Letters to the Editor – 11/12/14

Work best for kids

I could not disagree more with Bob Jones’ column “Bad Ideas For Improving Education.” The physicians he cites are correct, and for at least two reasons.

The first concerns life. High school life at home with Mom and Dad and life in a college dorm between months-long vacations are vastly different from life in the workforce. Giving kids a preemptive slice of the less tasty pies of life is, indeed, a powerful motivator for them to reach their fullest potential.

The second concerns college instructors. Mr. Jones say they instill life experiences vicariously. Throughout all 32 of my general ed major and elective courses at Pepperdine University, I had only one professor who instructed as a second career. Another, a Ph.D. who taught “quantitative analytics,” had only one other job in his life: working in a music store for a summer between undergrad and grad school!

Both my kids went to public school and college. My son graduated on a Saturday and began his career the following Monday. My daughter paid her way through grad school at University of Chicago. Both will tell you that what they learned about life was not in the hallowed halls of academia — it was handing out gym towels and manning library desks during unpaid work studies, and “go-fering” Starbucks runs and emptying corporate wastebaskets during unpaid internships. Today, my son is the youngest network television editor at NBC/Universal (Wolf Films/Chicago PD). My daughter is earning her doctorate in India while working at the U.S. Embassy.

What those two doctors prescribe is good medicine.

Guy Steele
Hawaii Kai and Haleiwa

Ugly ads

Like Dan Boylan in his column “Praise And Revulsion In Gov’s Race,” I was utterly revulsed by the ugly radio and TV attack ads paid for by PACs from the Mainland. I was just as revulsed by the local candidates, including the new governor-elect, who touted his clean campaign but did nothing to stop those ads. If he were truly as nice a guy as he tried to project, he would have put a stop to those ads.

I hope I wasn’t the only one who instantly changed channels the moment I heard one of those ads. They made me feel “oojie.”

Sylvia Lane
Honolulu

True Believers

I enjoyed Patrick Buchanan’s column “Terrorism And ‘The True Believer.'” I had to read Eric Hoffer’s book in college, and who could have guessed back then that America and the West would be under assault from “True Believer” Muslim jihadists? The world changes, but True Believers of some sort will always be with us.

Jerry Lee
Honolulu