THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Regarding the letter from the manager of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (``Bears don't naturally ride bicycles,'' Feb. 2): I am for the protection of animals that are being abused or mistreated. I also feel we parents are our children's teachers. We are responsible for teaching them the difference between an illusion and reality. The recent protest of the circus in town is ridiculous. What happened to the days of family outings to the carnival, circus, etc.?
As a child, if I expressed concern, say, for a tiger jumping through a ring of fire, my parents were there to assure me that everything was fine and the tiger was just doing a trick. My heart goes out to the tiger that apparently caught fire, but let's face it: Our world is far from perfect and accidents happen.
Soon people will probably claim that their dysfunctional families are due to their children attending the circus.
PAMELA HAMLER
Virginia Beach, Feb. 2, 1996
The letter from a 6-year-old upset over the recent advertisements for the circus and imploring other children to consider not attending the circus due to the hard life of the circus animals was truly amazing. It must have been genuine since The Virginian-Pilot surely wouldn't accept a letter that wasn't genuine, right? Right!
As a parent of children going to Strawbridge Elementary, I think we must commend our kindergarten teachers for producing a 6-year-old child with such an incredible vocabulary and grasp of complex concepts. I wonder why my 6-year-old doesn't display such extraordinary skills.
Last year's circus outing was one of the most enjoyable field trips of the year. As a chaperon I can attest that not one child ran crying from the arena. By the way, none of the field trips is mandatory.
The bigger question in my mind is when did we become a world that decided to rob children of that precious never-to-be-retrieved, wonderful time of life known as childhood? Why must we fill their young minds with concepts they are not ready to accept? The great ethical and philosophical questions surely have a place in our society, but couldn't we just try to hold them off until middle school?
NANCY HANSEN
Virginia Beach, Feb. 3, 1996 by CNB