Every Saturday, The Bee turns its Op-Ed page over to readers. This week we have commentaries from W. Daniel Garst, who writes about his experiences teaching in China for 10 months; Marie V. Banuelos of Hanford, former superintendent of the Hanford Joint Union High school District, says the exit exam is just as much a test of the schools as the students; and Stephen Varvis, director of business and civic relations at Fresno Pacific University, writes about business ethics.
On Sunday, the Vision cover story is an excellent summer read by Victor Davis Hanson of Selma, who is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution. This week he discusses the peaceful coexistence of Harleys and Hobies, speed boats and mountain bikes. These side-by-side playmates on a recent weekend at Hungtington Lake said a lot about our society and our remarkable ability to get along with one another.
Bee editorial page editor Jim Boren doesn't buy the current notion that teaching reading and math and teaching science is an either/or choice in our elementary schools.
On Sunday, the Vision cover story is an excellent summer read by Victor Davis Hanson of Selma, who is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution. This week he discusses the peaceful coexistence of Harleys and Hobies, speed boats and mountain bikes. These side-by-side playmates on a recent weekend at Hungtington Lake said a lot about our society and our remarkable ability to get along with one another.
Jim Boren, Bee editorial page editor, doesn't buy the current notion that teaching reading and math and teaching science is an either/or choice in our elementary schools.
Kathleen Parker of the Orlando Sentinel, writing about the new Superman movie, says there is nothing heroic about a father who woos girls on rooftops, then vanishes in search of himself.
George Will, who recently lost his mother Louise to dementia, talks about the torment this disease exacts on the family and the victim.
James Pinkerton of Newsday comments on Billy and Franklin Graham's ability to work with political power around the world to gain access to people. The torch is being passed from father to son and he wonders what will be the long-term effect of their preaching.
Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe is really enjoying her lobster dinners in Maine, even though some people are challenging the cruelty of boiling live lobsters. It's hard to be a purist about the food chain. Is it really right, for example, to use all that jet fuel to fly baby lettuce across the country?
Each week we feature a local letter writer in a little Q and A: Sunday it's Ron Kryngel, a real estate investor and father of two, who likes politics and hates the war in Iraq.
Valley's Top 10 lists the most annoying things about summer. No. 10 is that burning smell when your bare legs hit the car upholstery. We love to get reader suggestions on these lists. Jump in.
Another Valley Voices' Saturday and another round of Op-Eds from the educational community. Over the last few years, I've sent several letters (unpublished for obvious reasons) to the Bee suggesting that there is a preponderance of Op-Eds from that group.
I continue to wonder why such an over-abundance of submitted articles for a "certain specific group"? It's not that I, necessarily, disagree with them. For the most part they are well-expressed, researched and throughly enjoyable. It's just that we never seem to hear from other groups so frequently.
It is that they are the only ones that can write? I doubt it. Although, they are probably, as a whole more articulate, that us peons. Is it that the Bee thinks that only the highly educated and multi-degreed have a right to pontificate on any given issue? Is it that the Bee reacts more favorably to some issues and some points of view? I hope not. (I have noticed that the usual Op-Eds from the educational crowd are more in-tune with the politically correct spirit of the times and therein probably lies the answer to my questions).
Have we gotten to the point where only certain points of view, from a certain segment of society are the only ones welcome?
I long to hear from Mr & Mrs. Average Citizen.
So what of professor Garst's China stories? Were they ever published in the Bee?... if so, where?