Discipline students, not teachers who try
THE TIERRA Antigua Elementary School principal who placed a teacher on administrative leave and wrote apology letters to parents concerning that teacher’s actions regarding two students was wrong. Instead, the principle should have written a letter to the parents regarding their children’s inappropriate behavior and congratulate the teacher on her ingenious action to try to get the two boys to get along.
No one was hurt, no handcuffs (were used) and perhaps it worked. But now the intervention of the principal may have reversed that — children will be more emboldened knowing teachers’ hands are now “cuffed.” It’s time to get back to basic discipline rules and let these teachers teach them.
Key Jones, Santa Fe
Carbon capture is a false climate fix
THE EPA has just published new power-plant emission rules. The goal of these rules is to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from our country’s coal-fired power plants by 2040. As the result of funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, the EPA may be tempted to utilize carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a mechanism to achieve the desired reductions. The EPA needs to recognize that this is a false solution.
CCS technology has been evaluated in a variety of settings, and it has been found to be economically unworkable. An example is the Petro Nova project located near Houston, Texas. This CCS facility was not successful, even though the captured carbon dioxide was injected into the ground to recover petroleum. Currently, the only successful method for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants is to shut them down. This is likely to be true for the foreseeable future.
Ronald Parry, Silver City
Democracy, populism, new editor’s challenge
THANK YOU, Journal editors, for journalistic excellence in your May 10 front-page article headlined “How will border surge impact NM?” It reports and explains possible answers to the question it poses, and in a manner that encourages discussion. Such discussions are vital to democracy. This is different than modern populism, where people take shallow opposing views and stick to them — then the view with the most supporters is hailed.
Democracy is not as simple as the click of a “like” or “dislike” button, then presto!, once tallied the pat, right solutions to our problems are known.
Democracy involves thought, consideration of multiple possibilities and collaboration. Also realizing when one has made a miscalculation, backing off and looking at it differently.
Journalism is necessary in keeping us informed of current situations and how others are addressing them. I personally find printed, paper journalism preferable because it’s easier to slow down and contemplate articles I consider important and skip over what I consider irrelevant, although I’m glad to be aware of what I’m skipping. Then I get to think while handily flipping the pages back and forth, reexamining articles. There’s something viscerally satisfying about the printed page!
Amidst heavy, dark, and harrowing news I particularly welcome refreshing accounts of nature and animals, such as squirrels playing in a park. It helps keep all the pondering in perspective. I never skip over those articles.
We each consider different things to be important, and for different reasons. One major issue facing us today is which journalistic sources to trust. It is something for each of us to weigh and to learn to spot patterns of integrity.
Welcome to new Albuquerque Journal editor Patrick Ethridge, and best wishes for meeting the ongoing challenge of integrity.
Linda Bairstow, Albuquerque
