Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511060004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It doesn't make sense to compare budgets of urban schools with rural schools of South Dakota because factors, such as cost of living and social circumstances, are incomparable. Performance per dollar is a meaningless computation. But funding in either environment directly affects factors such as class size, which are prime determiners of educational effectiveness.
I challenge his statements that "the mechanics of operating a computer can be learned at any time" and that these are "new sources of entertainment." True, turning on a computer isn't difficult, but solving problems with one requires an understanding relatively few in any generation have mastered.
Network-based educational computing is among the most important developments in education in many decades. It encourages students to read, write, research, work with others, discuss, explore new ideas, experience a larger world, find multicultural and multinational exposure and experiment with less fear of failure. Network-information sources are current, and far more relevant to life and daily experience than printed materials. Moreover, whether we like it or not, our society's children have become accustomed to a world of sensory stimulation. To them, technology is exciting, engaging and provides them with a sense of control over their learning.
Roberts should visit classrooms where network-based learning is taking place on an organized basis. He'll have to search for them, though, since funding and equipment are almost nonexistent. And where there's a dribble of funding, it's rare to find training and the technical support teachers need to make needed changes in the way children are educated. Many teachers are discouraged by their perception of an increasing gap between their students' needs and their capabilities for meeting them.
We have to recognize that today's society is nothing like that our parents knew; nor is education. This is an information-based society, and fluency in its metaphors is an important determiner of personal success. Moreover, our success as a country depends upon the achievements of our educational system. If we don't invest in our children, then surely our future and theirs is at risk.
ROGER W. EHRICH
BLACKSBURG
Fear of guns is irrational
IN RESPONSE to Gail King's Oct 17 letter to the editor, "State needs realistic gun controls":
Without knowing her personally, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume her statistical omissions were made out of ignorance rather than malice.
She intimates that the increase in the number of handgun homicides in Florida is a result of that state's concealed-weapon carrying law of 1987. However, she not only fails to mention the source of her data, but also the fact that her numbers are taken independent of corresponding population increases.
These are the facts, as excerpted from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's "Crime in Florida, 1993, Annual Report":
Florida's homicide rate dropped from 37 percent above the national average to 3 percent below the national average after the 1987 law went into effect.
Between 1987 and 1992, rape increased nationally by 14.4 percent. But in Florida, it increased only 2.9 percent over the same period, and actually decreased 0.2 percent in 1993.
King's irrational fear of inanimate objects gives rise to further speculation. In my lifetime, I haven't heard of a single case of a firearm harming anyone of its own volition. And if it's not the handgun itself that frightens her, one may assume that she's afraid of her law-abiding neighbors. How truly sad.
J. CHRISTOPHER GILBART
RADFORD
by CNB