Letters
Joseph, Kenya, and More to Africa
Very touching piece about the Kenyan (“The Leaps of Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton,” winter 2006 – 2007), especially since part of his current success might be directly attributed to his stay at your venerable institution.
My lamentation, however, is the closing line in which the author (who joins a distressingly large number of Western — most likely American — writers) is apparently unable to separate the sovereign government of Kenya from the other approximately 51 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and, as a result, she writes of your Kenyan graduate as “part of the hope of Africa.”
How reassuring such a “hope” must be to these and other like-minded writers. Better reassurance: suggest he is one of the future leaders of Kenya — how about that for an upbeat closing line to the piece? Meanwhile, Africa with all of its countries, both above and below the Sahara, continues to be the second largest continent on the planet.
I do not indict such Harvard-allowed writers; I simply lament their clear and obvious deficiency.
Jim Scott
managing partner, Jensco International
Brookline, Mass.
When we were looking for a school for our son, the Langley School was high on our list based on its great reputation, though financially and logistically it would mean sacrifices from our family. What sealed it for us was probably my meeting Joseph while sitting in the admissions office. I had been thumbing through school photo albums noticing the pictures of students in Africa just as the man from these photos, with a huge smile, stopped to introduce himself. His enthusiasm for his students and his love of teaching were so evident that I thought we couldn’t go wrong sending our son to this school.
We will always be grateful for the education and life experience we received due to Joseph’s love of teaching. His incredible desire to make connections between the people of the United States and those in Kenya have benefited both nations.
We, too, had the unforgettable experience of traveling with him to Kenya. We were amazed by the dignity in the children and adults who had nothing. Not once were we asked for money but for pens. These were needed to do schoolwork.
The story I like to share with my friends was when Joseph asked a combined group of Langley students and those from the nomadic school, “What is a bad day for you?” Our children with answers such a losing a soccer game or [having] too much homework. The nomadic children answered with “going home and seeing nothing on the fire, which meant there would be no food for dinner.” This certainly put things in perspective for many of us. The world needs more Joseph Lekutons.
Mary Jane Gutkowski
Geography’s Lessons
In reading the Winter 2006 – 2007 issue of Ed., I was surprised to read in Lory Hough’s otherwise fine article, “Don’t Know Much About Geography,” the following: “In May 2004, he spoke before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences about the beheading of Nick Berg, an American contractor, and Daniel Pearl, an American journalist, both in Iraq.” Hough should know better. Daniel Pearl was brutally murdered in Pakistan, not Iraq. How sad that in an article on geographic illiteracy, the author should provide us with just such an example of that illiteracy.
Stephen Feinberg, M.A.T.’72
Editor’s Note
Stephen Feinberg is indeed correct. Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and eventually killed in Karachi, Pakistan, not Iraq, as originally reported.
I’m not surprised at your statistics in this article. I’m a high school math teacher but currently teach at a parochial school in Uvalde, Tex. I have had the best year in my [eight-year] teaching career.
Today, the entire state of Texas was administering the TAKS test while I was teaching my fourth-grade students how to measure out a sheet of paper into nine equidistant sections using a ruler, teaching my fifth-grade students the properties of magnetism and why the earth acts as a magnet and auroras are produced, teaching my fifth-grade students about capacity in mathematics (and they showed me Mr. Gallon: something they learned in third grade), and having so much fun teaching them about Tenochtitlan, as one of my students couldn’t sit down since she was so excited that our triops had hatched!
It’s amazing how much I have been able to teach my fifth-graders this year and how much math my fourth-graders have learned! I wouldn’t trade this job for the world. It’s a shame not more teachers
feel the same way.
My decision to work at Sacred Heart Catholic School was not an easy one, but I will never look back, and I do know in my heart that I made the right decision.
Just thought you’d like to know what teachers like myself think about all this testing. I care enough about my teaching and about my students to know that I have something far better to offer them than what states think I need to be doing every minute of every day. I’m a smart girl. I owe that to other teachers who taught me well. It’s the least I can do for them for all the hard work I now see they had to do.
Deyanira Salazar
Sacred Heart Catholic School
Uvalde, Texas
Cheating the Cheevers
I’m enjoying the winter issue of Ed. very much. It’s always rewarding to have something to read by Howard Gardner. I was fascinated with the “Last Look” piece about the HGSE shield but disappointed that you didn’t single out John Cheever, Susan’s father, as one of Ezekiel’s prominent descendants. John is one of the most esteemed novelists and short story writers of his, or any, generation.
Chris Jennison
publisher, Guilford Press
New York, N.Y.
Editor’s Note
In the last issue, in the story about Sally Schwager’s class, The History of Women’s Education in the United States, we mistakenly reported the year the Massachusetts legislature overturned school board policies that banned married women from teaching (Chapter 244 of the Acts of 1953). The law was approved on April 10, 1953, not 1955.
