Letters to the Editor

What You Say

I appreciate your courage for touching on a topic that a lot of city dwellers don't like to talk about ["A Plea for Help," Editor's Letter, March 8, 2007]. We need more of this kind of discussion.

At 40 without kids, I'm here to stay, but I know that the suburbs loom in the back of a lot of minds.

I think a lot of people are scared that their kids will get hurt, not that they'll do the hurting. I think mostly they are worried that their kids won't get a good education because some other kids are disruptive. I never heard anybody say that he was worried that the schools would actually turn his own children into monsters.

To me, it's OK if you don't want to write about your real (or at least other) concerns about city public schools. It's hard to go there. I also realize that you were trying to distill your thoughts about various types of schools into quick lines (obviously your focus was in thinking the idea of leaving town and not the details of the whys). I am sure that you plan to write more about your possible move, and it's of course up to you to say as much or as little about your reasons for doing so. If you do, though, please first ask yourself if you are really being honest.

Greg Pastore
Bella Vista

Who taught you the fatuous disjunction between activist and journalist? Not the Catholic Church. And what about the J-school injunction to "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"? Have you ever heard of Philly's two greatest investigative reporters, George Seldes and I.F.Stone? They'd be ashamed of your lily-liveredness. Last week you're touting Pete Dexter. This week you fleeing. What a travesty. What would Pete Dexter think of your flight? I know damn well he'd cuss you out for having no balls. Our three kids went to Thomas Holme Elementary and Girl's High and Boy's Central, and we were more than satisfied. And we chose to live in a racially integrated community in Northeast Philly, Greenbelt Knoll. It's 50 years old this year, and the Preservation Alliance has just declared it a historic site. Come to our Jubilee June 10 and find out how easy it is to live with other kinds of Philadelphia.

Patrick Hazard
Via www.citypaper.net

I wrote last week and was anticipating this week's column. However, i am disappointed that you seem to have grasped that the comment about violence was unfair, but that the other prejudices about public school are still valid. The problem is not that private schools are inherently better; of course there are some that are better. The problem is the belief that moving out of the city automatically grants your child a better education. There are strong public school choices in the city. Do I really need to point out that Masterman has consistently been regarded as the best public high school in the state? My daughter's elementary school has two Nobel Prize winners among its graduates.

The belief that because you pay a fortune, you are providing the best education, is misguided. A family member who teaches at a very expensive private school told us that, for many of their students, the best choice would be public school with the saved tuition money being spent on enrichment programs and travel. He explained his belief that most learning comes from home.

You do not need to be an activist for public school. You need to be an activist for your child.

Blastula99
Via www.citypaper.net

I found it funny that ["First the snakes, Now this?" News, March 22, 2007] talked about how essential smoking is to Irish culture, then went on to mention the smoking ban in Ireland (which has been in place longer than the one in Philly). So doesn't that just make our smokeless Irish pubs even more like the real thing across the pond?

Dave DiGiovanni
Roxborough