America Versus Rome
In his comparison of the Roman Empire and present-day America, Vanity Fair editor at large and author Cullen Murphy stated, "Stop treating government as a necessary evil" ["Lessons From the Fall," May 7]. I consider skepticism about creeping paternalism to be healthy. Murphy also urges us to "see immigration as a source of strength," but our problem is that we're overrun by manual laborers, not doctors or engineers. And then Murphy states that "we have to take some weight off the American military . . . stop giving it so many missions." We're on the verge of naively quitting the war in Iraq, but, unfortunately, the war is not over.
SCOTT ANDERSON
Green Valley, Ariz.
Cullen Murphy claims there are "striking parallels between modern America and the ancient Roman republic." What a stretch! The president can serve a maximum of eight years. The United States is not an empire collecting taxes and tribute from other nations. The United States limits its military power to protecting its citizens from nations or entities that attack us or that threaten world peace or stability in a measure that endangers the United States.
JACK V. FOGARTY
Los Angeles
Business of Education
"Grade School Goes Corporate" [May 7] says that 50 years ago the paper mills would have no problem hiring a person with a basic high school education but that today global Kimberly-Clark would have a problem with that. Bill Sisson, Mobile, Ala., Area Chamber of Commerce vice president for economic development, said most people on the floor of today's paper mill are walking around with laptops. If corporate America is in such need of highly educated personnel to work in its factories and on its assembly lines, why are so many businesses transferring operations to Mexico, China, India, and other countries where the workforce is less educated? I don't understand corporate America.
TIMOTHY MASK
Grand Rapids, Mich.
As a teacher I enjoyed reading "Grade School Goes Corporate." However, I took exception to the suggestion that teacher pay raises be tied to student test scores and that a federal curriculum might be designed in part by business leaders. Once again, teachers are the whipping boys for all of society's ills, and the implication is that if students are struggling in school, then teachers must not be doing their jobs, hence, the need to involve noneducators in oversight- and enforcement-type positions. The fallacy is continued that standardized testing indicates learning. Any monkey can be trained to fill in a bubble. What is more difficult is to teach children to critically analyze and synthesize information, which is something that standardized testing does not require children to do. If you can read and write, thank a teacher.
REBECCA BOLTON
Mobile, Ala.
A few weeks ago, I was discussing the skills of incoming college freshmen with a friend who is a philosophy professor at a local liberal arts university. He commented that the students were not lacking reading, writing, or math skills; rather, they had no sense of history and were incapable of "connecting the dots" between past and present. After reading "Grade School Goes Corporate," I am not surprised. In Mobile, Ala., the partnership between school and business has improved Brazier Elementary's test scores by "shoving science and social studies into one period" to focus on the three R's. The article cited the Saunders Engine Co. "that would teach students subjects like properties of metals, properties of fuels and lubricants, properties of gaskets and sealing materials, and methods of cooling engines and machinery." Where is the science foundation needed to master these concepts going to come from?
PEGGY D. MULLER
Riverside, Calif.
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