Feb. 19, 2013: Our readers write

Hymes will be missed

Sorry to read Dr. William Hymes is leaving Hardin Memorial Hospital. He has helped by husband and our friends so much.

Hardin County will miss him. Dr. Hymes is a wonderful doctor.

Jeannette Rogers

Elizabethtown

Regarding choice in education

I read that the Kentucky Education Association again in interested in a bill to require students to stay in public schools until they are 18, instead of 16 as now. What a disaster for students. I say this as a former university physics teacher.

Learning can be fun or at least a positive challenge. If students feel they are building skills for future employment they will have some desire to study and do homework. But if they already have given up, they will feel like inmates in a state prison, being forced to waste their time. They would rather be working at any job they can get for a little spending money, a little accomplishment.

Time wasters get their only pleasure out of disrupting the class, making a joke of anyone and anything that will get a laugh. This frustrates teachers and all serious students. The value of the educational opportunity is thus degraded and largely wasted. More students are then desperate to drop out. Could anybody but a union official call this progress?

Private schools, often sponsored by one religion or another, can help. Students who disrupt can be expelled, safeguarding educational value for the others. However, not all families can afford the tuition. For them, charter schools might be the best option, since charter schools are supported by taxes and offer more freedom than regular public schools.

Charter schools might specialize in auto mechanics, construction, science or music. They might specialize in helping “visual learners” who learn best with hands-on methods and do not excel with abstract learning.

Many states allow charter schools and enjoy real progress. Students in public schools can feel better just knowing charters may be an option, and they can think of public school as a good step toward college or a future job.

Where a choice exists parents will find it easier to motivate students.

Steven C. Barrowes, PhD

Elizabethtown