Letters

Armen DerHohannesian / Hampton, New Hampshire

Have you ever heard of Rockport, Massachusetts 01966? It puts the Cape to shame. Rockport doesn’t have three-hour traffic backups, and the beaches are wonderful. Take a ride sometime and visit for yourself. It’s only one hour from Boston. No car? Take the train from North Station – still only an hour.

Carl Derderian / Rockport

Council Business For the record: Boston city councilors had nothing they could speak to when Tom Keane’s Perspective column (“The Invisible City Council,” May 16) was published. The mayor had yet to transmit the appropriation order for funding of the firefighters’ pay raises. They had not voted the matter up or down, because the matter had not yet been put before them. This is not a case of timidity but of prudence. After the mayor files the appropriation order, the council has 60 days to come to a decision. That is the law. Perhaps at that time the former councilor would hear the “roar” he misses now.

Rosaria Salerno, City Clerk, Clerk of the Council / Boston

I couldn’t agree with Keane more on the lack of response from the Boston City Council concerning the firefighter arbitration decision. Though I don’t live in Boston, I hope the council will vote the arbitration down. I’m a union member and a teacher, and I appreciate the importance of collective bargaining and arbitration when necessary, but this decision and its justification are utterly ridiculous. That the council members don’t seem to have the courage to say that is sad.

Helen Q. Littlefield / Lowell

I moved my business out of Boston to New Hampshire to get away from the corrupt Boston municipal system. Yes, City Council representatives are vastly overpaid for their so-called “contribution” to Boston. And now those same idiots are not going to stand against millions in back pay for the firefighters. Boston makes me sick. I won’t move my business back as long as the public unions and the politicians siphon off public money.

S. Erik Skoug / Nashua

Keane asks what use is the Boston City Council if it can’t even stand up for the taxpayers and reject the absurd payout to firefighters in return for coming to work sober. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’ve been so incensed by fiscal waste in Massachusetts that I put together this website: http://www.voterscount.org. My hope is to get some of the worst excesses, such as frivolous holidays and the Pacheco law (limiting privatization of state services), voted down.

Emily Norton / Newton

Keane suggests eliminating the Boston City Council. An even better idea would be to reduce the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 160 to 80. It wouldn’t improve performance, but it would save the state tens of millions of dollars when support staff is factored in. The House was reduced from 240 to 160 in 1978, and nothing really changed.

Richard Knopping / Wayland

Skipping Ahead As a preschool teacher, I always recommend kindergarten even with “older” children who are reading fluently, competent in math, writing, science, art, and socially well adjusted (Parenting Traps, May 9). If Lylah M. Alphonse’s child moves to first grade, she’ll become the younger child, which may not seem like a big deal at 5 but becomes a big deal from middle school through high school, from a social and decision-making standpoint. Enjoy kindergarten; a good kindergarten teacher will challenge a child to learn and grow.

Janet French / Stoneham

When will the state and the nation wake up to the needs of gifted and talented children? My son, as many others, languished in grades K-4. Yes, Massachusetts has an excellent Curriculum Frameworks, and teachers quote it like some religious text. But the translation into practice can be deadening. Some children with high learning potential need to be accelerated, and this can be done in a variety of ways; grade skipping is one of them. Please visit nagc.org for more information.

Judy Butler, Membership Chair, Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education / Franklin

Should the 5-year-old go to first grade because she can read and write? My vote is “no.” The best gift this child can be given is time. Being among the oldest in her cohort gives her many advantages. Among those is the fact that she’ll be more mature when making important decisions that will really impact her life – decisions about sex, drugs, future planning, etc.

Jan Juntunen / Salisbury

We absolutely do know this: If students don’t need to work in order to achieve, they may never develop a work ethic that brings success and satisfaction in school and in life. Sometimes severe underachievement is the result. More sadly, highly capable students who are not engaged in meaningful learning may show signs of depression or anxiety. A change in curriculum is so much healthier than medication!

Linda Tetreault, Director, Barnstable Gateway Program, Barnstable Public Schools/ Hyannis

As a parent and an educator, I do recommend that a child skip a grade, especially if he or she had mastered the academics offered at that grade level. A 2004 University of Iowa report called “A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students” found that, contrary to public perception, students who have been accelerated have flourished. When parents and school systems can cooperate to provide accelerated learning options, research has confirmed that students who are clamoring for more challenging activities remain motivated and achieving.

Diana Reeves, Cochair, National Association for Gifted Children Parent Advisory Committee / Mansfield

Personal experiences and evidence from research indicate acceleration is the most accessible, affordable, and reliable strategy for academically gifted children. The decision depends on an assessment of the child’s academic, social, and emotional development. If ready, skipping kindergarten allows the child to experience suitable challenges and to meet children of similar readiness, thus avoiding academic, social, and emotional concerns about later acceleration. Matching students to teachers and schools that understand the needs of gifted students is important.

Donna Church, Academically Advanced Specialist / Worcester

Advice for the Vatican The Rev. Andrew Johnson’s letter (May 16) about Charles P. Pierce’s column on Cardinal Bernard Law (Pierced, April 25) couldn’t have said it better. Johnson’s arrogance and highhanded moralism is just how the Vatican is responding to such a horrendous coverup. If any other organization shuffled pedophiles around for years, the shufflers would be shuffling cards in prison. No wonder Catholics are ignoring the Vatican in droves. The Vatican needs to come up with an internal legal system that matches established human rights principles so there will be no more shuffling. I’m not holding my breath.

James E. Mitchell / Framingham