closer tohome.

Officer Robert Powell presents the perfectexample. The young public servant cementedhis status as most hated man in D-FW onMarch 18 when he pulled over Houston Tex-ans running back Ryan Moats for running ared light near a Plano hospital.

What followed was, by all accounts, one ofthe worst judgment calls in policing history.

To recap, Moats was speeding to see hisdying mother-in-law when he ran a red light.

When Powell pulled him over in the hospitalparking lot, he disrespectfully detainedMoatsfor 13 minutes, in spite of the circumstancessurrounding the traffic offense. Unfortunate-ly, Moats mother-in-law passed away whilePowell continued his tirade. His defense, in anutshell, was that he was attempting to con-trol a difficult situation while enforcing thelaw.

Its hard to be forgiving with a story likethis. But thats exactly what I want to chal-lenge here.

Without a doubt, public officials are placedon a higher moral pedestal than almost allother working professionals. As Powelllearned, there are serious consequences for

betraying the public trust. The ability to moveon, however, is what usually comes afteraccepting those consequences.

Weshould all be familiar with the rest ofPowells story by now. He resigned underpressure and faded into our memories.

However, hes now back in the news. Re-porters found him in the small panhandletown of Stratford, Texas, trying to restart hiscareer.

The residents of Stratford arent veryunderstanding of his past, either. Many havecalled him a racist or bigot, and most simply

want him out of their city.He lost his job and, even worse, his dignity.

It seems as if he cant even move without themedia keeping track of him. Bearing that inmind, is it realistic to think that he might do itagain? I tend to think not.

So if this were an episode ofForgive orForget, could I stand behind the door of for-giveness for Powell and allow him to move on,to continue policing elsewhere?

To be honest, I dont know the answer.Powells incident with Ryan Moats makes mea wary citizen.

But issues such as these warrant morethoughtfulness than I think we generally givethem.

With that in mind, Id like to ask all of youthe same question. If you were a Stratfordcitizen, would you stand behind the door offorgiveness for Robert Powell?

Richard Kyle Lester of Fort

Worth is a public administra-

tion graduate student at UNT

and a Community Voices

volunteer columnist. His

e-mail address is [email protected].

Time tomove on?

Why do we hesitate to forgive publicblunders? asks Richard Kyle Lester

DEAN ROHRER/NewsArt.com


2/17

B1010SA023PBB1010SA023PQ A23 _ 10-10-2009 Set: 18:43:16Sent by: jrush Opinion BLACK

The Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com _ Saturday, October10, 2009 23A

But a new book by Baylor professor and lay Epis-copal preacher Greg Garrett has validated my dareI say it? religiousview of the band.

Released in July, We Get to Carry Each Other: TheGospel According to U2, discusses the pressure U2endured in the early 1980s. Three members of theband were part of a devout religious group that moreor less gave them an ultimatum: You can be in aworld-famous rock band, or you can be true Chris-tians. They believed they could be both, so they leftthat religious community and set out on their ownjourney.

Garrett, not a Christian at the time, scored aninterview with them in 1982 but says he wouldnthave asked them about that decision even if he hadbeen aware of it. I didnt want to think about thatdimension of their lives, he told me.

A lot of U2 fans feel that way even now. Theyappreciate the music. Maybe they even like the socialjustice themes in the lyrics. But they refuse to think ofthe band as Christian, and they certainly dont relateconcerts or listening to the music to a spiritual experi-ence.

Some evangelical Christians feel much the sameway, but for different reasons. When Bono embarkedon an Africa-themed speaking tour in 2007, Garrettnotes in his book, some evangelicals took him to task.Who is Bono to tell Christians how they should serveGod? If he were as Christian as he professes, he wouldattend a church.

But, Garrett contends, maybe U2 is a church. Tomembers of North Texas evangelical megachurches institutions that dominate lives from Sundayworship to Friday bowling leagues that may behard to swallow. And to those who accuse Bono ofhaving a messiah complex, it may seem arrogant. Butwhat is the mission of a church, anyway? Its roughlythe same as what U2 sets out to do at a revival, um, Imean concert: Its to give you the tools, the energyand the inspiration to go out and change the world,Garrett says.

Maybe thats why there was reportedly some effortto have U2 open the new Cowboys Stadium. A BillyGraham crusade opened Texas Stadium, after all. U2was not touring at the time, but the band will be inArlington on Monday, and itll be my second time tosee them.

My wife took me to see U2 for my birthday in2001. They were playing an extended set of concertsin New York City just weeks after 9/11. During theencore, as the band played One, the names of thevictims were projected into every corner of Madison

Square Garden. Then, as the band played Walk On,firefighters and police officers solemnly marchedsingle-file from the back of the arena and took thestage.

Bono said a few words then handed the micro-phone to a firefighter who told the crowd about theloss of his brother. And that firefighter handed themicrophone to a police officer who told of cops his

unit had lost. And so on, for 10 or 15 minutes. By thetime the house lights came on, no one had even no-ticed that the biggest rock band in the world hadquietly left the stage.

Churches comfort the injured and the sick. They

feed the hungry. They push us to act on our faith outin the world. And they give us strength when our faithis weak. In his book, Garrett shows examples of U2doing all these things.

As a Catholic, Im not going to stop attendingMass, but the U2s music has gotten me throughsome of my darkest times. When nothing else wouldhelp, the band lifted me.

For the first 10 days that my wife was hospitalizedwith Guillain-Barre syndrome in 2003, every day wasworse than the one before. As I prayed, my thoughtskept returning to lyrics from Beautiful Day What you dont have you dont need it now / Whatyou dont know you can feel it somehow.

My wife recovered, and through it all, we foundourselves focused on the mysterious beauty of life.And when things seemed most uncertain, those lyricsreminded me that were not meant to know all theanswers.

Theres no doubt that priests, rabbis and all clerics and cathedrals, temples and mosques all pro-

vide light for the journey of faith. But music like U2scan put the spring in our step.

Michael Landauer is The Dallas Morn-

ing News assistant editorial page

editor for Community Opinions. This

column reflects his personal opinion.

His e-mail address is mlandauer@

dallasnews.com.

Is Mondays U2 concert in Arlington a religious revival?asks Michael Landauer

In Gods Country

U2s music has great meaning, not just

to me, but to the world. When you

say something like that out loud, it

seems like cheesy fanboy gushing, I k now.

Ten spiritual

lessons from U2

1. But I still havent found what

Im looking for (from I Still

Havent Found What Im Looking

For, The Joshua Tree): Life is a

journey, not a destination; faith is

ameans, not an end.

2. Hello, hello (Hola!)/Im at a

place called vertigo (From

Vertigo, How to Dismantle an

Atomic Bomb): Contemporary

life is disconcerting,

destabilizing; that is its

nature. Dont expect it to be

otherwise.

3. We get to carry each other

(from One,Achtung Baby):

Our lives are for and with each

other. We need each other to be

who we are called to be.

4.The goal is elevation (from

Elevation,All That You Cant

Leave Behind): We are seeking

transcendence for ourselves, our

spirits, our world.

5.I cant believe the news today/I

cant close my eyes and make it

go away (from Sunday Bloody

Sunday,War): Ignoring the

brokenness we see is not an

option; we are called to bring

healing and hope, to help

transform the world.

6.Its a beautiful day/Dont let it

slip away (from Beautiful Day,

All That You Cant Leave Behind):

Welive in a marvelous creation.

Pay attention to it.

7.What more in the name of

love? (from Pride in the Name of

Love,The Unforgettable Fire):

Risk everything for love; there is

nohigher value. Love changes

everything, including us.

8.We need love and peace

(from Love and Peace or Else,

How to Dismantle an Atomic

Bomb): War and cruelty destroy

lives and demean the human

spirit.

9.Sometimes you cant make it

on your own (from Sometimes

You Cant Make It on Your Own,

How to Dismantle an Atomic

Bomb): Its no shame to rely on

others. We are made for

companionship especially in

tough times.

10.Walk on (from Walk On,All

That You Cant Leave Behind): Youcan lose everything but what

matters most. Dont despair.

Dont stop believing. Dont stop

working for the healing of the

world. You are never alone.

SOURCE Greg Garrett, in his book, Weget to Carry Each Other: The GospelAccording to U2 .

BUBBA FLINT/Special Contributor

is hard to see a personal historicalfavorite seemingly disappear fromthe textbooks, but that doesnt meanthat the ideals for which that personstood are gone. By giving examplesthat encompass a broader base thestandards provide students with awider view of the world in which theylive. The favorites are still there, justwaiting for independent research.

The study of social studies isntalways pretty. There are warts in ournations past that should not beglossed over. This countrysgreatness lies not only in itssprawling land and dynamic people,but in its recognition of the wrongsin the past and the desire of thenation to right those wrongs.

Social studies standards thatallow our students to examine allsides of an issue and explore thesolutions will produce an educatedpopulace with the skills to lead our

country in the future. Strangle thosestandards with politicalpartisanship, and educationbecomes indoctrination.

Sue Blanchette

teaches U.S. history

at Hillcrest High

School in Dallas and

is vice president of

the National

Council for the Social Studies. Her

e-mail address is

[email protected].

Those who control the pastcontrol the future.

Those who control the presentcontrol the past.

George Orwell, 1984

There is a fine line betweeneducation andindoctrination. Social studies

teachers walk that fine line daily,determined to open their studentseyes to a myriad of ideas while notallowing their own political orpersonal opinions to influence theintellectual development of theirstudents. It is a formidable task.

The foundation for this task liesin the Texas Essential Knowledgeand Skills, the standards providedby the Texas Education Agency.These standards are currently underrevision for the first time in adecade, and they have become thenewest political football for the StateBoard of Education.

It would be an intellectual crimeto allow the personal beliefs of a fewindividuals to drive the standards bywhich our students will be taughtsocial studies for the next decade.Texas should be the nationalexample for sound intellectualdevelopment in social studies, not a

laughing stock.The current draft standards in

U.S. history, available for review on

the TEA Web site, establish a firmfoundation for the education ofTexas students. By and large, theyprovide teachers with clearguidelines upon which to buildclassroom lessons that preparestudents to be actively involvedparticipants in American society.

Are they perfect? No. Democracyis a messy process of compromise,and not everyone will be pleasedwith all the standards.

There are some fine line areaswhere personal and politicalviewpoints can move the standardsfrom education to indoctrination.The State Board of Education needsto tread lightly in these areas.

Religious influence

There is no question thatChristianity influenced thedevelopment of the United Statesduring the colonial period. Since themajority of the colonists were ofEuropean origin and sinceChristianity was the dominantreligion in Europe at the time, itwould be strange if Christianity didnot play a role in colonization. It wasnot, however, the only majorinfluence.

The writing of such documentssuch as the Declaration of

Independence and the Constitutionfind their foundations in manysources the Magna Carta, theMayflower Compact, theFundamental Orders ofConnecticut, the writing of theEnlightenment. These should not bepushed aside.

Terminology

If our students are to competenationally and internationally, theymust be cognizant of how the rest ofthe world thinks. Using terminologythat is considered outdated onlyhurts the students of Texas.Politically charged terms like

conservative and liberal have noplace in state standards. A standardshould be neutral. For example,teach students to identify significantadvocacy groups, and allow studentsto see how differences are handled ina free society.

Quantity

We cannot teach everything.Social studies knowledge increasesdaily, and choices have to be made. It

Keep partisan agendasout of public schools,

saysSue Blanchette

Social studies is no place for politicsREAD Blanchettes

critique that she sent to

the TEA on details of the

standards.

educationfrontblog.dallasnews.com

VIEWPOINTS

Hey, kids, stay in school!

That oft-used refrain soonmay have new meaning.

Earlier this month, President BarackObama and Education Secretary ArneDuncan proposed extending theschool day, lengthening the schoolyear and adding Saturday classes.Their laudable goal is to prepare thenext generation for adulthood in anincreasingly complex world.

Is this the way to do it? For at leastone group of students, the answer isno. Based on studies I have read, thedropout rate for gifted students isbetween 5 and 20 percent.

What scourge is stealing so many ofour smartest kids? Extremedebilitating boredom coupled withagile minds that cant let thempatiently wait for the end of class. Ifwe lengthen their classroom hours,how many gifted kids are likely tostay?

To understand how boredom feelsto these kids, imagine making aschools fastest runner sit in a chairnext to the track all day, every day,while her teammates are racing pasther. Imagine her frustration. Imaginehow shes going to feel about runningafter a few days of that. Most likely,shell walk off the field and never turnback. By dropping out, thats whatthese lost gifted children do. Many ofthe boys leave to get a job. Many of thegirls leave pregnant.

But why drop out? Why not justtough it out?

Forget stereotypes about giftedstudents. While some brilliant kidsmay read chapters ahead and sit upfront, many dont. Some hide at theback or sit with the rowdy kids.Keeping one ear on the lesson, theydoodle or goof off, trying to staysomewhat engaged. Chapters remainunread and homework sits at thebottom of backpacks, scrunched upand poorly completed.

Many gifted kids have weak timemanagement and organizationalskills. They often plan projects withsuch breadth that they have no hope offinishing.

Bored, disorganized, dinged for toomuch detail and penalized forlearning too quickly, some gifted kids

start believing that their schools dontwant them. Add the social challengesof being smarter than peers andsome teachers and too many giftedstudents simply give up.

A University of Connecticut studyfound that 48percent of gifted kidswho drop out are from homes withlow socioeconomic status. Imaginehow high that number will go if thesekids are forced to spend an extracouple of hours a day doodling or,worse, being disruptive.

The same UConn study found thatmany of the gifted students whodropped out spent less time inextracurricular activities than peers. Ifwe lengthen the school day, kids willhave even less time for theseprograms, meaning more giftedstudents will be at risk. For many of

these kids, their after-school activitiesare their lifelines, their sliver ofnormal life. Increased class time willdo more harm than good.

The idea of lengthening the schoolday isnt novel but a perennial favoritein education circles. The latest pushcomes from a venture capitalist whofinanced a pair of documentaries, TwoMillion Minutes. Each film follows afew students from the U.S., India andChina through their two millionminutes between the end of eighthgrade and high school graduation.

Both movies emphasize how muchmore time Asian kids spend studyingcompared to their Americancounterparts. But gifted kids dontneed to study more; they need to bechallenged. They need difficultclasses, not more class time.

Cant we encourage all students tomake the most of their potentialwithout sentencing our most brilliantto detention? To paraphrase anotherpresident, dont leave our gifted kidsbehind.

Lisa M. Virgoe is a

resident of Lucas and

aformer Voices

columnist. Her e-mail

address is

lmv@purely online.com.

Quality of education mattersmore, says Lisa Virgoe

Gifted kidsdont need

more hours


3/17

B1017SA019PBB1017SA019PQ A19 + 10-17-2009 Set: 23:23:34Sent by: mapuan Opinion BLACK

The Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com + Saturday, October 17, 2009 19AVIEWPOINTS

Attention all high schoolseniors. I have two words ofadvice for you: Slow down.

No, I am not talking about howyou drive, although the adviceapplies there, too. I want toencourage 17- and 18-year-olds toslow down and enjoy this excitingtime in your life.

Sure, I encourage you to studyhard and make good grades even if

youve already been accepted intothe college of your choice. I am ahigh school teacher, and I expectnothing less from my students.

But some things Ive seen andheard have me concerned. Ive seensome of your fellow students losesleep over college applications,

worrying if they will get into thiscollege or that. And Im not talkingabout students who are going toneed a miracle to be accepted intotheir dream school. These are someof the very best in the classroom,and if, for whatever reason, they donot get into College A, they surely

will get into College B.I know, its easy for me to say. I

am not in their position, but I wasjust 16 years ago. I loved my senioryear. I enjoyed the process oflooking for a college, but it didntpush me to the verge of a mental

breakdown.Something seems different

today. Too many times I have seenstudents totally consumed by thefear of not getting into a specificuniversity.

I realize how fortunate I am toteach at a school where students

value education so dearly. It iscertainly not the case on every highschool campus.

My challenge for you, theoverachievers who are visiblyoverstressed, is to cherish this timeand simply enjoy the process. Nodoubt, selecting a college is one ofthe biggest decisions of your life,

but its a choice involving more thanSAT scores, class rankings andGPAs. Too often, quality schools getpushed aside because they arelabeled as not as academicallyrespected as others. But you need toknow that the minute you set foot

on campus, your SAT score andhigh school rankings becomeirrelevant.

Not every school is Harvard orYale, but all universities providerigorous, challenging academics.

All provide an education that willserve you for the rest of your life.

Looking back at my seni or year, Ihad a few colleges in mind, but ifone didnt work out, I was ready fora backup plan. I considered a fewTexas universities and twoout-of-state schools ArizonaState and Alabama. I visited both ofthose campuses and couldnt say a

bad thing about either. I weighedsome options: Palm trees or pinetrees? Road trips to California orFlorida? Big city or small collegetown? Dry heat or humidity? Sun

Devils or Crimson Tide?OK, there are more important

factors than those, but dontoverlook these sorts of things. Visita campus and see if it feels right.

Youll know the second you set footwhether it is a place for you.

I ended up at Alabama and havenever regretted it. I wouldntexchange the degree I received forone from any other school.

I hope youll feel the same waysomeday. In the meantime, though,enjoy your senior year. Go tofootball games on Friday nights. Beloud at the next pep rally, even if youhave spent three years thinking theyare a waste of time. Join a club orgroup on campus this year, so youcan make a difference before yougraduate.

Just dont let the demands ofcollege applications consume yourlife. You have your entire adult lifeahead of you but only one senior

year. Tap the brakes, and enjoy theride.

Chase Wofford of

Keller is the

journalism teacher

and newspaper

adviser at Coppell

High School. His e-mail address is

[email protected].

Students cant let collegeadmissions consume them,says Chase Wofford

Slow downand savorsenior year

Twenty years ago, I wasdiagnosed with Hodgkinsdisease, so I can now reflect

on two decades as a cancer survivor. Iam happy to be alive. I know I amlucky. My disease responded well tothe treatments available at the time,

which is, quite simply, the differencebetween life and death. But I mustalso acknowledge that survivingcomes with a price.

I was 24 when I was diagnosed,fresh out of college, certain that the

world was mine to conquer. I wasliving my dream: working as anentertainment agent, booking bandsaround the Southwest. I was hungry,and I found the entrepreneurialchallenge of commission sales to bethrilling. I was going for the brassring.

The blow to my confidence that

accompanied my diagnosis wasprofound, physically and emotional-ly. And it had a huge impact on mycareer. I became an indenturedservant to health insurance. I went

back to college to get benefits undermy fathers policy. I took any medio-cre job that had an HMO that would

be required to cover me.After five years, I could no longer

be excluded for having a pre-existingcondition, so my job prospects in-creased somewhat. But I had lostcritical time in my field, and I had tostay covered.

You see, the bills and the feardont end with the treatment. Astime has passed, the frequency oftests and follow-up appointmentshas declined. My worries aboutrecurrence have dissipated. But

because of the radiation therapy Ireceived, I am in a high-risk groupfor breast cancer, so I have mam-mograms and breast MRIs annually.I take thyroid medication for life, asthe radiation fried my thyroid. Not

enough research has been done toestablish a clear link between radia-tion and the acid reflux and esopha-geal problems I have, or the sinusinfections I started getting about five

years ago, but I suspect they arerelated.

My spleen was removed, so myimmune system is compromised. Idont eat raw oysters or sashimi,

because a good dose of food poison-ing could kill me. I get the flu shotevery year and stay current on vac-cines for pneumonia and hepatitis. Istay home when I am sick, and Iresent people who dont.

I get a physical each year and stayon top of all of my medications, tests,procedures and routine appoint-ments. I go to the dentist twice a year I had radiation to my jaw, and I

want to avoid any problems thatmight arise.

After being laid off in January, Istarted my own business this year,

which I could not have done had Inot had access to a good policy

through my husbands company. Forme, it has been a 20-year journey toreturn to an entrepreneurial worklife.

Of course, I am following theraging debate on health care reform

with keen interest. I dont knowwhat I think about all the talk com-ing out of Washington. But I doknow that the American dream, theideals of opportunity traditionallyheld to be available to every Amer-ican, is out of reach for many people not because they lack the talent ordrive, but because they have con-cerns about their health care.

Susan Dodia of

Plano is president

of The Project

Coach, a project

management

consulting practice, a graduate stu-

dent at SMU, and a Community Voices

volunteer columnist. Her e-mail ad-

dress is Susan@theproject-

coach.com.

Americans are handcuffed to their health careGetting sick derails life

longer than some realize,says Susan Dodia

Four score and a thousand or so years ago,I recall scooping up every glass cola

bottle in the house and putting them allin a brown paper bag to return to the store forsome spending money.

I recall that the lady at the counter one timegave me an entire dollar. Really. An actualdollar. My mind raced as I made a list of what Icould buy. Would it be three boxes of CrackerJacks with their special enclosed prizes? AMadmagazine? A Duncan Yo-Yo? The possibilities

were endless.That was so long ago. My, how times have

changed. I walked into a Whataburger theother day. I was meeting a friend and we weregoing to sit down and have a Coke and solve theproblems of the world. The guy behind thecounter said to me, Thats $1.72, when Iordered a small drink.

Seriously? I asked in disbelief. It wasnteven served in a cold glass bottle! To order the

big cup the urinator I would have had toapply for financial aid.

A dollar doesnt buy much anymore. That is,it didnt, until one recent day.

I am a teacher, and I keep a smallrefrigerator in my classroom. I stock it with cold

burpsicola in nice metal cans. A student asked ifshe could buy one from me. I told her it wouldcost a dollar. She smiled and told me shed be byat the end of the day on the way to her bus.

Some days go on forever when you teach inthe public schools. Too often, you see the ills ofsociety reflected in the behavior of students andeven some parents and co-workers. I rememberthat on this day I had made the mistake ofreading the headlines on the computer andlearned of a tragic murder-suicide that involvedsome younglings. I picked up the paper insteadand read about a local politician that had beenfound guilty of padding his pockets with our taxdollars on his way to Emerald City. Theysentenced him to prison, so hes not in Kansasanymore.

On this night, after football practice wasover, parents would be coming in for an openhouse. I dragged myself into my room andplopped into a chair to catch my breath beforethe kids and adults arrived. I was beaten down,and I had little or no faith in the world as it was.Then I saw something that lifted my spirits andhealed my heart.

Sitting on my desk, folded neatly on ahandwritten note, was a single dollar bill. Mystudent had come by on the way to the bus and,

finding me absent, she had helped herself to acold can of soda and then placed her dollar onmy desk. The only one in the room at themoment was this girl and her integrity.

There it sat in all its glory. A single dollar bill,lying on the desktop. She had no idea what shehad purchased for a dollar. She bought atruckload of faith from her teacher. She boughta boatload of integrity. She purchased all of my

bitterness and then transformed it into hope,and all for the price of $1.

It was sweeter than tipping up an ice-coldbottle of Coca-Cola on a hot summers day.

Maybe the world isnt as bad off as we thinkit is. Turns out, you can still get a lot for a dol lar.

David McClure teaches science

and coaches at Faubion Middle

School in McKinney. He is also

aTeacher Voices volunteer

columnist. His e-mail address


Surprisedby what

you can getfor a dollarMaybe kids today know its valueafter all, says David L. McClure

Icringe every time I hear someone say, Imnot good at math or I just cant do math.Honestly, how many people would joke

about not being able to read? So why do peoplejoke about their math abilities?

I watched the primetime version ofWhoWants to Be a Millionaire recently and could not

believe the number of people who made jokesabout their weak math skills. Granted, I would

be shaking in my boots if Iwere in the hot seat, but cananyone seriously imaginetelling Regis, I cant read thequestion, so Ill take my $100and go home.

Society rallies to fightilliteracy; those who cannot

read have many programs tohelp them learn. Most illiter-ate adults I have come acrosshide their illiteracy, going sofar as to lie about their abil-ities or to rely on their chil-dren to read for them. Yet no one seems to have aproblem announcing to the world that they aremath illiterate or innumerate, as some havestarted saying.

I have been a big advocate of parents being achilds first teacher. I am privileged to have astudent for one or two years, but a parent is

blessed with the child for a lifetime. I like toremind parents that just because students todayare being introduced in middle school to sub-

jects we learned in high school doesnt mean weclose the door to our influence at home.

Teach your child every day. Have them cookwith you and show them how to double therecipe, make half a recipe, set a budget, count

back change and understand fractions of miles

on exit signs. Have your child calculate gasmileage when you fill up the car, or compareprice per ounce when grocery shopping to deter-mine the best value. Discuss sales tax and how tocalculate it. How much are you really saving byshopping on tax-free weekend?

By proclaiming you are innumerate, are yousending the message that you cannot add orsubtract? Are you really saying you have trouble

setting up an equation from aword problem?

Everyone can do math to acertain degree, so why pro-claim that we cant?

Should this trend continue,where will we hear those wordsnext? From our bank teller

cashing our paycheck, insur-ance agent issuing our claimcheck, the nurse giving usmedication or the mechanicfixing our brakes? Oh, well, Icant do math. Ha ha.

Its a scary thought, but I have heard people ineach of these professions make the innumeracyclaim. I have been quick to question their ability

before allowing them to continue with servicesfor me.

We need to hold each other accountable forthe messages we are putting out about educa-tion. Its time to start admitting that we arecompetent people and that we can do math.

Julie Lewis is a /Math Interven-

tionist at Lamar Middle School

in Irving and a Teacher Voices

volunteer columnist. Her e-mail

address is 2txteach-

[email protected].

DEAN ROHRER/NewsArt.com

Showyour math

Innumeracy is not something to flauntor to be proud of, says Julie Lewis

Society rallies to

fight illiteracy. Yet no

one seems to have a

problem announcing

to the world that

they are math

illiterate.


4/17

B1024SA021PBB1024SA021PQ A21 _ 10-24-2009 Set: 19:06:16Sent by: jrush News BLACK

The Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com _ Saturday, October24, 2009 21AVIEWPOINTS

In the matter of FalconHeene, the 6-year-old boy

who stashed himself orwas stashed by his parents inthe attic while a f rantic worldthought he was adrift in a home-made balloon, let us stipulate afew things:

That there is somethingpresumptively wrong with peo-ple who name their childrenafter birds of prey; that theHeenes, if this was indeed ahoax, make Jon and Kate looklike Ward and June; that Andy

Warhol was right, except his 15minutes have stretched to 30 inthe age of cable; that a constitu-tional amendment to prohibitparents from exploiting theirkids on reality TV shows might

be in order.But all that isnt what really

interests me. What interests meis Balloon Boys flight as meta-phor for the process of par-enting.

You might say it doesnt takemuch to command wall-to-wallcable coverage, and that would

be a fair point. Any randomfreeway chase will fill up thetime nicely if there is helicopterfootage available in real time.

Yet it is the threatened child,for obvious reasons, who trulygrabs our attention: the toddlertrapped in the well, the third-grader snatched from her bed-room, the teen gone missing and, as my colleague EugeneRobinson tartly pointed out afew years back, the blonder the

better.If you are a parent, you know

in one of those ways that youtry to shove out of your con-sciousness, because there is nopoint thinking about it thatthis sort of thing could happen to

you. That no amount of vigi-lance, really, can shield ourchildren completely from ran-dom acts of violence or fate. Theancient branch that falls at

precisely the wrong time. The fluthat should merely have side-lined but ends up killing. Thetractor-trailer, out of control. Tohave a child is to know the cer-tainty of joy tempered by theomnipresent possibility of loss.

Which gets us to Balloon Boyas metaphor. The silvery balloonhurtles through the air. It bobs,sickeningly. A child, or so wethink, is inside, unseen. There isnothing to do but watch, horri-fied, and hope for a soft landing.

This is the essence of par-enting. You must send your childout into the world, even though

you know she is going to getbruised. There will inevitably bethe party invitation that doesntcome, the team that isnt made,the once-close friend who snubs.

You cant stop this; in truth, youshouldnt if you could. In TheBlessing of a Skinned Knee,psychologist Wendy Mogeldescribes the phenomenon ofparents foolishly trying toinoculate their children againstthe pain of life.

By treating children likewere cruise ship directors whomust get them to their destina-tion adulthood smoothly,

without their feeling even theslightest bump or wave, weredepriving them, she writes.Those bumps are part of Godsplan.

OK, but did God have to dealwith a high school freshman?

Accepting the plan does notanswer the harder question of

what freedom to allow when. Ihave been experiencing thisrecently with our newly in-dependent daughter. I welcomethis independence, yet I fear it.Can she get a ride to the restau-rant with the older girls on thesoccer team? No. Can she go tothe party at the house of a kidshe doesnt know and he doesntgo to her school but hes a friendof a friend? Not unless she is

willing to submit to the in-dignity of having me call theparents.

The balloon strains againstits mooring. You give the ropessome slack. Someday, too soon,

you will have to let it float free.

Washington Post

columnist Ruth

Marcus may be

contacted at

marcusr@wash

post.com.

We watch them fly, horrified, and theres nothing wecan do but hope for a soft landing, says Ruth Marcus

All children can beseen as Balloon Boy

The first thing I noticed upon myarrival was the Kaufman Countysheriffs car parked at the en-

trance, screening those entering thecomplex. Im not sure who they weretrying to keep out: the media, thecurious community, the owners orperhaps all of the above.

The second thing I noticed was thesound. The cacophony arose with thesimultaneous barking of hundreds and

hundreds of dogs. The noise begansomewhat quietly, building as cageafter cage of young puppies excitedlyjoined in the symphony.

Then I saw the vast number of cagesin the holding area of a county fair-grounds normally reserved for live-stock; they were stacked two high, laidout in row after row with dozens ofvolunteers focused on puppy care.

A section off to the side held thematernity ward, where mothers hadjust delivered new puppies, or werepatiently awaiting delivery somewith teats that were a mass of mastitis,infections speckling their chests.

There was an ICU and a quarantinesection made up of dogs that hadbitten the handlers, labeled fear ag-gressive.

This was my first time to volunteer

in an animal rescue. I had offered to fillin for a friend at the rescue of morethan 500 dogs and puppies nabbedfrom a puppy mill. Although theseanimals werent starving, neglect wasevident in their matted fur, dried feces,body sores, fleas, eye and ear infectionsand obvious lack of interaction withhumans. They had been born, raisedand then abandoned, never let out oftheir cages.

Veterinarians had already triagedthe animals, examining and vaccinat-ing every dog. They had written metic-ulous notes about each. On almostevery animals papers, the dispositionnoted was depressed. The hope wasthat grooming and a bath would putthe pups on their way to recovery.

It was impossible to bathe the dogsuntil their matted fur was shaved off,

so the groomer had to put up with theunrelenting stench. At times, theshearing had to be discontinued tophotograph more neglect when theremoval of hair showed a previouslyhidden skin ailment, infection or fleadebris so thick the skin looked pep-

pered with dark dots.

There was a small, apricot-coloredpoodle with hair matted so tightly thatshe whimpered when her fur wastouched, as the hair pulled on her skincaused excruciating discomfort.

I suspect every volunteer focused inon a pup or two who tugged at theirheart strings. I fell in love with B-63, asweet little female Yorkie whose matson her coat werent serious enough torequire an entire body shaving. In-stead, I lovingly bathed her and thenlaid her on a table to clip the knots outof the tips of her fur.

While working on her, I witnessedher amazing transformation. Shevisibly relaxed as my hands clipped herhair and gently and rhythmically ranmy hands over her soft fur. When Ireturned her to her cage, she waggedher tail, jumped up a bit and started to

play with her cellmate.Imade it a point the rest of the day

to stop by her cage between tasks, and Iwas always greeted with a lick on myhand and a friendly tail wag. Proof ofhow scarred these dogs were camewhen I leashed her up to take her out-

side. I carried her out, but the moment

her paws touched the grass, she pan-icked, dug in her heels and tried toretreat back to her cage. She had neverbefore experienced the feel of grassunderneath her feet.

I later learned that a judge gavecustody of the dogs to animal rescueorganizations. The first day the animalswere put up for adoption, a line ofpeople wrapped twice around an ani-mal rescue building. Families patientlyawaited the opportunity to offer thesescared and timid little guys their firstchance of real freedom, in homes wherethey would be loved endlessly, taught totrust the human race and have a hap-pily ever after ending to a life thatbegan so pathetically.

Ipray my little B-63 learns a newmeaning for normal.

Carey Carpenterteaches fourth grade

at Alba-Golden Ele-

mentary School in

Alba and is a Teacher

Voices volunteer columnist. Her e-mail

address is [email protected].

Dogs in needPeople can make a difference in pets lives for good and bad, says Carey Carpenter

KATHY MILANI/U.S. Humane Society

More than 500 dogs were rescued from a Kaufman County puppy mill in

August. Many were severely matted and suffered from infected wounds.

Iwas one of the new hires last year

at H. Grady Spruce High School,where test scores had been plum-

meting for years and attendance andcompletion rates were an embarrass-ment. When people I meet find out Iwork at Spruce, they always ask howthat happened. Frankly, Dallas, I dontknow.

When I tell them so, some peopleoffer their opinions: It was adminis-tration, lack of funding, low teach-er quality or a lack of discipline. Idont know how it happened, or be-lieve me, Id be willing to share thatwith you to prevent the tragedy of areorganization from ever occurring

again. Im baffled that the people Iencounter many whose only con-nection to education is that they havea student enrolled in a campus far, faraway from Pleasant Grove areconfident that they know how the

school declined.Ive heard from former teachers

that it was a mysterious conspiracy toclose Spruce down all along, that itwas the rapid population shift in theGrove, or that somehow the goodstudents had been sent to other cam-puses and only the bad ones re-mained. Im not at all sure about thesetheories, given the resources that wentinto keeping Spruce alive last year.

What I do know is that when I firstencountered Spruces few AdvancedPlacement English literature seniors,the Spruce way was not working.What I found were some advanced

senior students who thought missing15 days of school wasnt that big a deal.This will not be the case in Sprucesfuture.

The reorganization had to be done.Say what you will about Dallas ISDs

problems over the years, but puttingSpruce into the capable hands ofprincipal Lucy Hakemack and herhand-picked staff was a smart move.In one year, test scores rose from someof the worst in the state to some of thebest in Dallas. Even attendance im-proved, now that weve stated theobvious to the Pleasant Grove com-munity: Students who are in classevery day know more.

Hopefully, now that test scoreshave come up dramatically, we candebunk the myth that Spruce cannotbe run the same way as Blue Ribbonschools.

I still hear about negative episodeson the blogs, and I recognize that wearent perfect. But I challenge readersto name one high school where everystudent is on grade-level, rested, fedand ready to learn.

Let me assure you of one thingabout our Spruce family: It takes aspecial dedication to come here everyday to work or to study. If theres onething I do know, it is that Spruceteachers come to work here becausethey truly love these kids. Otherwise,they couldnt take the beating that it isand just earn a salary and go home,without ever reaching our goal ofproducing students who solve theirown problems and who can maketheir lives better if they choose. This isas valuable in the Grove as it is in therest of Dallas.

Spruce is not out of the red yet,

though. Unbelievably, we inheritedthe dropout rate from years ago,ranking us Unacceptable. Being thefamily we are, though, we are notgiving up.

When you hear that it cant be done

in the Grove or any low-performingcampus the same way it is doneelsewhere, dont listen. Were doing it,and were done looking backward.

Personally, I am far too over-whelmed with this important work toworry about how it got this way orwhy.

Lori Welch teaches

French and AP Eng-

lish literature at H.

Grady Spruce High

School in Dallas. Her

e-mail address is loriewelch@gmail

.com.

The right question to ask is: Where is Spruce High headed?Lori Welch is tired ofpeople focusing only onproblems in her schools past

We are living in a time whenhonest discussion is oftendrowned out by the noise

of partisan cheerleading. But if youraim is to do something more than todraw attention to yourself andincrease your ratings, if your goal isto actually move the world in yourdesired direction, I have a new wordfor you: persuasion.

It is one thing to give a speechbefore a cheering crowd ofsupporters, to blog or broadcast toan eager audience of thelike-minded but its quite anotherto address someone who disagrees

with you and actually change his

mind. The former is what we getfrom partisan mouthpieces and thelatter is something of a lost art. Theformer is easy; the latter is hard.

Hard, but not hopeless.My first encounter with the

basics of this lost art was a man ofmy fathers generation who had

begun his working life as adoor-to-door vacuum cleanersalesman. I told him that soundedlike a very difficult and unpleasant

job, knocking on doors and trying tosell something most people alreadyhad.

Not at all, he told me, as I recallthe conversation. It was a great job. The challenge was turning nointo yes. I was good at it, and Ilearned lessons that have helped methroughout my life.

The quick lessons he offered I

later found spelled out in greaterdetail in the disciplines of classicalrhetoric. Persuasion is an art. Itdraws on an understanding ofhuman nature and a facility forempathy, for seeing andunderstanding how the other guyfeels.

In political argument this meansacknowledging upfront whatevertruth or strength there is in anopposing point of view. Its there.Smart people disagree with you for ahost of reasons, some of them good.The worst thing you can do is begin

with an insult, as do so many of thee-mails I receive after stating anunpopular opinion.

The salesman next would makehis pitch. My old friends companyhad done an amazingly good job, hesaid, of preparing him for every

conceivable obstacle to the sale.It was very rare for a customer to

offer a reason not to buy that I couldnot answer, he said. If they alreadyhad a vacuum cleaner, this one was

better. If they couldnt afford it, wehad easy payment plans. You nameit, whatever objection they raised, I

was ready.This is the hardest lesson foradvocates to learn. To persuade, youmust anticipate and refuteobjections. It means exposing yourconvictions in advance to thorough,skeptical scrutiny. This is a lotharder than making emphaticstatements of belief designed,consciously or not, to draw cheersfrom those already in your camp,

which is what passes for politicalargument for the loudest voices inpublic debate.

Being persuasive is hard, becauseit demands you consider, even ifonly momentarily, for purposes ofargument, you might be wrong. Itrequires broadening your mind. Torefute opposing points of viewcapably (and winningly) means youmust first be willing to listen to

them. To really hear opposing pointsof view, you must make yourselfopen to them.

Theres a catch here. Sometimesyou might find that after reallyhearing an opposing viewpoint,

you cant refute it. Then you must dothe unthinkable: Change our ownmind. Grow.

Mark Bowden most recently authored

The Best Game Ever. His e-mail

address is mbowden @phillynews.com.

This country is suffering from the lost art of persuasionWere all choir-preachersand opposition-screamers,says Mark Bowden


5/17

B1031SA019PBB1031SA019PQ A19 10-31-2009 Set: 18:08:39Sent by: jrush Opinion BLACK

The Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com Saturday, October 31, 2009 19AVIEWPOINTS

At my school, TAG (talented andgifted) testing started in thefirst grade. The first grade

before most kids know multiplication,how to prepare a bowl of cereal

without spilling the milk, or even howto spell the word cereal.

Yet after scoring high enough on anassessment involving an amorphoussquiggle and instructions to drawsomething from it, I found myself

whisked away with the rest of thenewly minted TAG kids to a pull-outclass called Explorations.

Now, 10 years later, these kids arethe high-achievers. Every one of theNational Merit Semi-Finalists at myschool is a TAG kid. These are stu-dents who spend most of their time inthe company of other TAG kids, underthe instruction of trained TAG teach-ers.

How could a test that most of thesestudents took in first grade so accu-rately predict future achievement?

Was this fate of high achievement apre-existing condition within thesekids that was luckily discovered by atest and an attentive teacher, or didthe TAG teaching method instill it inthem? Which came first, TAG classesor the TAG kid?

TAG means more than just tal-ented and gifted. It is, at least in myschool, a social structure, a learningstyle, a type of person. Wheneversomeone in a TAG class does some-thing exceedingly creative or eccen-tric, someone will inevitably deem thisaction TAG. Interjecting opinionsinto class discussion is TAG. Writing aresearch paper as a narrative is TAG.Teachers shaving problems off assign-ments to keep the students fromgetting bored is TAG.

How could a child not becomecreative and passionate about learn-ing when they are put in classes wherethe opening activity every day is a

brainteaser and where activities rangefrom trying to fish out some trinketfrom a glass bottle using only a tooth-

brush or a vegetable, to writing a bookreport using geometric shapes?

Now, in high school, my TAG clas-ses involve fewer toothbrushes andmore discussion. A teacher once men-

tioned how TAG kids tend to be moreinvolved in their discussions thanregular kids. That makes sense. Weshould know how to have a discussion

by now; weve had lots of practicediscussing things literature, whythe seasons change, politics, why wemust discuss things at all for ages.

I went back this year to discuss theTAG system with this same teacher,and he told me something surprisingand perhaps encouraging. This year,he gave the same assignment to one ofhis standard classes, and althoughmany didnt know what to do with thefreedom of the project, a few of thestudents liked it, succeeded and,

better yet, asked for more. Also, whenthe next TAG-ish project was as-signed, more of the kids took it andran with it with newfound gusto and

motivation, into new TAG-ier territo-ries.

If this limited exposure to TAGteaching methods and projects led toeven more desire to do creative, unin-hibited things, maybe exposure tothese same sort of activities and teach-ing methods over longer periods oftime, say, since the age of seven, wouldhelp to form more self-motivated andpassionate learners today.

Now, I realize that everyone learnsdifferently and performs differently,and a test, especially a one-day PSATtest, is no way to measure academicsuccess or desire to learn, but it seemsto me that just the general passion in aTAG class discussion shows thatsomething is going right.

Perhaps by introducing a bit moreTAG-style teaching to all kids, our

schools would see better results, ei-ther in testing or in the much moreimportant sphere of real life, wherecreative thinking, problem solvingand motivation apart from gradesreally matter.

Hailey Sowden is a

senior at Highland Park

High School and a

Student Voices volun-

teer columnist. To

respond to this column, send an e-mail to

[email protected].

These teaching methodscould be effective for morestudents, says Hailey Sowden

Confessionsof a curious

TAG kid

Iswore I would never live

vicariously though my children.I would encourage and support

their interests and activities, but Iwouldnt live or die by theirsuccesses or failures. They wereseparate entities after all, and theumbilical cord had been cut.

I kept that promise for a longtime. I wouldnt write their essays or

build their science fair projects. Iwas unmoved by the teacher thatthey insisted hated them, and I

watched countless soccer games

without ever offering any helpfulhints from the sideline.My three children have regaled

me with stories over the years ofwho did what to whom. I alwayslisten it is a mothers job but Inever jump into the fray. I counsel

with a practiced attitude that con-veys a sympathetic yet this too shallpass kind of philosophy.

And then my son was a senior.And then my son was nominated

for homecoming king.

And then 17 years of bottled upparental competition reared its uglyhead.

I am ashamed to say this, but Iwanted him to win.

I certainly had nothing againstthe other four nominees they

were his friends, good kids fromgood homes but I really, really

wanted him to win.Sure, I had always thought the

whole homecoming court an archa-ic tradition that encourages pettypopularity contests between a

bunch of kids already filled withadolescent angst. What exactly doesit measure, anyway? It has nothingto do with academic achievement orany special skill in any special area.

Not only that, rumor had it thewhole process was hopelessly cor-rupt with Student Council mem-

bers being bribed with Big Macsand a voting process reminiscent ofa Florida election.

On the other hand, what parentwouldnt welcome their child beingcrowned anything?

Wasnt it a measure of effectiveparenting that he was so highlyregarded by his peers? And

wouldnt it be a self-esteem boost

that he could hang on to, when theinevitable day arrives and he is nolonger king of the hill?

The truth is, I could argue eitherside with equal passion.

The truth is, I was preparingappropriate rationalizations foreither outcome.

At halftime of the homecominggame, mothers were instructed toline up with their sons and accom-pany them across the football fieldfor the election results.

I held my son by the arm andlooked at this decent kid who,though not yet a man, was nowcertainly a guy. He wore a shirt, tieand jacket with high-top sneakers,and I remembered that hed worn

Velcro shoes for far longer then heshould have, because teaching andlearning to tie was not somethingeither of us accomplished until he

was 8.I kept my arm tucked in his, even

while he flirted with the queencandidates and goofed off with thekings. Everyone laughed at some-thing he said, and I rememberedthe years of speech therapy when Ihad to bribe him into the office each

week with a new Matchbox car.

The band played, and off wemarched. They called each candi-dates name along with that of hisparent. I squeezed his arm, and hepatted my hand, and I rememberedhow as a baby he would pat me onthe shoulder as I carried him on myhip.

The winner was announced, andI hugged my son hard.

He hugged me back and headedtoward his friends, while I headed

back into the stands.A friend says: Every mama bird

thinks hers sings the sweetest.I thought I was immune from

that. Turns out Im not.Isnt the whole homecoming

court an archaic tradition that

encourages petty popularity con-tests between a bunch of kids thatare already filled with adolescentangst?

Well, isnt it?

Lynne Sipiora of

McKinney is exec-

utive director of

the Samaritan Inn,

Collin Countys

only homeless shelter. Her e-mail

address is [email protected].

Hes my son, but these are his battles to fightSometimes its hard to stayon the sidelines, though,says Lynne Sipiora

Ive been exposed to educational debate anddiscussion since I was a boy. In the 1990s myfather retired after a 40-year career, and my

family now has third-generation teachers enjoying thechallenges and rewards of the classroom.

This is my 11th year in DISD. It is my good fortuneto teach at Seagoville High School, where for the pastthree years, my colleagues have elected me as theirrepresentative to Superintendent Michael HinojosasInside Track Committee.

This May, 100 percent of my students passed theexit-level TAKS, and I was chosen by the NationalEndowment for the Humanities to be one of 15teachers from the United States to spend five weeksthis past summer studying at the University of Londonand The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies.

Yet I recently learned that DISD doesnt believethat I am a good teacher.

Unlike some of my colleagues, I wont be therecipient of money that is intended to attract qualityteachers to low-performing campuses. Why? BecauseDISD has a remarkable ability.

Yes, DISD has devised a formula that rates teacherson what students should have achieved. The endresult of this formula is a rat ing called CEI Classroom Effectiveness Indices. While this sounds

very scientific, these ratings do not reflect whatactually occurred. CEIs are no more than numbers forthose who put their faith in mathematical formulas.

Nowhere in the formula are adjustments made forhuman foibles that are beyond the control of theteacher. You wont find a place for hunger and neglect.There isnt a place for the youngster who found out theday before a test that she was pregnant and that thefather was now involved with someone else. The CEItells you nothing about the boy in row three who camehome from school to find his dad had taken his ownlife. No place for that.

I guess we are to conclude that these life-changingevents dont affect student performance.

DISD isnt alone in the drive for such ratings.Across the nation, those who administer our publicschools are working hard to find answers about whyurban school districts are failing to produce youngmen and women who are literate and able to competein the global marketplace. Unfortunately, theseadministrators arent willing to tell us theuncomfortable truth: Answering that question wouldrequire us to do some soul searching that might lead usto conclude that all of us are responsible for the failure,and all of us must be part of the solution.

Many times Ive shaken my head at measures suchas CEIs. Why do teachers allow those with little or nounderstanding of the profession to continue to reviewthem in such punitive ways?

Imagine doctors being told that every patient mustbe cured. How about requiring lawyers to win everycase?

Such expectations wouldnt make sense, and themen and women in those fields wouldnt tolerate suchidiocy.

Teachers dont have the time or the energy to fightthat battle. Theyre too busy doing all they can to helpour young people make it through the difficult andimportant formative years.

This cant go on indefinitely. Good teachers,dedicated people who want to give their lives to assistthe young, will continue to leave the profession insearch of careers where they are valued and treated

with professional respect. Our children will be thelesser for it, and so will we.

Mark R. Harrington teaches history at

Seagoville High School and is a

Teacher Voices volunteer columnist.

His e-mail address is

[email protected].

Just forget thefancy formulas

They do nothing to help administratorspredict teachers success in theclassroom, says Mark Harrington

Its over. I quit. I persisted as long as Icould, but I finally had enough.

I used to roll my eyes at legends ofthe eternally provincial Amon Carter, thepatron saint of Cowtown puffery, who

would only come to Dallas as a last resortand who allegedly brought a sack lunch sohe would not have to patronize any Dallasrestaurants. But the Cardinal of Cowtownmay have had a point.

A few weeks ago, the wife and I headedout for a rare date night sans rugrats. Weskipped the great restaurants in Frisco, and

we drove past the Shops at Legacy in Plano,

which offers virtually any cuisine and qual-ity one might desire. Instead, we trekked toBig D. The 30-mile drive was worth it forour favorite restaurant, Monicas Aca y Allain Deep Ellum.

Once there, I passed several neon-flag-waving men selling parking spaces for oneof the ample lots along the street sourban!

A fantastic dinner, great margaritas andwonderful music ended with a $35 premi-um for my troubles. Not to tip the hard-

working waiters. This check was made outto the ungrateful, clueless city of Dallas fora parking ticket.

I have no issue with the justice of theviolation. I failed to see the meter or toconsider the possibility that a major city

would have active meters on weekends.Every major city I have visited suspendsparking meters after 6 p.m. and on week-

ends.But why is the city of Dallas charging for

on-street parking on Saturday night in adeserted part of town? Why target peopletrying to give CPR to a struggling entertain-ment district?

I have lived in cities smaller and largerthan Dallas, and I have visited hundredsmore. No major city makes it more difficultto visit than Dallas. The Texas-OU gamemakes this clear annually, whether it isparking scams or the disaster that is DART.

Conversely, Austin provides ample, freestreet parking, and Sid Richardsons for-tune continues to provide free parking toanyone who will visit downtown Cowtown.

Meanwhile, Dallas insists on scarce andexpansive parking and then wonders whydowntown is dead.

Zina Fernino, a spokeswoman for thecity, said a study done a few years ago in-dicated that parking demand in DeepEllum was light during the day and heavyduring the evenings, hence the meters andenforcement. She also stated that the en-forcement was a public service because itkept the restaurant and bar employees frommonopolizing on-street spaces. This is aproblem that seems to have escaped othercities.

Rather than writing parking tickets, thecity should have uniformed officers patrol-ling Deep Ellum to give people a sense ofsecurity and encourage visitors. Again, look

west, where Richardsons oil money alsosupplies private security to help keep down-town Fort Worth safe. Dallas should copy itsneighbor: Provide free parking and bettersecurity near entertainment zones, andpeople will visit and spend!

The success of Dallas new Arts Districtprojects will depend on people coming,staying and patronizing local businesses

before and after seeing a performance.Many people will visit once, but the hassle offinding parking and avoiding street peoplemay ensure that it is a singular experience.

With the people-friendly suburbs build-ing better restaurants and nicer amenities,there will be no reason to go south of In-terstate 635. Until Dallas makes visiting

easier, Ill be one of those folks staying away.Ino longer will suggest downtown

Dallas when other friends want to go to FortWorth. I will not pass wonderful restau-rants in Collin County to patronize oldfavorites in Big D. If I can help it, like AmonCarter, I will avoid spending a dime inDallas. She won the battle for my $35, butshe lost my heart.

E. Kyle Steinhauser of

Frisco is a technology

marketing manager at a

publishing company. His

e-mail address is ekyles@

gmail.com.

Big Ds

big turnoff

BRAD LOPER/Staff Photographer

City won the parking-ticket battle but lostthe war, says E. Kyle Steinhauser


6/17

B1004CB008PBB1004CB008PQ B8 C 10-04-2009 Set: 18:05:44Sent by: ajharrisjr News BLACK

8B Sunday, October 4, 2009 C dallasnews.com The Dallas Morning News

On the last day of a five-week courseover the summer, a multitude offeelings overwhelm me as I look at

my students. I need to say something, but Iwait. Then one of my students stands andsays he has been chosen to speak for theclass. He delivers a speech of gratitude for

my efforts, my teaching,my patience and toleranceof them. He thanks me forrelating to them.

I proudly notice thatthe speech is orated inperfect tense, correct verbconjugation that ofstandard American Eng-lish, and my student choseperfect replacement words

for the ones commonly used.I remember how I, too, craved for toler-

ance when I first came to America almost 30years ago. As an ESL teacher, I have to relate

to them; it is my duty.I share with my students how easy it is for

people to put labels on them due to their

accents, and I tell them what I have learned:An accent is not a problem unless it in-terferes with pronunciation. Also, that theyshould talk in their own voices, not in someAmericanized version of themselves. To dothat, they need to understand that what theyare learning is more than just a secondlanguage. They must conquer the permeat-ing usage of a third language the languageof the larger culture with all the typicallanguage expressions.

I was fortunate to come into this countrywith a broader education, cultural back-ground and the ability to speak English (theBritish kind, but English nonetheless). Butthe language of culture is the harder thing tomaster. People only become aware of theirculturally determined traits and valueswhen they are directly exposed to othercultures.

When people are exposed to other worldviews, they recognize their own sometimes-misconstrued world views, and they maybecome more sensitive to the ideas of others.For people in Europe, mastering more than

one language is no strange endeavor; it isdaily life. Bilingual people are better able tosee things from two or more perspectivesand to understand how other people think.But here, being bilingual is rare and mayeven be seen as a negative by others.

We need to be more tolerant of peoplewho speak with accents people who speakmore than one language. I tell my studentsthat over the years I have encountered manypeople who have commented on my accentduring conversations, and I wonder whypeople feel the need to do so.

As my students prepare to leave, I tellthem one last thing: Labels are just that,temporary, and they peel off after a while.

Susan Wildburger teaches

English as a second lan-

guage, most recently at

Brookhaven College as

adjunct faculty member. She

is also a Teacher Voices volunteer columnist.Her e-mail address is [email protected].

Voices

Teacher

Conquering another cultureEnglish is more than just words, says Susan Wildburger

The Dallas Morning News is acceptingapplications for Community Voices, apanel of volunteer columnists who will be

regular contributors tothe Opinions page in-side the Metro section.

Voices volunteers write opinion columnsevery four to six weeksand are the stars ofthe weekly SoundingOff feature that appears

on Sundays, in which the Voices and otherreaders respond to a question of the week.To get an idea of what topics Voices writeabout, visit dallasnews.com/voices.

Apply in four easy steps:

1. Write a little about yourself and puttogether a list of current and previous civ-ic involvements. How would others in thecommunity describe you? What is uniqueabout your background and experience?Why should we choose you?

2. Share a previous writing sample orwrite something new on a current topic. Awriting sample should be 600-650 words.

3. Jot down three other topics youwould like to write about.

4. E-mail the application to [email protected]. Please include youraddress and phone number.

Deadline: 4 p.m.tomorrow.

RAISE YOUR VOICE

My daughter has a date for thehomecoming dance. She is ec-static. I am petrified. She may be

old enough for this, but what about me?What, exactly, is my role in todays

exaggerated high-school social scene? Ivechecked, and Emily Post provides no guid-ance whatsoever on this momentous rite ofpassage. Too bad, because I could really usesome help. To do too little will make meseem as though I dont care, and to do toomuch will make me seem like a helicoptermom living vicariously through her childssocial engagement. Like so many otherparenting challenges, its a tricky balancingact.

The first question on my mind is TheMum. Who buys it, and how extravagantshould it be? Mums are a very importantpart of the Homecoming scene, and bigbusiness for our schools PTA. Mum Momshave been toiling for months cutting rib-bon and assembling the elaborate corsagesthat both girls (and boys!) wear to the biggame.

Friends who grew up in other areas ofthe country seem perplexed by the hugelyberibboned mum; I take it from theirattitudes that our custom is a peculiarlyTexan affair. I wasnt previously aware ofthe cultural disparity and thought all highschool girls everywhere spent homecomingday wearing corsages that make themresemble a Kentucky Derby winner. Butwhat I personally find unusual is the trendin large armband corsages, complete withribbons and teddy bears, for the guys.When I was in high school, a young manwould rather have been boiled in oil thanalight from his pickup truck sporting such

an accessory.Then, theres The Homecoming Dress.

Fortunately for me, this particular detailwas settled before I even knew it was anissue; I was thus saved much wailing andgnashing of teeth during hours of fruitlessshopping at NorthPark Center.

My daughter found the perfect dressand shoes during the summer and boughtthem with an optimistic eye toward thefuture. When she announced that the

outfit was for homecoming, I was skeptical.Do freshmen go to the homecomingdance? I asked. She accused me of doubtingher ability to land a date. But truly, I neverdoubted her success for a minute herdating prospects are what keep me awakenights. Many, many things seem to startearlier now, and I clearly still have somedistance to travel in catching up with thetimes.

Finally, theres The Pre-Dance Photo Op.Ive seen caravans of cars lined up at neigh-bors homes around this time of year and

asked myself, Who died? Nobody, fortu-nately. The traffic jam was just the danceattendees, along with their parents, gather-ing at one photogenic house to snap dozensof pictures in finery theyll never wear again,with dates they may not even be talking tonext week.

This year, by some mysterious lottery, wehave been designated as photo hosts. WhileIm flattered that my home has been deemedworthy of the honor, Im also a bit nervous.

Of course Ill have to clean the house, andperhaps even paint the front hall. But shouldI serve snacks to the other parents? Cock-tails? Maybe Ill have one now.

The only saving grace in this whole affairis that my daughters date cant drive yet, sotheres no worry about her riding off alonewith a boy who has borrowed his moms nicecar for the big night. At this point, unsu-pervised car travel might actually put meover the edge. Instead, I assume we parentswill be pressed into chauffeur service. Atleast I hope thats what everyone has inmind. I really dont want to have to pitch infor a limo. Not yet. We all need to save some-thing for the kids weddings, or at least forthe Senior Prom.

Elaine Kollaja of Dallas is a

graduate student in the SMU

Master of Liberal Studies

program. Her e-mail address


Visit her blog at www.scratchpaper-eck. blog

spot.com.

Homecoming: Ready or notIts a rite of passage for mothers, too, says Elaine Kollaja of Dallas

HOW TO SEND A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Letters should be 200 words or fewer and include the writers name, address and phone number for verification purposes. Only the name and city of the writer will be published. Letters will be edited

for length, clarity and style. Send by e-mail: [email protected] . By Fax: 972-263-0456 . Or by Mail: P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265. For more information, contact

Michael Landauer, assistant editorial page editor for Community Opinions, at 214-977-8258 or [email protected].

SOUNDING OFF

Comment on the following topic on our

blog: dallasnews.com/opinionblog .

Should students spend more time inschool? At what level of governmentshould the decision be made aboutlengthening school days or addingmore instruction days to the year?

Michael Hopkovitz

Insurance Industry

Pricing and Analytics

Professional, Far

North Dallas

Adding additional

classroom time forreading, writing,

math and science are

excellent reasons to

add to the cost of

educational services.

But were not maxi-

mizing the educa-

tional use of the

school day now.

Hailey Sowden

Senior, Highland Park

High School, Dallas

While I do relish in the

wonders of long

summers, students in

other countries are

studying while Amer-

icans play. Still, for

many kids, summers

dont end up being a

time to explore, to

read or to pursue

non-school related

activities, but three

long months to forget

last years material.

Faith Davis Johnson

Eighth-grade U.S.

Studies teacher, John

B. Hood Middle

School, Dallas

Research-based

evidence supports a

correlation between

higher achievement

and longer instruc-

tional time for stu-

dents. It seems log-

ical that students

spending more time

in school, receiving

quality instruction,

will holistically bene-

fit our society.

Karen Kimball

Substitute teacher,

Richardson ISD

Lengthening the

school day would

probably be counter-

productive for both

students and teach-

ers. A longer school

year would do no

harm but is probably

unnecessary. Since

our countrys begin-

ning, all decisions

about education have

been the domain of

the states and should

remain so.

Voices: The above Voices volunteers are regular

contributors to this forum.

William Olsson of Dallas: The governmentsremedy for anything that doesnt work is more of it!

Victor Aves of Dallas: Some students are alreadyspending up to 12 hours at school when you include

extracurricular activities. Other countries have stu-dents coming to school in the evening and on week-ends at all age levels. The decision needs to comefrom each individual ISD in anticipation of funds forthese additional resources. What good is a federallymandated program for longer school days whenDISD, for example, is not fully capable of staffingschools due to the budget shortfall?

Donna Lackey of Dallas:If students require moretime in school, it should be decided at the school lev-el with the state and parents picking up the tab. Stu-dents in the DISD magnet schools dont requireyear-round school. Year-round school might be nec-essary for some, but it will affect family time formany trying to push vacation time from work intoshorter summer spans for kids.

Harvey Richman of Dallas: Considering the re-cord of the DISD administration, it may not be pru-dent to expose students or teachers to them any lon-ger than necessary.

Mellen West of Dallas: More time in schools ismeaningless if it is not productive time. More goodcould be done with smaller class sizes, rigorous in-struction of reading, writing, science and math com-bined with liberal arts, foreign language study andphysical education. What level of governmentshould make the decisions? The one that has to payfor it.

Audrey Pincu of Dallas: Instead of extending theschool day and year, why not take what we have andmake it better? We have AP classes for the smartkids. Why not offer other enrichment programs forall children? If the government wants to interfere,they can provide more funding for the schools andhigher teacher salaries.

Cherie Bell of Dallas: Public schools should beopen year-round and should have been for decadesnow. All the time students have off from school, andfrom consistent learning, is a detriment to their fu-ture and ours.

SIGN UP

These responses are from readers who have asked

to receive the weekly Sounding Off question. To be

added to the e-mail list, send your full contact informa-

tion to [email protected].

Community opinions A forum for readers in Dallas County

Rename zero tolerance

Re: Schools relax rules on zero toler-ance New state law ends policies thatsometimes harshly punished good stu-dents for mistakes, last Sunday newsstory.

I laughed out loud at the headline inthe Metro section. What happened tozero tolerance being exactly that: zerotolerance?

Lets just rename that policy to who-ever it happens to and how rich and/orwilling their paents are to fight it policy.

Debra W. Drewry, Dallas

LETTERS

GET VOICES columns from across

North Texas and add your own comments.

dallasnews.com/voices

WILLIAM BUBBA FLINT/Special Contributor


7/17

B1011CB010PBB1011CB010PQ B10 C 10-11-2009 Set: 18:47:38Sent by: ewaddle News BLACK

10B Sunday, October 11, 2009 C dallasnews.com The Dallas Morning News

Ihave always loved school. I am an eagerparticipant in class discussions; I alwaysdo my homework; and I study hard for

tests and quizzes. My efforts have generallybeen rewarded, so school and I have a prettygood relationship.

But last week I got the chance to seeschool through the eyes of students who have

very different educational experiences thanmy own: students with learning differences.

My two cousins recently moved to Dallas.One has ADHD, the other has dyslexia, and

both began attending the Shelton School thisyear. So far, the school, which specializes inteaching students who have learning differ-ences, has been great for them. Every yearthe school hosts a learning dif

voices oct

Documents