Graduation requirements for Colo. high schoolers
Re: “Entering college will be tougher; Districts lose bid to delay new math, language rules,” July 11 news story.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education finally made the correct decision in holding to the 2010 curriculum requirements. And again, state Rep. Mike Merrifield is half right. He is correct in calling for more fine arts courses in K-12 curriculums – necessary to nurture critical thinking skills and the ability to innovate. But he completely misses the point on science, math and communication-skills requirements.
The U.S. and Colorado economies will quickly become second- or third-rate if we don’t have adequate numbers of articulate, independent-thinking scientists, engineers and product-innovation professionals. The just-unveiled Boeing 787 airliner and the Apple iPhone weren’t developed by fine arts majors, although undoubtedly there were several design professionals on each product development team.
Certainly there is a place for fine arts in the curriculums, but not ahead of science, math, communications and critical-thinking skills. If administrators and teachers think they “don’t have time for all of these requirements,” they should seriously consider a 200-day school year and 12-month employment for teachers.
Jim Leonard, Evergreen
…
As I watch our educational system floundering to keep up with college requirements and the needs of our students, I have a few questions:
1. How is it that two students transferring from the same school to two different schools had different allowances on transferred credits? With our transient society, shouldn’t all the schools have the same curriculum and credit system?
2. Many students do not go to college in the same state where they graduated. I know each student needs to find out what each college requires, but if each school has a different set of requirements and a student applies to three or four, how does this student manage to cover all the requirements?
3. Do you ever think about the intelligent students who want to go to college but do not have the ability to do the higher math and/or sciences?
I think our educational panels need to start talking to our high school students about their needs and then to our college students, asking how they feel about the system they have entered and how it might improve. The answers might surprise us all.
Linda Graff, Evergreen
Denver Zoo’s plan for expanded elephant habitat
Re: “Herd mentality; Denver Zoo plans 10-acre park to give elephants healthy habitat,” July 9 news story.
While it is laudable that the Denver Zoo recognizes elephants need space, it’s wrong for the zoo to waste more than $50 million on an exhibit that still is not right for elephants. The Mile High City has a climate that’s inappropriate for elephants, which hail from tropical climes, as the exhibit’s title, Asian Tropics, suggests. And only a portion of the proposed 10 acres will be available for as many as six to eight elephants, which is not enough space for Earth’s largest land mammal.
Elephants kept in cold-climate areas are forced to stay indoors for extended periods during the winter, where hard surfaces and lack of movement wreak havoc on their feet and joints. More than 60 percent of elephants in zoos suffer from foot disease and nearly half suffer from arthritis, caused by inadequate conditions. These ailments are preventable if elephants are given the space and natural conditions they need.
The Denver Zoo should follow the lead of 10 other progressive zoos around the country by getting out of the elephant business and sending the elephants to a natural-habitat sanctuary with the space and year-round access to the outdoors that these animals need to thrive.
Elliot M. Katz, DVM,San Rafael, Calif.
The writer is president of In Defense of Animals, a nonprofit animal protection organization.
Latest health care casualty: independent drug stores
Re: “Emotional farewell to a Golden legend,” July 6 news story.
Last Friday’s front-page story marks the loss of a community institution in Golden – Foss Drug. It’s more than the loss of a landmark, it’s the loss of an integral part of the health care chain for the many patients who were served by Foss Drug.
Independent pharmacies are fast becoming the latest health care crisis casualty. Squeezed by pharmacy benefit mangers – the middle men who set co-pays for patients and prescription reimbursement rates for pharmacies – the independent pharmacist is still the health care provider who answers questions for most patients.
As insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) chalk up multibillion-dollar profits similar to those that raise eyebrows and charges of price gouging for the oil companies, main street pharmacies are informed of lower reimbursements and patients get higher co-pays on a regular basis.
To make even greater profits, the PBMs are pushing more and more patients to mail-order pharmacies they own. Who gives the patient advice and answers their questions on their prescriptions? The UPS driver who delivers the package of prescriptions?
Independent pharmacies are one of the most direct links in patient care. These pharmacists know their patients and spend time with them, providing one-on-one counseling to help the patient understand what a medication’s purpose is and how to use it to the greatest benefit.
The closing of Foss Drug is a visible symbol of an expanding crisis. Our organization loses an important member, but the community loses far more.
Grant Kinn, Executive Director, RxPlus Pharmacies, Wheat Ridge
In need of a Lady Bird
Re: “Ex-first lady revered for environmental work,” July 12 obituary.
I recently returned from Honduras. One of my strongest impressions was that Honduras needed a Lady Bird Johnson. The beautiful country was marred by trash everywhere – sometimes despite there being public trash cans nearby. My daughter, who is 23 and was doing volunteer work there, had never heard of Lady Bird Johnson. I so well remember growing up in the ’60s when it suddenly became unacceptable to throw your trash out your car window. As a country, we were blessed to have such a visionary in our midst.
Wanda Venters, Aurora
Al-Qaeda, Sept. 11 and Iraq
Re: “Al-Qaeda regaining strength,” July 12 news story.
What would the situation have been if, after Sept. 11, we had focused our energy, resources and will on Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, instead of allowing the president and his minion, the vice president, to lead us into an unnecessary and increasingly costly war in Iraq, which had no connection with al-Qaeda.
If we had not been so diverted, I cannot help but wonder if, by now, we might well have been able to capture or kill bin Laden and permanently cripple al-Qaeda, which would have been a real boon to the entire West and much of the Muslim world as well.
Eric Arnold, Denver
The rich and the poor
Re: “‘Peace’ takes more than slogan,” July 8 Diane Carman column.
Diane Carman’s column included, among other things, a quote by the Rev. Leon Kelly that funding for his gang intervention work has essentially dried up. A story in the June 23 Rocky Mountain News concerned Colorado CEOs’ obscene pay topping out at $98 million. In fact, all 10 CEOs shown in the article took home more than $10 million each and in some cases a lot more. I’m a retired rocket engineer, but it doesn’t take one to see that there’s something very wrong with that picture and the society which turns a blind eye to it.
Hugh Zeiner, Golden
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