"W. Brandon Lacy Campos" wrote:

> For example, in Spanish, which I also speak, the adjective comes after the noun.
> That is a fundamental difference in terms of how one thinks about the
> world...the car red not the red car. All of these thing have an impact on
> the way a child learns. The more teachers understand about various learning
> styles and teaching styles the more children they will be able to
> successfully reach.

Where do you come up with this stuff?  The Whorfian hypothesis has been
discredited for some time now. Cognitively it makes no difference where
you put the adjective. A red car, is a car red, is a red car; there is no there
there.

>I think that Thomas Swift absolutely missed the boat with his comments.

I think he's on the boat, he's just a little off course.  Emphasizing differences,
the salad bowl approach is foolish, I much prefer the melting pot.  Immigration
is one of the factors that has and continues to make this a Great country,
Think what it would be like if all the ghettos since the 1600s still remained.
One of the problems with multi-culturalism is that it tries to rewrite history
as much as the old White guys did.  In the 70s I took sometime to learn
a little about my native american heritage and it ain't "Dances with Wolves."
If you want to see a realistic Indian movie rent "Black Robe."  This is not
to say the old White guys were sweethearts, Andrew Jackson was an
evil SOB.

>Forcing a child, who may not be a citizen of this country, to recite the
>pledge of allegiance is wrong.

FORCING a child who is a citizen of this country to recite the pledge of
allegiance is wrong.  It's a violation of everything this country stands for.

>While I think sex education should be taught once children understand sex,

Which comes first the understanding of sex or the teaching?

>I think sexuality education, ie acknowledging that there are
>gays and lesbians in the world, should be taught as a rote part of any
>lesson.

Well I support rote learning. However, I'm not sure that it's necessary
for children to memorize that people of the same gender have sex
with each other...I think that it's easy enough for them to understand
without memorization.

>Just as we talk about black, Jewish, whatever authors, we should be
>able to tell our children that such and such a person was gay or lesbian.
>Doing anything else again sets up the standard of the other.

It is particularly important to know that Walt Whitman was gay?  Well,
maybe, but I think that it is more important that students understand
that the Athenians were perfectly able to mix sexual preference and
civilization, and the Spartans were perfectly able to mix sexual preference
and militarism.  And we know that Muslims don't allow much mixing
of any kind.

>Acknowledging and accepting that we are all different, that there is
>strength in that difference, will enable us to come together with our
>difference instead of inspite of our differences.

There is little strength in differences, differences breed conflict.
It is commonalties and a basic respect for the rights of others
that help to unify our "united" states.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park





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