Re: Too many school holidays in Pinellas? letter, Dec. 4.
When your letter writer questions why Pinellas County schools have such "extended holidays," it makes me wonder whether too many parents are more concerned about schools providing lots of day care instead of a quality education.
The clear trends in public education over the last 10 to 20 years are for longer school years and longer school days accompanied by worse results. Now the latest push is for mandatory prekindergarten.
In my opinion, far too many parents are pushing this trend so they can further abdicate their responsibility for child care to the public school system. Maybe if the focus of our public school systems stayed on providing a quality education instead of child care, we would start to see some improvements in the system.
-- Richard Glass, Tarpon Springs
Holidays benefit both teachers, students
Re: Too many school holidays in Pinellas?
Yes, school closings, holidays and half-days are necessary. Teachers need time to attend meetings and seminars and plan future lessons. There are many issues such as inventories and book and equipment orders, not to mention safety issues, which are addressed when schools are closed to students.
Perhaps the reader who objects should join this century and get out of the one-room schoolhouse that she must have attended. The holiday time off affords students time to spend with relatives, complete projects and research papers, and even get paying jobs. Not everyone is independently wealthy.
-- Phyllis Lamb, Oldsmar
If system isn't broken, don't fix it
Re: Too many school holidays in Pinellas?
As a parent myself, I personally welcome how the county school district has organized these breaks. These training days are obviously necessary to update and train our teachers so they can better serve our students. It benefits the teachers as well as the families, who then can throughout the year take minivacations and spend quality time with their kids and visit family members who are not a mile or two down the road.
Like most, I do not know the real reason behind their decision (to close school for a week at Thanksgiving). But if I were to guess, I would say that for them to combine two teacher training days along with the Thanksgiving break to make it one entire week off for students is beneficial for families and school. Why? Because during the holidays, many children are pulled out of school so that families can leave early to visit out-of-town family or just take a trip. Not everyone can take time off from work during the summer. Teachers probably feel they cannot follow their regular teaching schedule and give tests and homework with so many out.
As a family that enjoys doing things together, we welcome these breaks. We do a lot of camping as a family and having these breaks helps us relax and refresh our minds and bodies.
Instead of putting down the school system and teachers, we should be showing our appreciation for their continued dedication to teach our students and to continue their own education to find better ways to teach. They don't get paid enough, nor do they get enough recognition for what they do.
I am not a teacher, nor do I work for the school system, but I can see why these teacher work days are necessary.
Cut the school district and teachers a break. If the work is getting done and the kids are progressing, I see no reason to change things or complain about it.
-- Susanne Heinz, Palm Harbor
International Baccalaureate a step ahead
Re: SPC goes online to detect plagiarists, Dec. 1.
St. Petersburg College is to be congratulated for joining the 21st century concerning this persistent problem within the academic community. Students today, as products of the Internet world learning environment, view that world as delivering all that is true and valid educational knowledge. However, I need to blow our own horn in terms of pioneering the use of turnitin.com as an effective tool in combating the plagiarism created by this Internet world.
In 1998, following a news item on ABC Evening News in which the potential for turnitin.com was first presented, I contacted this California company and paid it $10 for a year's membership. Why? Because as a teacher in the St. Petersburg High School International Baccalaureate Program, I would be receiving 25 history papers of 2,500 words in length in January of the 1998-99 school year. And based on past experience, I needed all the help I could get.
That is exactly what I got. What a sense of relief I experienced that year! For the next school year, all the teachers on the IB faculty used turnitin.com - and the year following, through the Florida League Of International Baccalaureate Schools, all the IB schools throughout Florida had access to this service.
So please take this letter as a communication of "the rest of the story" concerning this important step into the 21st century by secondary public education.
-- Dr. Wallace F. Witham, Belleair Bluffs
A new number did the trick
Re: "N" versus "NE" mixes up mail couriers, workmen, Dec. 7
When we moved into the Old Northeast eight years ago we began having the same problems as were reported in the article in the Neighborhood Times. We would lose mail and other deliveries to the corresponding house on the other side of First Street. To compound the problem, the owners of the other house were seasonal residents.
After a year we did find a solution to the problem: We asked the city of St. Petersburg to give us a new number. We picked a number that was not being used on the other side of First Street. It took some time, but the majority of the problem was solved.
-- Margaret Eldridge, St. Petersburg
It's been a bad road for a long time
In the few months that I drove a different route from Gulfport to downtown, I'd forgotten how bad a condition 22nd Avenue S was in, especially eastbound. Between 49th Street and 34th Street, the paving is continually falling apart for long stretches in the outside part of the curb lane, and has been patched so many times that in some spots near the golf course there have to be a dozen layers.
I've commuted this stretch since 1986 and I don't recall it ever being resurfaced. I know there is a schedule for maintenance resurfacing, but why does a street, obviously in horrid condition, wait while others, like southern Tyrone Boulevard and the Pink streets, in much better shape to begin with, have already been done?
There was a perfect opportunity, while the street was closed for plumbing work, to resurface at the same time with no additional disruption of traffic, especially if this was expected to relieve the flooding problem around the golf course and so reduce the roadbed destruction. But what has been done since the route reopened a few weeks ago: patched again!
The obvious conclusion is that roads in areas with more political and economic clout get attention first. I'd be interested in seeing the repaving schedules for the next five or 10 years. Which roads in what sections of the county will get done first? Any guesses? Any bets?
-- Sue C. Lewis, Gulfport
[Last modified December 14, 2003, 01:34:16]
