Loudoun Letters to the Editor
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page LZ02
Use School Hours Wisely
I think I'm opposed to last Thursday's event at Loudoun County High School headlined by a Christian comedian ["The Abstinence Shtick, Minus Jesus," Metro, Oct. 13]. I'm not opposed to comedians in general, or to Christian comedians in particular. Some of my best friends are comedians. But I am opposed to taking time away from learning.
When Loudoun County High School administrators planned the assembly for the comedian's talk about sexual abstinence, I hope they asked themselves questions such as: How long will it take? How many hours of math instruction will students lose to entertainment? What is the learning objective? Where is that objective specified in the curriculum? If that objective is in the curriculum, why is the activity not part of a regular schedule? Will teachers and administrators attend? Will they be paid for time spent on entertainment?
One thousand students attending a one-hour assembly constitutes 1,000 lost hours of instruction. If we consider an academic day as five hours, then the instructional cost of one assembly is 200 days. I don't think our teenagers' education can afford that loss.
International comparisons illuminate inefficiencies typical of American high schools, such as distracting announcements that repeatedly interrupt lessons with late-breaking news about the bowling team and communications to students that are verbal rather than written. But I think assemblies occupy a special place in academic time-wasting. If my teenager has AP physics scheduled at 10 a.m., I do not want the class canceled in favor of a performance by a comedian whose audience consists of captive young people who are required to sit through his act.
Effective teachers encourage students to use their learning time wisely. Effective administrators plan the school day so that each student's precious academic time is used equally wisely.
Brian Reid
Annandale
Lion's Share of Growth
Having seen all its advertisements, I began to wonder what exactly this so-called Right Growth Policy Institute really is. Interestingly enough, the group's ads often appear in the same publications as the developers' interminable spiels touting the benefits of transforming southeastern Loudoun County into a city at least twice the size of Leesburg.
I paid a visit to the institute's rather rudimentary Web site. On the surface the blurb sounds rather appealing, a group dedicated to families, communities and searching for the moderate "middle ground" in the all-too-often vitriolic debate over growth. However, given that every advertisement this group has placed has basically been an attack on the Piedmont Environmental Council and advocates of moderate growth, the real objectives seem quite different.
In promoting the amendments to the county's comprehensive plan, the institute claims that developers are offering hundreds of millions of dollars in new roads and other improvements. But let's be frank. It is future residents who will be paying for the bulk of these improvements through yet another tax.
Does anyone believe that accepting the developers' deal is a good idea? Yes, they dangle roads in front of us, but at what price? Building multiple Leesburgs in Fairfax County never alleviated traffic or crime or pollution. It made all of them much worse.
I'd love to know who exactly funds all the full-page, slickly designed color ads. Are there fund drives among all the Loudoun residents just aching for all those tens of thousands of new vehicles to join their commute down Route 50? But I doubt we will ever learn.
Ultimately, growth is inevitable, but Loudoun County does not need to continue to take the lion's share of it while other, more intelligently run jurisdictions protect their residents. We have been one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States for many years now; we have taken our fair share of the D.C. area's growth and then some. There are many counties in the D.C. area. Let's allow the others to share the responsibilities of growth for a change.
Martin Bromser-Kloeden
Philomont
