Don’t school leaders realize value of EC field trips?
Regarding the school system’s decision to cancel EC (exceptional children) field trips:
Dr. Rebecca Smith and Dr. Crystal Vail, do you have a child with special needs? With all due respect to your education obtained from books, it in no way compares to the life lessons one receives from being blessed with a special-needs child. I equate that to the hands-on education my child has received, such as swimming, staying in a group and stepping over the utility hoses at the Rowan County Fair Grounds.
He may sit in class and read all day about how to hold tight to the escalator while still giggling with his peers. But no way did he grasp that until the trip with his class to Concord Mall. However age appropriate it may be, the seasonal trips to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch are educational, whether it be planting a seed that grows to an apple or learning to cover your mouth to sneeze over the scarecrow. As I reflect back on the sleepless nights and the many adversities a family with special needs endures, I, for one, take offense at your slander and accusations made in the Salisbury Post that we, as parents, were not concerned enough to make the effort to attend the Monday school board meeting.
Maybe if you, Dr. Vail, would have returned the many phone calls I have made to your office, you could have taken the opportunity to inform me and others of such a meeting. Trivializing the motives as to why our EC teachers choose to educate, such as “Thursday Shopping Trips,” only reiterates your state of oblivion to how our kids learn.
You should be embarrassed at such a display of disengagement to the very titles you hold, director of EC programs, or, God help us, assistant superintendent of curriculum.
ó Tammy Buchanan
Salisbury
More Obama, less Palin
Some observations:
Chris Verner hit the nail on the head with his Sunday commentary, and what’s more, his own employer is one of the worst offenders. I’m beginning to wonder if the publisher’s nickname is “Liddy.” (For the record, I’m a registered independent.)
The Monday edition is a case in point. Twenty thousand people gather for an Obama rally in Charlotte, and your front page is all about McCrory and 200 people who show up to listen to him. Meanwhile, tucked away on page 4 is a shorter article on the Obama visit. And please tell your staff if I see one more Palin article, I may throw up.
Some things voters need to remember: the 1980s savings and loan debacle, with the resulting RTC bailout and the resulting $200 million net loss to the U.S. taxpayer. We were then enthralled with a Republican president and Congress, all free marketers who couldn’t pass deregulation fast enough.
Now, here we go again. And as a college economics major, if any of you out there don’t agree with the bailout, as much as it distresses me to say so, you need to understand we simply have no other choices: the consequences of not doing it will be worse.
After this second massive financial market failure under Republican auspices, I hope our elected leaders will have the common sense to understand that all financial markets need rules and regulations, if for no other reason than to save themselves, and save us from them.
One more thing. At one point, I would probably have voted for McCain, but two things changed my mind: when he selected “Dick Cheney in a skirt” to be his running mate, and with the current financial crisis, the idea of the neo-cons who are his advisers continuing to run the show. No more!
ó Dee Sink
Rockwell
Election fear factors
America is the land of the free ó where you can be whatever you want ó and all of a sudden, the whole nation is in a panic because a woman and a man of color are running for the top positions in the country.
Fear is worse than death.
In other countries, people are in the streets protesting, killing, cutting off heads, because change is needed. They’re protesting over things they know don’t work.
Here in America, we just keep bumping our heads against a brick wall, hoping this time we’ll make it. News flash: We’re not.
Why? Because we’re trying to use intellect instead of common sense. So many people are in crisis. Homes are lost because of foreclosure. Children are dying because parents can’t afford health insurance. Even as I write, we have probably lost another son or daughter to the war.
It’s so sad in America. We forget so quickly.
ó James E. Neely
East Spencer
Chill out, people!
It is getting dangerous now days to even go buy gasoline, when you can find it. This morning at a local BP station, a gentleman, and I use that word loosely, yelled at me to “back up” just as I was pulling behind him at the pump. He didn’t ask nicely; he just yelled, rudely. I know everyone’s nerves are in shambles over the gas shortage, the economy, and numerous other stresses in life, but you have to maintain a sense of humor and just wait. … Things will get better. As the owner of a small business, I know full well what stress is. When it starts taking its toll on my manners, it will be time to quit.
ó Robin Hager
Salisbury