LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Math solution to problem

Andrew Hacker of the New York Times asked why we subject U.S. students to the ordeal of learning algebra. “Making mathematics mandatory prevents us from discovering and developing young talent,” he wrote in a piece reprinted in the Perspective section. Instead of algebra, he recommended courses in citizen statistics, the history and philosophy of mathematics and the exploration of mathematics in art, music and poetry. He was basically saying that algebra was too hard for our kids.

Algebra teaches problem-solving skills that other subjects do not. There is a logic to it which students need to understand and learn. Learning algebra is not that difficult unless the student never acquired basic math skills in the first place.

I tutor math at a public junior high school in Little Rock and have been frustrated in helping some students who have never learned to multiply or divide and who continually struggle with adding and subtracting.

I was surprised to find that one bright eighth-grade student, when I asked her to subtract two simple numbers, could not do it without her calculator. Her calculator was her crutch and kept her from thinking or understanding what she was doing. Can you imagine China, Korea, Finland and other countries with good educational systems dropping algebra? The future of our country depends on our young people, and nothing is more important as a national priority than educating them well.

Yes, we do indeed need algebra.

JOHN G. SLATER Little Rock

Avoidance a bad idea

The recent two-page spread in the Perspective section that appeared to promote doing away with algebra because so many students have difficulty sends the wrong message. While it may be true that many high school and college students have difficulty, I think the worst thing we can do is to dumb down our curricula at both levels, especially in this competitive world. That is the typical humanistsocial scientist approach—everyone has to feel good and succeed without too much work.

In my opinion, the reason so many have difficulty starts in the elementary grades since most primary-school teachers had difficulty themselves, or totally avoided the subject. If so, how could we expect them to transmit the interest, necessity, excitement and relevance of algebra to their students? Let’s address the problem at the beginners’ level, not avoid it.

BILL JOHNSON

Bella Vista

No smart politicians

What a great letter about health insurance by Clifton Eoff of Rogers. He should send these ideas to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and see who picks up the idea.

The only thing that needs to be added is a solution for people who are not working due to age, disability or inability to find a job. That’s where the states need to step in with a policy. Also, if all government workers, from the president down, were included in the workers’ policies, you’d see how quickly their views on health care would change, and costs would plummet.

The letter by Joe Krenz on poverty also makes a lot of sense.

Too bad we don’t have politicians with the smarts of these two gentlemen.

NANCIE PHILLIPS

Hot Springs

Logic should be rule

I agree with Lynn Benedict of Glenwood that it ain’t pretty that such a high number of babies are aborted every year in America. But I will be brave enough to ask the really ugly question, about if the government can financially support all this accumulation of unwanted babies without raising the taxes so high that working people can’t support their very own kids. Will there be a million jobs added every year in the future so they can survive?

Technology has advanced to where just one person pushing a button does what used to take thousands of workers to do. Who needs to cut and prepare trees for telephone poles or paper to read on since the invention of the cell phone, which is now a telephone, computer and camera all in one? Due to computers then becoming obsolete will be postal workers, cameramakers, bank employees, etc.—the list of extinct jobs is endless, going on down to the workers who aid the people losing their jobs. Soon the only workers will be cell-phone makers and maybe tattoo artists since those two are so prevalent nowadays.

Benedict suggests that we should let God handle it. But first, I think God needs to become logical and quit being inhumane by putting babies where they are not wanted just to test a gal’s faith, or in a life where they will face a fate worse than death.

In the real world, logic should rule before myths.

GARY McLEHANEY

Benton

Treatment not equal

I considered myself fairly well informed on matters involving government intrusion/influence in our personal lives, until I read a syndicated jobs column.

It advised of the recent Supreme Court affirmation of the requirement for young men to register with Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Failure to do so can result not only in ineligibility for federal government jobs, but some state and municipal jobs, as well as employment with some contractors. Failure to register also results in ineligibility for government-funded (taxpayer-funded) Pell grants, college work study, etc.

I erroneously believed that, with the end of the draft, Selective Service registration also ended.

Why just young men? Why exclude young women? Are women not demanding equal rights? Do equal rights not come with equal responsibilities? Could this be a war on men? What spokesperson for women’s rights will be the first to step up to the plate and demand the requirement for women to register with Selective Service?

Should we draft Sandra Fluke?

MYRNA McCORMACK

Malvern

Comforting welcome

My husband and I honored an American hero, Capt. Virgil Meroney, by attending his coming-home service. Meroney was shot down over Laos in 1969 and his body was never found—that is, until recently.

It was such a wonderful ceremony which filled my heart with pride when I saw the hundreds of motorcycles and patriot riders who stood at attention while holding American flags at the entrance of University Baptist Church. Retired Brig. Gen. H.D. McCarty presented a beautiful ceremony for the return of one of our own who gave all for his country. The ceremony was followed by a military salute at Fairview Memorial Gardens.

It warmed my heart and made me even more proud to be an American.

I also was pleasantly surprised to see Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan who, like us, did not have the pleasure of knowing Meroney’s family but felt the need to be there to welcome him home.

I took comfort in knowing that for the first time in 43 years, Captain Meroney was back home.

JUDY ALLBRITTON

Fayetteville

Going back bad idea

It took me a while, but I finally figured out what the slogan “We want our country back” means. It seems to mean that those who say it want the country to go back to the way it was before Barack Obama became president. Well, here are a few of the changes that have happened in those nearly four years. Federal, state and local governments are smaller, with fewer employees. Domestic gas and oil production is at an historically high rate. About 92 percent of Americans are working, and employment numbers have gone up every month for the last 30 months. The stock market is higher now than at any time in the past five years.

The rich have grown richer. Taxes were lowered for the middle class. GM, Ford and Chrysler, on life support four years ago, are alive, strong and thriving today.

Thousands of people now have health insurance which cannot be revoked if they get sick. And even Mitt Romney wants to keep the good parts of Obamacare.

The U.S. war in Iraq has ended. Osama bin Laden is dead. We now have a president who thinks before he acts and does not act out of paranoia as George W. Bush did or out of rage as Mitt Romney proposes.

Now I’m trying to figure out why anyone would want our country to go back to those conditions.

JIM RAWLINS

Bigelow

Says anything to win?

I believe one of the biggest falsehoods told at the Republican convention was by Mitt Romney when he said that Americans came together after Barack Obama won in 2008.

The truth, according to Do Not Ask What Good We Do, is that on the day of Obama’s inauguration, Republican leaders met to discuss how to help his presidency fail. They even voted against bills that they wanted in order to deny Obama success.

Mitt Romney has told untruths about welfare to work, early voting for veterans and military personnel and Medicare savings. He has a record of outsourcing jobs at Bain Capital and as Massachusetts governor.

I wish Romney luck if he wins, but people in Massachusetts say he will do and say anything to win. People here who said the same about Bill Clinton are voting for Romney.

STEVE WHEELER

North Little Rock

Walking’s good for us

Re complaints about long walks to air terminals: I frequently travel in and out of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. I park in the economy lot. Air travel and long periods of inactivity are not healthy and contribute to obesity and other health problems. The short 10-minute walk to and from the parking area is valuable in recovering from periods of inactivity.

A 10-minute walk from an airconditioned car to an air-conditioned terminal should not pose a problem. I believe that it would be a mistake to develop a shuttle for this purpose.

If there was an extreme weather situation, there are always taxis to shuttle those who need it.

MARK JACKSON

Fayetteville

Feedback

Perhaps a refund?

I am an ardent Hog fan, so the Alabama game was especially painful.

I heard about the refund a gambling site offered for anyone who bet on Arkansas against Louisiana-Monroe. I think it would be equally appropriate to issue refunds for Arkansas/Alabama tickets to Hog fans.

At least the ticket-holders could use that money to drown their anguish in a deeply welcomed bottle of their choice. I don’t suggest we all get sloshed, but it would temporarily ease the heartache I have from the fading voice of Paul Eels’ celebratory yell from our glory days—“Touchdown Arkansas!”

STEPHANIE STIVERS

Austin

Flag caught a wave

John Deering was correct when he drew a waving American flag on the moon in his farewell cartoon to Neil Armstrong.

Ed Ferree of Deer needs to check photos taken on July 20, 1969, at Tranquility Base. The flag does appear to be waving. You see, the folks at NASA thought this all through and provided the astronauts with a flag made with a mesh fabric and a horizontal stabilizer sewn into the top of the flag that reaches from the hoist to the fly.

The flag will always wave on the moon.

DUB ALLEN

Hot Springs