I Compared: OTBL Post Is A Cheapshot

Last week I read a post on ontehborderline.net titled "You Compare." The post links to a home school advocate site. The site compares two letters to the editor published recently in the Charlotte Observer. One letter writer is a 19-year old education major at Appalachian State University in Boone, KY and the other letter writer is a 14-year old home schooled in Charlotte. Below are the two letters as they currently appear in the Charlotte Observer. I used these copies, because -- for some reason -- they are slightly different in the OTBL post.

Haley Price, 19, Appalachian State University, Boone: As an education major, I feel the most pressing issue is the public school system. The idea engraved in No Child Left Behind is noble, but the way in which the government has gone about it is doing nothing but pushing good teachers out and making young people less than eager to join the education field. How are we expected to solve world problems and make them better for future generations when the future generation is not even literate? Where is the logic in sending boys and girls to fight overseas when they don't even know the location of the country they are being sent to?

Post comment: "That 'graf' is absolutely horrible. Not even Fisk-worthy. And then... "

Dane Keil, 14, home-schooled, Charlotte: "While it may not be the nation's top priority, finding alternate sources of energy is very important. If we had homes, cars and businesses that ran on electricity generated from wind, solar and hydroelectric power, we would have less dependency on foreign oil. One area to consider is electric power generated by the tides. A tidal generator works on the natural movement of the ocean, thereby providing a virtually inexhaustible energy source."

Post comment: "It's a sad but unsurprising commentary on our schools that a 14-year-old HEK can write a more literate and cogent paragraph than a 19-year-old education major."

---
Maybe I'm missing something in these letters, but they both seem adequately written. Some of the sentences are long and wordy and could be revised. Although they are not English-teacher perfect, I don't see any evidence that would condemnemn either writer to literary hell. However, check out these comments to this post:

Comment by ChoosingLife ([EMAIL]), 1/4/2006 @9:59 pm

"This should be a red flag to people that socialization, aka socialism, has taken over as top priority in government schools, to the detriment of education. No matter what your parental preference is for your children, e.g., government education, charter schools, home education, or vouchers for private school, education should be about education only leave the socialization and socialism indoctrination out of taxpayer-funded government schools. Supervised socialization should be for parents' discretion after the education has been completed to merit a passing grade to standards of old. Taxpayers should not have to pay for socialists/isms to be indoctrinated into their children without parents permission. Dr. Dobson has some fantastic resources available on his web site: www.Family.org. Just type in "homeschool", and you'll receive pages of information and examples of what was discussed in this original post."
---

I find it interesting that OTBL'ers Choosing Life plays the socialist card so quickly. How quickly judgmentsements are made ontheborderline.net! From a couple wordy paragraphs by a 19-year student, we jump to a condemnationnation of the public education system and the glorification of home schooling. I work on this site as a supporter of education -- regardless if it's public, private, homeschooled, etc. No provider of education is perfect. Part of effective education is to have patience, understanding and empathy with the student. With this in mind, I e-mailed letter writer Haley Price to get her side of the story. She quickly responded to me and provided the following answers to the questions I submitted to her:

Mr. Nelson,

Thank you for your concern. I would be more than happy to answer your
questions.

1. Yes, I have attended public schools in North Carolina from 1st to
12th grade.

2. The following is the saved letter that I sent the Charlotte Observer
(not known, might I add, for it's highly accurate editing staff):

As an education major, I obviously feel that the most pressing issue in
America is the lack of substantial growth in the public school system.
I think that the idea engraved in No Child Left Behind is noble, but
the way in which the government has gone about it is doing nothing but
pushing good teachers out and making young people less that eager to
join the education field. As a principle, I think that most people
would agree that a more educated society is a better one. How are we
expected to solve the current world problems and make them better for
future generations when the future generations that we are growing are
not even literate? Where is the logic in sending young boys and girls
to fight overseas when they don't even know the geographical location
of the country they are being sent to? Education and the problems
therein should defiantly be a top priority for the American people and
it's government.

3. I never rewrote the letter. All of my responses, as they always are,
come straight from my reaction after reading the question.

4. I tend to rely, I suppose sometimes too much, on the spellcheck in
the email server that I use. Other than that, I simply do a quick scan for accuracy of the message I was trying to convey and let that be that.

5. My Word application is set to check both spelling and grammar.

Again, thank you for your concern and have a wonderful New Year!
Haley Price
---
Haley's response to my question strike me as very honest and intelligent. Part of the criticism leveled at her in the OTBL post dealt with spelling. Evidently the Charlotte Observer is responsible to a large share of the criticism focused on Haley. I don't know how the other letter writer wrote his letter, but we do know that Haley typed it in e-mail, spelled checked it and sent it to the paper. It appears to be a spontaneous response to a question posed by the newspaper and not a homeschool writing project with mom and/or dad guiding the hand of the writer...

This OTBL post is another excellent example of their agenda. They will twist something as innocent as a young college student's letter to the editor in a monsterous, socialist conspiracy from which only Dr. James Dobson can save us.

How do you spell "fruitcakes?"