An English assignment on reading news articles and forming opinions leads to some letters to the editor.
By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE, Times Staff Writer
Published September 22, 2005
CRYSTAL RIVER - When the St. Petersburg Times Newspapers in Education bundles are delivered to the Academy of Environmental Science, English teacher Jonas Majorski instructs his students to take a look, read the environmentally or scientifically oriented stories and form opinions.
He also has assigned students to write letters to the editor so they can better learn how to voice those opinions. Some of those letters were sent to the Times in Citrus. Rather than publish them in the regular opinion section, they were transferred to this page, where their origin could be explained.
"I was just trying to engage them in environmentally or scientifically related news," Majorski said.
Three of the 10th-grade letter writers were 15-year-olds Kate Sobelman, Will Anderson and Nicole Tiller. The students seemed to appreciate the opportunity.
Letter writing "helps you develop a way to think," Will said. "It builds your intelligence, helps your ability to respond to something better."
Kate agreed. "Responding to an article that's published in the paper helps you form an opinion about something that isn't common knowledge," she said. "When you write to the editor, it gives your opinion. It broadens your horizons."
Plus, Kate added, "If you know something's wrong, you can correct it."
Nicole had the same idea. If no one ever expressed an opinion and there was no disagreement to something disagreeable, "it would continue," she said.
Here are their letters:
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Re: Florida moves up in deadly jobs, Aug. 26
This article has the wrong view of the rising death rates in Florida. Nobody can blame Florida for congestion and people not taking care of their companies. How can anybody stop people from coming to Florida? It's the company's responsibility to have safety procedures and make sure their employees follow them. Safety procedures are meant to protect workers, not stop death. Accidents happen no matter how many procedures they have.
Somebody has to be in the second place for death rates. It's Florida, sad, but true. The only reason we're in second is because Texas lowered theirs. I do not like the way you use that. Like it's proof against the state. There is nothing the state can do if the companies are not willing to follow them. People sometimes act wrongly and get hurt.
The facts that are in the article I don't know are true; the sources should be checked just to make sure. Nothing against wherever you got the facts from. My opinion, something should be done about the death, but not blaming others. Blame does not do anything but create conflict. Somebody should do something about it and not just write an article, but get involved.
Nicole Tillis, 15
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Re : How Ms. Wellings Creates the Universe, Aug. 26
"I just finished reading an article in the St. Pete Times that struck my interest. It had to do with a third-grade teacher that teaches her students about how the earth began. There are so many arguments that are centered on this topic and I have to side with Ms. Wellings' idea of how it all began.
I believe in the scientific theory of how the earth got to be where it is today. I have been criticized and argued with too many times to count because I don't believe that a "God" created the Earth. It seems unreal and too far out to be true. The way that this teacher reaches out to her class and captures their attention and tells them to believe what they think is right, instead of being influenced by others, is great, actually, the best, teaching method I've ever heard of.
The subject that she is teaching and how she expresses it to the students is the most valuable part of the whole article. Ms. Wellings has a truly unique way of teaching and I sincerely hope that it continues and hopefully rubs off on others in the school district as well.
I give you and the whole paper staff credit and commend you for writing about this teacher and displaying her in a brighter light than she might have been displayed in some other paper. I hope you can continue to report on more positive things such as this article more often.
Kate Sobelman, 15
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Re: Red tide, Aug. 26
Editor's note: Will wrote to the author of the story rather than the editor.
Reading your short but informative article on the progress of the red tide on Florida's west coast really caught my attention! After reading that the red tide is proceeding to take over and is continuing to kill more marine life really disturbs me. After all, it seemed to me that this case of red tide would have receded by now. The article states that "there have been 96 turtle deaths and, of those, there are 53 loggerhead turtle deaths." This is another thing that I think we need to pay attention to.
I understand that red tide is only about 40 nautical miles offshore and that it is patchy in some areas, but what if that continues? What will happen to Florida's fisheries? And now I understand that this is affecting birds and humans alike. So what happens if we are exposed to this for too long? There are many questions I would like to know about that this article arouses in my head. We need to do something about this serious problem.
Will Anderson, 15
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Will hopes to attend the University of Florida after high school and study either marketing and sales or something to do with marine biology. "I like to persuade people," he said.
Kate would like to attend Boston University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and study zoology or marine biology. "I want to be a traveling marine biologist and see that animals are okay at marine worlds and travel to dive off Australia (and) explore the world's habitats," she said.
Nicole plans to begin her postsecondary studies at Central Florida Community College. "I'm going to get my R.N.," she said, adding she is now considering veterinary medicine or marine biology.
