Publication Date: Friday, July 09, 2004
ReaderWire
ReaderWire
(July 09, 2004)
Students need summer
For nine springtimes now, as the mercury has climbed its way toward nine summers, I have stood in my classroom inflicting literature and life and topic sentences on my Gunn High School kids.
But neither my years of experience nor my Stanford degree, nor even the wise counsel of my angelic colleagues, has revealed to me a teaching technique so inspiring as to captivate teenagers who'd rather be: (a) outdoors; (b) in swimsuits; (c) throwing Frisbees or glancing at the opposite sex; and (d) away from rules and desks and bells forever.
Extending the school district calendar further into the warm weather is cruel and unusual education.
And I doubt that a February "ski week" will, as hoped, reduce our kids' stress -- since, just as over the winter and spring breaks -- many teachers will likely assign homework. And bringing the kids back sooner in August to their regimen of clocks and due-dates will only erode the long, restorative reverie that is summer, and will suggest to students that the race is so desperate now that even the starting line must be moved.
Let's keep our classroom hours in the months where they do the most good.
Marc Vincenti
English Department, Gunn High School
Arastradero Road, Palo Alto
War observations
The photo of the war "activists" on page 3 of the July 2 Palo Alto Weekly got my attention.
The young lad with his "no Bush no war" sign was nice. A sign behind him said, "War has never solved anything."
The war word made me remember something. I 'm no scholar, but I seem to remember a thing called World War II. I think some Jews disappeared before and during our involvement in that war. Things got a little tough for them. Just like things got a little tough for some Iraqis.
The media didn't pay much attention to the missing people then and now. Why all the fuss? Things will work themselves out. Besides, I understand that the missing Jews are all living in Florida, and the missing Iraqis are living in Bakersfield.
Bush is such a silly man. What? Me worry?
Paul Heinemann
Laurel Avenue, Menlo Park
Appreciating Bob
Thanks for running the story about Bob Schimke and his artwork (Weekly, July 2). I am pleased to see him publicly recognized for his many talents. His is a remarkable story about how a multitalented person adapted himself to a new life after a devastating accident.
Bob and I first met in late 1997 when I was a patient in the spinal cord rehab unit at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital. Bob had been there a couple of years earlier. He has been a friend and an inspiration since then.
I have been privileged to see how he has, through hard work, regained some physical functions that many of us quadriplegics would love to be able to do.
Bob's artwork has to be seen. Photographs simply do not do the job. Bob is prolific. His work has progressed in the year or two since he first showed some of it to me from the simple to complex multidimensional collages that can only be visualized and executed by a real artist.
Perhaps some local gallery might want to exhibit a group of Schimke's works so many more people could see and enjoy them. He has dozens to choose from in his workshop and on the walls of his home.
Harry Lewenstein
Ramona Street, Palo Alto
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