Spare us the pain, please

January 10, 2010

Dear Sir,

Please tell me that we will be able to watch the Winter Olympics on NBC this year. Please tell me we don't have to endure another ZBM disaster ... Please!

MOGUL

Southampton

Save Bermuda's birds

January 12, 2010

Dear Sir,

We refer to the letter to the Editor from Dr. Maureen Ware-Cieters, dated January 7 and published in the January 11 edition of the Royal Gazette.

After school, last Friday, January 8, Dr. Jan Cieters very kindly gave a few members of our Eco Club his time to tell us about a career as a veterinarian. Dr. Cieters showed us the great blue heron which had died that same morning, despite his hard work to save its life.

Today in our school assembly, we showed the heron to all the students and explained its tragic death.

We join the voices of Dr. Ware and Dr. Cieters in addition to Dr. Sarkis and Ms. Monteleone who were featured in articles by Tricia Walters about this topic published in your Green Pages so very recently. The main purpose of this letter is to make a plea to everyone for responsible disposal of fishing line to save creatures from unnecessary, painful deaths because of humans who do not care to dispose of their fishing line properly. Like the veterinarians and conservationists have said, please dispose of fishing line properly. Use the special receptacles that are provided along our shores or put it in a Parks trash can or take it home with you. Do all you can to retrieve stuck fishing line safely.

We want our great-great-great-great grandchildren to be able to enjoy seeing the graceful blue heron, the different kinds of sea turtles, the majestic humpback whale and all sorts of animals. Please take care of the environment.

ECO CLUB STUDENTS

Clearwater Middle School

Past the tipping point

January 8, 2010

Dear Sir,

I have been keeping abreast of the recent outbreak of gangland related violence in Bermuda and do not believe this has happened in a vacuum. That the culprits have not been brought to justice puzzles me. I was a frequent visitor to your 22- square-mile island and after several weeks on the island, I was ready to leave. I enjoy living in a certain amount of anonymity which I did not find present in Bermuda. I could not go anywhere on the island and mention someone's name and after several conversations that person was known by at least one person in the group in which I was conversing.

Everybody knows everybody in Bermuda – especially within the black Bermudian community – and from reading your publication, most of the crimes have been black on black. Six degrees of separation? In Bermuda it is more like two degrees of separation. There are people out there who know who the culprits are and where they live. I also believe that there two main factors as to why these people have not been apprehended.

1). The community is afraid of retaliation

2). The families of these gang members are profiting from the illegal activities

With all the political infighting and grandstanding taken place in Bermuda, I am not surprised that the rise in gangland violence was something that was overlooked and now it appears to be too little too late. In Malcolm Gladwell's book the Tipping Point, he talks about the "broken window theory". It states that if you have an abandon building and someone breaks a window and that window is not immediately fixed or boarded up people will continue to break the buildings existing windows until you have a blighted building. The window was broken in Bermuda and now there is blight on the block.

I would say to the residents of Bermuda, if you know who the culprits are, turn them in because if you do not you are contributing to the problem. If you are a parent, brother, sister, cousin, girlfriend or boyfriend of a gang member turn them in or get as far away from them as possible. If you do not, ultimately the violence will land on your front door.

And for those who have been intimidated or are afraid of retaliation, ask yourself would you rather die standing up for something that you believe in or live the rest of your life on your knees hoping that someone will come to rescue you? The choice is yours.

JEROME CHINA

Jersey City, New Jersey

Saltus on the right track

January 9, 2010

Dear Sir,

I am a Saltus student who has been attending the school for over 11 years now. I am writing to show my support for Mr. Staunton and the changes he is making. It is about time the school made changes and took action rather than sitting back and being so lackadaisical about issues such as discipline and grades.

Some people may be upset about the changing roster of teachers, however at all schools you will find teachers that have been teaching the same things in the same position for too long and so begin to think that their positions are secure and they can work half-heartedly. If a teacher cannot provide added value to a student's education then they are not a teacher who should be employed at such an expensive school.

I also see no problem with certain students not being entered for exams, some students simply are not capable of passing certain exams and why should Saltus be frowned upon for taking actions which the other private schools have been practicing for years? Overall I am very pleased with Mr. Staunton's actions and believe that they truly are in the best interest of the school. I only wish they had happened sooner.

A HAPPY SALTUS STUDENT

Pembroke

Education standards

January 11, 2010

Dear Sir,

There were two articles during the past weekend that had an interesting confluence of points of view on education. The two articles were: the letter to the editor "A Saltus student speaks" that was printed in The Royal Gazette of Saturday January 9; and the Tom Vesey opinion piece "Selfish anti-social outlook is prevalent in Bermuda" that was printed in the Bermuda Sun of Friday, January 8.

The article by the student discussed the issue of the efforts of the current Saltus principal to raise the school's examination results. The student said "I ... assumed he was talking about improving the quality of the education at the school so that students would be better equipped to handle the exams. Instead ... their (students') ability to even sit for these exams would be based upon mock test performance and in at least one case teacher discretion." In his letter the student disagrees with this practice and goes on to comment that he/she could understand not promoting a student from one grade level to the next higher grade as a means of maintaining standards but feels that what the principal really wants is to ensure that the school gets as close as possible to a hundred percent pass rate for those who sit the exams.

The student goes on to make further telling comments as follows: "The purpose of a school is to prepare a person for the next stage in life. How is a person to succeed when they are being told at 15 and 16 that they are so stupid it is better not to even try... I understand the need to expel students ... even if they are not meeting the standards the school sets forth academically."

Whether or not one agrees with the point of view of the student, it is clear that the student believes that this private school does not make an unconditional commitment to work towards the success of individual students but rather uses various devices to present a face of school success to the public.

The opinion piece by Tom Vesey is designed to review the background to the recent disturbances in Bermuda. At one point he says: "In the short term, it is easier to categorise, stereotype and condemn than it is to understand. It is easier to shun or attack than debate ... This has long been true in education, where for years we shuffled a huge percentage of kids out of the academic stream when they reached the age of 11. We didn't worry too much that we put them in inferior schools, because we had already condemned them. Even today, as we struggle sincerely – if not too successfully – to reform public education, our children are often stereotyped by the schools they attend, and thereby stripped of some of their humanity."

There are two matters of interest in this second article. One is that the public education system has always reviewed its operations in an effort to improve outcomes for students and has always been condemned by the public for so doing. One such effort, that had the predictable public condemnation, was to remove the premature categorisation of students at 11 years of age. You will note that the Saltus student was concerned about this sort of categorisation at the more mature age of 15. The second matter of interest is the acceptance, with no examination of data, that public schools are currently failing in their efforts.

I can clearly recall that public schools were recently condemned for not graduating a sufficiently high percentage of students in the standard period for secondary school education. Yet it seems clear from this student's comments on retention and expulsion in at least one private school that similar questions ought to be raised for that school; and for private schools in general. Students at these private schools do not start with the environmental hindrances that are common for public school students. It is reasonably well known that many students leave public schools to go to private schools at the transition point from primary to middle school. Many in public schools are aware also of a reverse movement from private schools to public schools at the transition point from middle to senior schools.

In my opinion news media should investigate and inform the public about all such issues. Transparency in public as well as private institutions should be the watchword. They all serve the public.

J.T. CHRISTOPHER

Warwick