Commentary
GLAD HEARTS
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
We write to express our appreciation for the Martha’s Vineyard community’s support of our daughter, Virginia, during her life, and for its recognition of her inspiring qualities following her death on Oct. 5.
I come from a family of wavers. We wave at each other (brothers, aunts, sisters in law), acquaintances (neighbors, businessfolk, fishermen), and strangers (you know who you are). I also come from a town of wavers. Pittsfield, though geographically located in Massachusetts, shares more personality traits with Fort Wayne than it does with Boston. Waving, then, is not only in my blood, it’s in my brain as well.
In this wild and scary world there are numerous challenges facing teachers. There are so many aspects to being an effective teacher that begin with mastering content and developing a strategy for how to teach it, meeting ever-increasing state mandates, dealing with the mass of paperwork and finally, meeting the learner in the classroom. There is the curriculum, mandated and explicable, but then there is the hidden curriculum reinforcing inequities and socio-economic differences and based on some abstract idea that there is a regular learner.
Last week nearly 500 religious communities around the country screened the movie Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, a film that raises such questions as: how did torture become an accepted practice at Abu Ghraib and what governmental policies allowed it to happen? Here on the Island, it was shown at the Hebrew Center on Oct. 24 in a jointly sponsored, interfaith program by local religious communities. Why screen a film about the torture of political prisoners perpetrated three years ago, in prisons halfway around the globe, and for which several of the perpetrators have already been tried?
We are this week’s editors for Sophomores Speak Out. We are sophomore members of the class of 2010. This week we have a range of topics. All of our writers have strong opinions: Abbey Etner is passionate about dancing, Troy writes about Island restaurants, Haley Pierce explores the motivations for kids to do their work, and Jesse Shayne is excited about the Celtics. All these students chose to write about things that are a part of their lives. We hope readers enjoy.
— BreAnne Russell and Troy (85) Small
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We Love Food
Preservation vs. Legal Nightmare
As the clamor grows louder in Oak Bluffs around the Veira Park baseball project, a few key points are important to keep in mind.
It is not illegal for the town to spend money to restore its Little League Park, and Oak Bluffs voters have twice said yes to the project, first at the annual town meeting last April and again at a special town meeting this summer. Voters also approved spending money from their town Community Preservation Act fund to pay for the project.