Letters to the Editor
farnsworth
Published Letters: 449 Editor's Choice: 21
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Don't throw it out because it is a Republican plan
[Read the article: We're failing our kids]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Throw it out because it is a terrible plan.
I am in my last year teaching in public school. I will either get the job at the elite private school, or leave teaching. And the horribly mistaken idea that standardized testing is the cure for the education system is one of the primary reasons I am not going to teach in public school ever again.
In the long run, all standardized testing does is take teaching days away from the teachers and fatten the pockets of the test prep companies and educational consultants. School districts spend millions of dollars on private company plans which do nothing to help students learn. At the last large district I taught in the company that received millions of dollars a year did nothing besides tells us we needed to create a new curriculum from scratch (in our free time, I guess), and then copyright our corrections to their botched practice tests.
All this misspent time and money ignores the real problem: Schools and teachers are expected to parent these children. We are expected to teach them manners and respect and proper behavior as well as reading and writing and math. Parents aren't the ones getting the blame, although the vast majority of the blame lies with them.
I can't effectively teach a complicated algebra topic to 25 students if I have to deal with a child who is purposefully being disruptive. I can't effectively reach a struggling student if there is no one at home monitoring his study habits. And I certainly shouldn't be held accountable for students who don't try or willfully do poorly on state tests. But I am.
The problems with American education will never be solved if we look at the schools as the first place where the problems lie, much less the only place as most people currently do.
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Not sure this can work as many seem to think
[Read the article: Sperm on, sperm off]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After a vasectomy there is still the potential to ejaculate active sperm for some time. It is recommended to wait months and have two consecutive zero sperm count tests before relying on a vasectomy as a birth control method.
So it wouldn't be I wanna go out tonight, I need to get the valve closed!
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jksmith gets it right
[Read the article: We're failing our kids]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Instead, it is a very crafty tool to discredit public schools as a means to promote privatization.
Yes. Exactly.
But don't let that obscure the fact that the biggest problems with US schools happen off campus.
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Stealing signs
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The cheating issue is all about stealing signs. Attempting to steal signs is standard practice in any sport that has signs.
In the NFL, using technology in certain ways to steal signs is prohibited. Not using technology at all, only using it in certain ways. Using technology in other ways is not prohibited. Actually, completely prohibiting the use of technology to steal signs would be impossible, given the current level of video technology available to the average consumer, much less to that available to an organization like a major league sports team.
I personally don't understand why there is any prohibition at all against such use of video. If teams actually believed their signs were being stolen, they could change them. Not only that, they could easily change them in ways that would play to their own advantage against any team stealing signs.
Nonetheless, the NFL has prohibited it. The Patriots were rather clumsy and overt about it, and they got caught. The were punished, and that should be that.
Are the Patriots still trying to steal signs? Of course they are. Along with every other team in the NFL. The idea that their "cheating" somehow taints their undefeated season is nonsense.
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Lynx
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know why either, but I'm smart enough to know that if they thought there was value, there probably was.
You have a point. After all, the NFL has always shown such wisdom in the rules they make and how they enforcemen them.
Ahem.
Snarkiness aside, I think the severity of the punishment has more to do with "How dare you defy me so openly!" than it does with the level advantage provided.
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I thought I addressed that
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think the severity of the punishment has any relation to the amount of advantage received.
So "a guy as smart as Belichick" thinks the advantage gained is worth the risk, but has the guy with the camera stand out in the open on the other team's sideline? Doesn't this seem far more likely to be an indication that it is not a big deal?
Yeah, yeah, trying to guess motives, and all that, I recognize how futile that is. But why has no one explained how this could have given any advantage to the Patriots beyond what any team could ever get from stealing another team's signs.
Absent such an explanation, the only justification for any unfair advantage the Patriots may have gained is the severity of the punishment the NFL chose to impose. And that is not a reason that has a good history, given the history of the NFL its rules.
I would welcome an expert's explanation of why the punishment fits the crime, but I don't expect one to appear out of nowhere now. The plausible time for such explanations has long passed.
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Just and Fair
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Everything Lynx is saying is based upon the assumption that the punishment is just and fair, and based only upon the potential benefit to the Patriots from the video.
I am trying to make the point that the more likely scenario is that the punishment is neither just nor fair, and that it is not based upon the potential benefit to the Patriots from the video. I believe the punishment is much more about the Patriots daring to flaunt the authority of the NFL.
Having said that, I will also say this:
Yes, Lynx, if the punishment truly is appropriate to the crime, there must have been some large benefit to the Patriots.
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Polonium?
[Read the article: Women never would have invented television?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How do you invent an element?
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Put it into context, please
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There used to be no comic on Sundays. Now there is a comic on Sundays. This is an improvement.