LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Start learning at home

Anne Michaud’s recent column demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of today’s public schools, in my opinion. She makes some good points about summer vacations being long, but she has obviously not spent much time in a classroom. Schools are not day-care centers, and teachers are not baby sitters. They do not exist to solve the logistical problems of working parents. Their job is to teach academic subjects to children.

I believe Michaud’s idea that there should be a longer school year to resolve low test scores and boring summers is ludicrous. I‘m tired of teachers being blamed for low test scores. Most would be happy to teach kids to be proficient in their subject. The reality is that many have to spend most of their class time dealing with unruly children.

What really needs to happen is that at least one parent goes home and teaches children the skills that will help them at school, like proper social behavior, good work habits, working and playing well with others. Back in my day, any child who caused trouble at school got double trouble at home. Today, like as not, a well-dressed parent will leap out of a new car and barge into the school loudly blaming their child’s teacher for the problem—if a parent shows up at all.

Teaching should start at home. If parents don’t want to invest the time and energy it takes to teach these fundamentals, and if they don’t want to arrange summer activities or provide their child’s out-of-school care, why are they having children?

ISABELLE BARBOUR

Little Rock

Where could it end?

So the Supine Court declared that Obamacare is constitutional because the (“It is not a tax”) individual mandate “penalty” is in fact not a penalty, but a tax, and Congress can tax each of us if we don’t buy what it wants us to buy. So . . . if you take good care of yourself, eat healthy foods, watch your weight, exercise regularly and are in the prime of health, you will still have to pay a substantial tax to subsidize all the obese, lay-about, cigarette-smoking, drug-taking, welfare-sucking, emergency-room-visiting no-accounts who won’t take care of themselves and expect the government to provide them everything for free.

And then there’s the talk about whether Barack Obama can tax you if you don’t buy broccoli, which may sound silly, but consider this: The government still owns about a third of GM, so what if Obama decides it is good for the country if everyone buys a new Chevy? Are you ready to pay another hefty tax just because you are happy with your Ford and want to keep driving it?

PHILIP WARNER

Garfield

True down-home eats

I agree with Rex Nelson—chocolate gravy is not an Arkansas staple for breakfast, or any other meal. The food editors at Delish.com need to brush up on what we Arkansans eat. I’m 76, and my mother and grandmothers—all great cooks—rarely fixed it. Yes, nearly every morning we ate plenty of cream gravy. I’d say that back home we ate more poke sallet than chocolate gravy. Have you all ever had a mess of poke?

WILLIAM C. KRAMER

North Little Rock

School key to success

As a first-generation Cuban immigrant I want to second what Danny Draper stated in his letter. Success is not a gift; it must be earned.

I didn’t speak a word of English when I arrived in Buffalo, N.Y. I was 6 years old. In my father’s mind, education was the road to success. He insisted that his children learn to speak grammatically correct, unaccented English. Although we knew there was no money to pay for it, Papi instilled in us the idea that we would go all to college. I have seven brothers and sisters, and we are all college graduates. Most have advanced degrees, and two have doctorates.

I am an elementary school teacher in Little Rock. I have served in private, magnet and neighborhood schools over the last 32 years. As I work with students who are considered an atrisk population, I constantly remind them of my father’s philosophy. Education is the road to success.

Our communities need to do all they can to support our schools, our teachers and our students. It doesn’t take a lot. If you have an extra hour a week, come to a classroom and listen to children read. If your business can afford it, let your employees volunteer in a nearby school for an hour a week. You will be investing in the future and pointing a child along the road to success.

BEATRIZ MIYARES KIMBALL

Little Rock

A taxing distinction

When someone is caught exceeding the speed limit, they pay a penalty for breaking the law. It is not a tax. It is a fine.

During World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam, all able-bodied males between certain age ranges had to register for the draft. Failure to do so could result in a penalty—which might have included prison time and a fine. The fine was never called a tax.

If you smoke in a no-smoking area, you can be penalized, which might include a fine. The fine is not a tax. It is a penalty for breaking the law.

The Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and verified by the Supreme Court is the law of the land. The act provides that if you do not follow the law of the land by having health insurance, there is penalty, a fine to pay. It is not a tax. It is a fine for breaking the law.

Everyone is free to ignore the speed limit or to ignore no-smoking areas, or in the case of the draft, apply for conscientious-objector status or go to Canada. If you do these things, you pay a penalty. It is not a tax. Likewise, as I see it, everyone is free not to have health insurance. There is a penalty for that behavior. It is a fine. It is not a tax.

CHARLES E. WALLING

Fayetteville

Don’t take to threats

Chad Griffin returned to his home state from Washington, D.C., as the newly elected head of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay-rights organization, with an agenda, noting:

1. Change is coming, so we should get on board or get ready to be swept into history’s dustbin.

2. “Our politicians and our leaders, they’re either going to catch up with them or they’re going to get left in the dust.”

3. It is difficult to grow up gay in this state.

4. He promises to hold religious leaders accountable for negative statements about homosexuals, saying we must “condemn the hateful words that come from certain pulpits.”

Wow. It sounds to me like Griffin plans to straighten out all of us dumb Arkies. He also sounds to me as though he is threatening us—we must change to suit him or else. Well, I have some advice for him. We don’t much take to threats. His tone is wrong and his message is wrong. Who does he think he is to come waltzing in here telling our politicians, leaders and clergy what to do? I for one have had it with gay people trying to push their sick lifestyle on us. Griffin should just tiptoe through the tulips back to Washington.

DAVE REDDOCH

North Little Rock