By Staff
Educating, or just pretending?
To the editor:
Tuesday's editorial included a polemic against standardized tests in public schools. The columnist, Charley Reese, said that standardized tests either depend on IQ or are culturally biased.
Well, what does he propose we do to educate our children? Just ask them if they feel educated? Or should we let them put it in their own words and not expect them to be able to speak in "neutral English"?
Perhaps any answer would do. As long as they grunt, or nod, or even just show up for school. Or maybe they don't even have to show up. After all, expecting them to all attend school at a standard address is too constricting. Let them just roam the streets and pronounce them educated. Math? Too confining. Spelling?
You're kidding.
The writer wants to do away with a standard, and has nothing with which to replace it. Well, if you remove the standard, nothing is exactly what you'll have. And our children will suffer.
Ralph Henson Jr.
Meridian
via e-mail
Amtrak: Radical changes needed
To the editor:
The Meridian Star's Amtrak editorial of Feb. 24 is indeed correct, radical changes need to be made in the agency's management and operation. Gil Carmichael and his Reform Council have done a superb job in revealing the basic cause of Amtrak's financial problems  the huge cost of the Northeast Corridor infrastructure which needs to be reassigned to regional agencies in that area.
Seriously flawed descriptions of the interstate trains which serve Meridian portray them as "leisure" or merely tourist trains. This is not true  they provide safe and comfortable workaday transportation to cities and towns both large and small and to rural American. They also haul mail and express which benefits business and industry along the line. Many communities have no other public passenger transportation.
M.D. Monaghan
Garland, Texas
via e-mail