Online-only letters

Striking teachers

More than money:

Teachers walk the picket lines

for academic freedom

My daughter is a teacher in the Bellevue School District. She has a master's degree and is National Board Certified. Her students consistently pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, and both they and their parents love her. She is dedicated, caring, hardworking and creative.

It is because of these attributes that she has chosen to strike ["No school in Bellevue as teachers go on strike," Times, page one, Sept. 2]. When you watch the interviews with the school-district administration, you are led to believe that it is all about money.

Money is not the primary reason for this strike.

This strike is about treating each student as an individual. It is about looking at their strengths, weakness and the way they learn best. It is about allowing the very bright teachers that Bellevue had the foresight to hire to create lesson plans that will work for the students they know best. It is about not dumping education in one bowl for a one-size-fits-all approach; it is about not leaving any student behind.

Strikes are hard on everyone and I commend the parents that are supporting my daughter and all the teachers in the Bellevue School District. I urge the district to remember that those in the classroom have a better handle on student-curriculum needs than those in the district's office.

— Laura Cordell, Monitor

Union should put kids,

not complaints, first

The teachers' strike proves that my wife and I's decision to remove our two sons from the Bellevue School District this year was the right one. We have supported Bellevue schools in the past, but recent reports indicate our concerns were warranted.

Even with Bellevue's citizens approving more than half a billion dollars in new property taxes for schools last year, and teachers set to receive a pay increase of 6.6 percent in this turbulent economic climate, the teachers voted for an illegal strike and disrupted the lives of thousands of families on what was supposed to be the first day of school.

The Times article reported the leaders of the local teachers' union were concerned about the problems a strike would cause, but the picture tells a different story. The smiles should be on the faces of children excited for their first day of school, and their caring parents, not on the faces of the striking union members.

Bellevue's parents, schoolchildren and taxpayers deserve better. I hope the teachers union quickly reorganizes its priorities and puts schoolchildren first.

— Timothy Woosley, Bellevue

Don't defend the Web

In your Aug. 29 editorial against the possible Bellevue teacher strike ["Bellevue strike threat illegal, unnecessary"], you defend the use of the common Curriculum Web, an issue that lies at the heart of the disagreement between teachers and administrators.

You accuse the teachers of educational blackmail against Bellevue families. You have it backward. Bellevue teachers do appreciate the support of the families in their community. They are the reason we are fighting the Curriculum Web.

How many parents and students did you talk with before praising the Curriculum Web? I've talked with many and most are very unhappy with both the lessons and the assessments teachers have been required to use for the past few years.

When the school board came to visit my school last year, a large number of students showed up to class wearing T-shirts that read, "Standardization without representation is tyranny," to show the board members their frustration with the new cookie-cutter curriculum that was being forced upon them. You say that this common curriculum should not be thought of by teachers as a challenge to their autonomy.

How do scripted daily lessons and required, common assessments leave us any professional autonomy? The more important question you should be asking is, "why do the teachers want their autonomy?"

Why would teachers complain about having their lessons ready for them when they walk into their classroom each morning? Why would they complain about having the assessments written for them? The answer is simple: The Curriculum Web is hurting our students. It doesn't allow us to tailor our instruction to the individual needs of the students in our classroom.

The district is using its students as guinea pigs in this common-curriculum experiment. Teachers have tried to work with district administration to improve the quality of the lessons and assessments on the Curriculum Web, but the Bellevue administration has created a top-down management system that doesn't respond to the voices of the teachers who, daily, see the negative impact the Curriculum Web is having on our students.

We are standing up against the district because we care about our students. Teachers and administrators in Bellevue can agree that we all want to maintain high standards for our students, and that students across the district should receive the same quality education. The Curriculum Web is not the way to accomplish this.

— Julie Reeder, Bellevue teacher, Seattle

A student's perspective:

a Web of educational confusion

As a student at one of Bellevue School District's pride and joys — Newport High School — your editorial had me a little miffed, to say the least. You wrote that the use of the Curriculum Web "is not an issue to strike over."

Excuse me? Have you ever sat through a district-approved class? This Curriculum Web is an insult to our teachers. In order to please the demands of Bellevue parents, the rigidly scheduled curriculum ignores the students in the classroom.

Last school year, a major math exam was set the same week as Advanced Placement exams, and many students slept a healthy three hours a night after studying until U.S. history and pre-calculus leaked out of our ears. More than half of the brightest students in the state failed and had to retake a math exam, which teachers gave despite their full knowledge that we weren't ready for it, because the sacred curriculum schedule did not allow for the test to be pushed back.

So before brazenly assuming that the Curriculum Web assures "academic quality," try considering the individuals actually in the classroom.

— Sophia Herbst, Bellevue

Students' voices should be heard and heeded

I am a student in the Bellevue School District, and after reading all these articles and biased opinions on the possible strike, I would like to know: Why isn't anyone asking the students?

I have had to sit through endless lectures and lessons designed to teach us in the most effective way, and I haven't learned a thing. We have been assigned homework and projects that even the teachers agree are tedious and superfluous. The students in the Bellevue School District have earned our city the honor of having some of the highest-test score ratings in the state, due to our ambition to learn and the teachers' honor.

How can this continue when our thirst to learn is not being quenched?

— Sione Lister, Bellevue

Quit your whining, Bellevue teachers:

Other districts have it far worse

It's ironic that teachers in smaller school districts were planning to strike because they weren't being treated fairly ["Bellevue teachers, district far apart," Local News, Sept. 3]. As an example, they said that they weren't paid as well as the Bellevue teachers.

Bellevue's got it about as good as it gets. While it seems pretty obvious that teachers are not being taken care of as well as they should be, it makes things harder for the other school districts — which are truly in more difficult situations — when one of the top school districts in the nation is whining and striking.

I'm ashamed of the striking Bellevue teachers. I'd like to see them relocated and allowed to teach in White Center. When their complaint is, "Bellevue is an expensive place to live," there is a simple solution.

Move to a low-income school district and fight for education instead of increased pay. It just seems like a slap in the face of all the other teachers in Washington's public schools that the crème de la crème feel underpaid.

— R. Oisin Enfield, Black Diamond

Invest in students and their teachers

Your editorial regarding the results of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, and your specific concern for math, was much appreciated ["A mixed report card for state's students," Sept. 3].

As a newspaper of influence, your thoughts to the surrounding community are important. As an educator, my concern regarding math and science is an ongoing one.

However, to get there requires investment. We ask our local sports-team owners to spend enormous sums of money to bring in the best so we can have a winner, and other industries do the same in their own hiring, but we don't have that same mentality when it comes to education. Graduates who major in math or science, specifically those with college debt, are not interested in starting in a job that pays in the mid-$20,000 range, when they are offered salaries that double or triple a starting teacher's salary.

Research this and you will find a very small percentage of such graduates enter education. So to get these individuals, we need incentives.

Let's offer to pay for their undergraduate and graduate degrees in exchange for five years of successful teaching, and if they do that, their debt would be forgiven. Maybe some would see how great the job is and decide to stay.

It would insure that we are getting the best-educated people to teach. It seems that we say, "our children are our country's most precious resource," but just the other day, you noted the cutbacks in education across the nation. We do this while given billions to Iraq.

Is anything wrong with that picture? Invest in getting the teachers. Right now we are losing too many every year to other sectors, due to lack of investment in their development

— Ed Wagner, Camano Island

So much for contracts, and respect, for that matter

Silly me! Here I thought that if one signed a contract, then one would have to abide by the terms of the contract, even if the terms might be considered onerous.

Of course, I went to school back in the dark ages, when teachers didn't dress like rejects from a Salvation Army used-clothing sale, and we addressed the teachers as, "Mr.", "Mrs.", or "Miss."

Woe betide anyone who referred to a teacher by said teacher's given name. We respected our instructors, not because they demanded respect, but because they earned it, which apparently is a bit too much for today's educators, with their master's degrees held proudly aloft. If one received a homework assignment, then that assignment was the paramount task for the rest of the day (and night, if necessary).

One did not go to school without a completely finished assignment. But now, I find that a new day has dawned. Teachers still instruct by example, and they now find it convenient to teach their charges that contracts are really meaningless documents.

Fear not, teachers; your message has already gotten through. Professional athletes have for years asked for, and received, renegotiated contracts based on the athlete's impression of their own worth.

And now, we have literally millions of U.S. citizens who have entered into real-estate contracts that suddenly appear to have onerous terms. No problem: Just ignore the contract. One modest drawback is that the nice folks at the bank will take away your house; meanwhile, the teachers don't suffer any consequences for ignoring their contract terms.

Why don't we just have a blue ribbon, bipartisan committee determine the worth of a no-strike provision in a contract, then subtract that amount from the teachers' pay?

— Fred Armstrong, Bellevue

More Palin thoughts

In defense of a mom for vice-president

As the daughter of a mother who raised 12 children while working full time, I am sickened by the malicious and downright nasty commentary of the news media surrounding the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential nominee ["Palin's toughest fight: the sex factor," News, Sept. 3]. Where in the world does this anger and vicious denigration of a woman and mother come from?

Instead of debating her qualifications, which is relevant, I hear despicable ranting and pure gossip about her children, including her teenage daughter and precious, newborn baby.

We should celebrate the fact that she is a woman who works full time, is the first woman elected governor of Alaska, raising five children, and who made a "choice" to have a baby with a disability — this should be a badge of honor. Instead, what I hear is the most hateful speech I have ever witnessed toward a mother in my lifetime. If Gov. Palin bears any resemblance of the values most Americans hold true, including the unconditional love for a child and newborn baby, she will likely weather the unfair commentary.

For years, women have fought for their right to work and reached a level of equality with men, but when challenged with a surge by a "super mom," some resent and are trying to marginalize her.

Super moms do exist. I was raised by one. Regardless of one's political viewpoint, it would do our country well to admire working mothers rather than disparage them and their families.

— Angela Strege, Tacoma

Abstinence-only politics

I agree that Bristol Palin should be given her privacy. There is no way that a 17-year-old girl should be subjected to media scrutiny, and her pregnancy should not be exploited by either political party.

If her mother, on the other hand, attempts to make a speech extolling the virtues of abstinence-only sex education, you'll hear laughter coming from the back of the room. That will be me.

— Jim Peterson, Granite Falls

Let's move on, shall we?

Much has been written by the media about Palin's young daughter being pregnant out of wedlock. However, most of the media's reaction is that this is a private family matter that has little to do with Palin's qualifications to be vice president of the United States.

Regardless, a few reporters contend that Palin should have turned down Sen. John McCain's offer because of the stress and embarrassment it would subject her daughter to in the months ahead.

If the media continues to bring the subject up, then yes, it will be difficult for Palin's daughter. But, have Palin's critics considered the effect it would have had on the daughter had her mother turned down McCain's offer of being his running mate because of the pregnancy? Rather than just a few months of stress, Palin's daughter would have suffered enormous guilt for the rest of her life.

Palin made the correct choice in accepting McCain's offer. Now, for Sarah's daughter's benefit, the media should "move on" to much more important and meaningful topics. The rest of us should move on also!

— Don Olsen, Edmonds

A full serving of life

A newborn diagnosed with Down syndrome. A 17-year-old, pregnant daughter. Gov. Palin, at what point does a parent say, "Gee Sen. McCain, that's a swell offer, but I have a few things on my plate right now"?

— Don Meyer, Seattle

Attacks on Palin

show a vicious double standard

I really find it appalling that so many in the drive-by media are vilifying a woman that has been tapped to be, potentially, our next vice president.

Since the beginning of time, women have played significant roles in making history. Women are more than nurses, housewives, maids and teachers. We are doctors, lawyers, journalists, scientists, explorers, business owners and yes, public figures. Some of us are mothers, aunts and grandmothers. We are all Americans. It is time that everyone needs to realize that we can be pregnant and in the boardroom.

No one would be saying this if Sarah Palin were a man. The blatant sexism that has completely overshadowed the fact that we have a chance to break down the walls and shatter the ceiling is flooring. Sen. Biden was a widower with two small boys when he was first sworn into office.

Gee, maybe he should have stayed at home and focused on his sons, baked cookies and did dishes? Oh wait, he was a man! Can we say, "double standard"?

Much has been made about the fact that Palin's views of "abstinence-only" birth control have failed in her own household.

Ask yourselves this, do you remember being a teenager? Did you do everything your parents told you or wanted you to do?

I seriously doubt it. Kids do not come with a manual and one size does not fit all. Peer pressure has been a big thing for such a long time.

By the way, it's not just a teenage problem.

Is Palin going to be a grandmother? Yes. Is it the most opportune time for her daughter to be a first-time mom? No. Palin and her husband have said that they know it's just going to make Bristol grow up a little sooner.

At least she has the relationship with her parents that allows her to be honest about her situation. She is not hiding herself under baggy clothes, didn't run away from home and did not kill this child. She is not going to be alone, as she and her fiancé have a strong family to help them, teach them, nurture them, and, most of all, love them unconditionally.

Isn't this what we all want for our families? Children are always a gift, and they do not always come at the most opportune times.

Before anyone decides to pass judgment regarding this situation, they need to look at their own past indiscretions. Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

— Shelly Moeller, Everett

An old McCain and a young Palin don't add up

Sen. John McCain's grandfather died at 61. His father died at 70. John McCain is 72.

The reality is that if McCain is elected, Gov. Sarah Palin might become president.

Palin served in city government in Wasilla, Alaska for eight years. Wasilla has a smaller population than Issaquah!

Palin has served as Alaska's governor for less than two years, a state with a third of the population of King County.

I'm truly frightened visualizing her as the leader of the free world and commander in chief.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Kim Jong-il of North Korea could care less about her views on the National Rifle Association, gay marriage, National Right to Life and if her husband races snowmobiles.

It is disingenuous to compare Palin to Sen. Barack Obama. Remember Obama's reception by the leaders of Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, France, Germany and Britain?

I'm disappointed in McCain's judgment in choosing Palin, and I'm a guy who voted for him in the 2000 primary.

I'm even more disappointed in Palin's judgment that she accepted the vice-presidential slot with delusions of grandeur and competence.

— Gregg Taylor, Mercer Island

More vetting would have been nice

Let's observe Sen. McCain's decision-making process in selecting Gov. Palin as his running mate: He makes the most important decision of his campaign by shaking Palin's hand at the National Governors Association, having one telephone conversation and then meeting her for the first time just before he announces that he is appointing her as the next Republican vice-presidential candidate for the United States

A barista at Starbucks gets more vetting than that.

The lack of due diligence and the hasty, uninformed decision is frightening. Is this the type of decision maker we want dealing with countries such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Israel, Palestine and China?

This maverick demonstration of shooting first and aiming later is not what we need.

— Ken Shimomura, Seattle

Actually, Palin was a fine choice

The traditional media must think the electorate is pretty stupid when they use headlines such as "Alaska gets it, even if many in Lower 48 don't."

Picking Gov. Palin was a brilliant choice because it did so many things for the Republican Party and McCain's campaign. It solidified the conservative vote. The lady governor-turned-vice presidential nominee is obviously going to appeal to many of Sen. Hillary Clinton's faithful.

The timing of the announcement took Obama's mug off the front pages at a time when the Democrats expected their maximum bounce in the polls. Sarah Palin is not part of the Washington, D.C. Congress that has lower approval ratings than President Bush.

Palin is loved and supported by her constituents. She is smart, successful and exceptionally competent. Democrats would be wise to stay away from the "lack-of-experience" chatter because it will bounce right back on their own inexperienced candidate for president.

It is hard to go negative on a very popular woman.

— Dennis Flem, Langley