LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Thankful

At this time of Thanksgiving, I am reminded of how fortunate I was to have been a recent candidate for Hernando County School Board. I would like to extend a warm thank you to all the members of our community that supported me during my candidacy.

Be it through your donations, lending your business or home for a sign, campaigning on my behalf and certainly through casting your vote for me, I was continually reminded what an honor it was to be a candidate here in Hernando County. I also thank the many candidates I met on the campaign trail for their dedication to working to improve our community.

I also wish James Yant, as the new member of the school board, much success. I know I am a better person having gone through this process and having met so many great members of our community! Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful holiday season to all.

Gene Magrini

Spring Hill

Highly Paid Teachers

Need To Improve, Too

I've noticed a plethora of ads, in what passes for our daily paper, touting Internet and television tutoring classes. Some ads have been appearing on TV for a bit longer. You know, the ones that want to teach you a language. Yesterday there was a front page article on Home Schooling and TV instructional classes.

Have any of you noticed the errors prevalent on the "crawlers" on the bottom of the TV screen on the news shows?

Does anyone notice the spelling and grammatical errors in your daily newspapers?

Does anyone know why these non-school computer and TV teaching aides have sprouted and expanded all of a sudden? Can anyone guess?

I have a few suggestions and it has to do with the level of teaching our children receive in our schools.

It has to do with the problem of why Johnnie and Jane can't read too well and why they have to add or subtract using their fingers. Why our grade and high school students can't compete with foreigners in math and science. Why our high school graduates are required to take remedial classes "if" they can get accepted into a college or university.

Since the drive-by media is currently focusing on the National Automotive Industrial Unions, isn't it about time to check out our teaching unions?

The country was shocked to learn that hourly autoworkers earned $28/hour, or $58,240/ year, wages only. Well, grab onto your socks, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the teacher's national average pay is $47 an hour for a half year (the time a teacher actually works in a year). If you calculate the teacher's average semiannual hourly wage for an annual rate, it approximates the autoworkers.

Now, we know that the quality of product produced by American autoworkers increased to equal that of the Japanese (supposedly producers of the highest quality autos). However, in comparison, our teaching quality has declined (see examples above).

Isn't it time to demand the same quality improvements from our teachers as we do from our autoworkers? If our autoworkers can improve the quality of their output, why can't teachers?

Don W. Plezia

Weeki Wachee

Slow Down

My husband and I are parents of five and the grandparents of three. In the last three and a half months, three of our children and two of our grandchildren have been in three separate car accidents. At first thought, people may think that we didn't teach our children to drive safely, but not one of these accidents was their fault.

On Aug. 8 our 18-year-old was east on Barclay at 12:30 a.m. and was hit almost head-on as a 17-year-old tried to make a left-hand turn onto Highgrove and tried to outrun her. Of course, he didn't and hit her. They were both OK, other than being shook up, but both their cars were destroyed. Four days later, on Aug. 11, our 30-year-old son was riding his motorcycle south on U.S. 19 and was struck and killed in front of the Dunkin' Donuts by a 90-year-old man making a left-hand turn and misjudging where my son was.

Then, on Nov. 20, our 28-year-old daughter and our 5- and 6-year-old granddaughters were on their way to school where our daughter teaches and the children attend. They were on Spring Hill Drive at the west Linden Drive crossing and a 53-year-old lady tried to cross all five lanes of Spring Hill Drive and slammed into our daughter's mini-van, which then propelled the mini-van into a house. Thank God they are all OK, but very beat up and extremely bruised and sore and, of course, their mini-van was destroyed.

The reason I felt compelled to write this letter is to please ask all to just slow down. Set the clock a little earlier, take your time and, for God's sake, look carefully before crossing an intersection; make sure you have plenty of time before making a turn, especially a left turn.

Maybe some will think I am overreacting, but can you blame me? Please slow down, look both ways twice and think past the fact that you are running late.

Think about the fact that if you cause an accident, the person you hit is someone's child, sibling, parent, grandchildren, aunt, uncle, cousin or someone who's a friend to someone else.

Gerrie DeFrancesco

Spring Hill