Home-schooled children tend to score higher on tests

Your article on home schooling asserts that Alaska is alone among the states in allowing parents to home-school their children without notifying governmental authorities. ("Making the grade?", Sept. 13.) That is incorrect.

According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, which keeps close tabs on state regulation of home education, Alaska is one of 10 states that imposes no burden on parents to notify the state if they want to home-school their children -- no paperwork, no phone call, no notice of any kind. Most of the other states have only a low or moderate level of home-school regulation. No state forbids it.

Your article implies that Alaskans could sleep easier at night if state bureaucrats tracked and monitored all home-schooled children. Why should that be the case? A recent national study showed that home-schooled children, on average, are scoring 37 percentile points higher than public school students on standardized achievement tests. Are conventionally schooled children benefiting from being constantly monitored, tracked, graded, grouped, labeled, shuffled and reshuffled by agents of the state?

-- Robert Holland

senior fellow for Education Policy

The Heartland Institute

Chicago

Newspaper's bias was obvious in story about political protest

Could the Daily News have displayed its bias any better ("Protesters tote guns, slogans," Sept. 13)? And I quote "Reflecting irate rhetoric of right-wing dissidents nationally ... ".

If you had done half the research necessary to write an honest article reporting the facts, then this would have failed to make its way into your column. What happened to reporting and keeping the personal bias out of it?

I would hardly call those two people you mentioned having guns a gun-toting crowd either. Was that the only picture you could find? It sure served your purpose, didn't it? Although, I could find more guns at a local gathering on any given day right now. Let me know when you need a good gun-toting picture next time.

Thanks to ADN for allowing such "rhetoric" to grace its pages, I will never have another copy of the paper in my home, nor will many regular subscribers I know. Way to go!

-- Katherine Covey

Ninilchik

Private schools offer academic catapult, not 'safety net'

I was pleased to learn of the Step Up program described in your Sept. 15 article, "Last chance school." The program strikes me as a much-needed option, and I hope it will be used by many young people to turn their lives around. However, I must take issue with the list of options described as "every safety net in the system." Private schools should not be grouped along with "government agencies" and "court-ordered treatments" as part of this safety net. While there are some private schools that cater to troubled students, the vast majority of private schools attract students by offering families an opportunity for academic excellence in a setting that supports their values. Private schools are not a safety net but more of a catapult, a vehicle for families who are seeking to provide their children with the greatest opportunity for future school and life success.

-- Mark Niedermier

head of school, Pacific Northern Academy

Anchorage

Psychiatric institutions can make PTSD worse

On Sept. 16, ADN printed a column by Elise Patkotak, "More options needed to treat mentally ill." We would like to add more information.

The first rule of medicine: "do no harm." Up to 47 percent of patients entering an acute care psychiatric facility experience trauma that may cause or exacerbate post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a South Carolina study by Karen J. Cusack and others. PTSD is associated with nearly the highest rate of medical and mental health service use. Some of the trauma experienced by patients in acute care settings is preventable and very few patients are offered timely treatment for the trauma.

The Alaska Supreme Court in 2005 stated there is a clear, unavoidable tension between psychiatric institutions seeking convenience, economics and patient rights, which can manifest itself into patient abuse. Translation: Psychiatric institutions have a tendency to take shortcuts that harm patients.

There is no program that will guarantee that a psychiatric patient will recover. But as a society, we can change the playing field so as to give patients every opportunity for recovery and support the first rule, "Do no harm."

-- Faith Myers and Dorrance Collins

mental health advocates

Anchorage

Jefferson's wise words in 1816 can provide comfort today

I hope some of the readers out there will gain some insight from this excerpt of a letter to John Adams from Thomas Jefferson in 1816.

"You ask if I would agree to live my 70 or rather 73 years over again? To which I say yea. I think with you that it is a good world on the whole, and that it has been framed on a principle of benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are indeed (who might say nay) gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present and despairing of the future, always counting that the worst will happen. To these I say how much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened? My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern."

These words should resonate with the current condition of the world.

-- Ray Kelley

Palmer

Depression sufferer feels for Mayo, others fighting demons

Thank you for exposing the horrors of the mental illness Mr. Mayo ("Damaged and discharged: a soldier on edge") is facing as a result of his time at war. I have suffered from depression my entire life and most recently voluntarily admitted myself to the Mental Health Unit at Providence. I am a working artist, wife, mother of two, friend, neighbor and typically gregarious and outgoing person.

I have wanted to end my suffering; I have been with the demons and would not wish the pain on my greatest enemy. I have also taken all of the types of medication Mr. Mayo is currently taking and regardless of their role in the accusation of shoplifting, any one of them can make anyone lose his or her mind just as fast as they can help you find it again.

My heart goes out to this man and his family and for your willingness to bring an edgy subject forward.

-- Marieke Heatwole

Anchorage

Rep. Wilson deserves to win 'Gold Jerk Medal of Universe' I am writing in response to the outburst Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina made during a speech to Congress. He called out, "You lie," to the president of the United States of America. Just because someone changes his or her mind on a subject does not qualify him or her as a liar. If we read the Holy Bible, even God changed his mind in many instances. We are true witness of that because we are still here. So, this does not make God a liar, but it shows kindness and mercy.

Therefore, I don't understand how a person with this kind of unprofessional language became a senator of South Carolina. This shows how this country is going on a flashback on racism. I will never vote for a person with such low caliber and indecency. I am sorry but this guy should win the "Gold Jerk Medal of the Universe."

-- Alfredo Velazquez

Juneau

ADVERTISEMENT