School officials must follow laws
Where do ethical practices we see day after day come from? We all learn in class and by example. Local schools absolve themselves of responsibility and pass the buck up to "them," but education law may suggest another direction in which to look.
The long-standing intent for education is that school teachers draw out and refine students' skills and talents so their adult behavior reflects performance standards and social values of the community being served. To support this mission, many issues are put to vote by the BOE or community rather than granting full discretion to someone "in charge."
Students are taught to give over authority and passively take direction from school personnel, regardless of surroundings or personal feelings. Because education law recognizes the potential for such conditioning to unduly influence adult decisions and a tendency for human nature to seek personal gain (especially when so much money is "donated" to education by public vote, and budgets primarily support increasing salary and benefit demands with few, if any, ties to student performance), ed law prohibits school staff from communicating personal opinion about people and/or issues up for vote or speculating about budget or building project benefits.
Anyone serving the public in education is entrusted to steadfastly demonstrate personal integrity sufficient to keep personal opinion to himself while enjoying day-to-day activities that fully comply with BOE policy and without playing favorites. Personal integrity and self-discipline are part and parcel of education; from those to whom much is given _ much is expected.
What happens when education law is violated? The BOE should enforce education law, but community members convey preferences to BOE members for appropriate action.
Just watch and listen; we can all see who has enough integrity to show respect for benefactors by adhering to education law advocacy guidelines and vote accordingly.
Sheryle Lifgren Charity
Laurens
Gold common to all civilizations
I am responding to the March 25 letter by Mr. George Bourgeois.
The rate of development of the brain of homo sapiens (human beings) is fantastic in comparison to that of other species! Civilizations come and go with the average life being 3,000 to 5,000 years.
They leave several characteristics:
(1) Language: spoken and prose and poetry in scripts.
(2) Complex religion to explain the "unknown": prophets/enunciators, holy book(s), complex and infallible interwoven religious stories/epics expounding the power of myth, religious scriptures/rites, room for atheists, agnostics, nihilists.
(3) Magnificent religious/non-religious architectures, edifices and tombs: Egyptian pyramids, Roman ruins, India's ancient Hindu temples/palaces; European cathedrals; Muslim Taj Mahal; American skyscrapers.
(4) Strong internal domestic laws; but externally, might is right! Civilizations go to war to gain supremacy, where old men fight and young men die! Scapegoats, as in Third Reich, get annihilated. Wars, "hot" and "cold," bring marvelous prosperity and inventions, usable in peace times: Radar, planes, nuclear energy, microwaves, stealth planes.
In development, civilizations sow seeds of destruction: burying nuclear debris and compressed carbon dioxide gas inside the earth and sea-bed! Future civilizations are a doomed lot: the planet blown away by asteroids any time! Let's leave heavenly bodies alone! Civilizations vanish inexplicably, like the Egyptian pharaohs and mythical Atlantis!
All civilizations thought gold was valuable; some even venerated it! Thus gold, like beauty, is valuable in the eyes of the beholder, like Mr. Bourgeois. But one does not have to be born with a "silver" spoon in a "golden" mouth; what really counts are brain, brawn and usable commercial goods inside the earth's crust.
The dissenter to established opinion is liable to be termed a perfect fall guy _ I know.
Shyamal K. SenGupta
Bovina Center
Writer's humor appreciated
I read with much amusement Lyle Chastaine's list of suggestions (April 30), "cuts that (we) can make to help negotiate these hard times." I especially like the one about cell phones. I can't believe the number of people I've observed talking on their cell phones while driving (it's against the law), although I have yet to see or read of anyone getting a ticket for it.
Mr. Chastaine has been delighting me for years with his humorous observations. I'm still laughing over something he wrote years ago about the then-sad state of Stamford's River Street, citing its need of repair: "Shakespeare said, A rose by any other name would smell as sweet'. I say, `A rut by any other name is River Street!'"
Thanks, Mr. Chastaine, for the laugh! We of the Stamford area could sure use a little sunshine amid all the recent, dark clouds.
Roger Weiss
Stamford
Nurse truly deserved award
Kudos to Martha Gauthier for her impressive Registered Nurse of the Year Award. As a case manager for my mom at the Oneonta Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Martha was considered by our family as "Mom's Angel." She moved her staff through mom's journey of dementia with kind, effective leadership.
In a time when our nation appears to be in a state of "un-ease," and a presidential campaign that models disappointing negativity, it's important for we the people to keep on, recognize and reward what's right in our country. You go, Martha!
Janine Bray
Bovina Center
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