Letters to the Editor

Texas' educational system worth copying

Regarding the K-16 idea: School Superintendent Pat Hamamoto should look into making sure that the children in elementary school are ready to go on to the next grade.

Texas has a law that if you don't pass a reading and math test, you don't go on to the next grade. We are stationed here in Texas, and the system is unreal. The education my kids are getting is as if I were back home and paying for private school.

Children here have to be 5 when they start school. My first-grader started school when she was 4, turning 5 two weeks later, and she is in a class with kids who are 6 months to a year older than she. I see a big difference in their reading and writing.

So, Pat Hamamoto, please look into Texas' education system for the kids of Hawai'i.

Yvonne Vierra-Criado
Abilene, Texas

Quarantine workers truly care for pets

My small, pampered house dog went through the 30-day quarantine when I moved to Hawai'i in 1998. No, I didn't like having her there, and yes, it was inconvenient and expensive. However, I'm writing to praise the care my dog received during the month she was there.

I visited her every day the facility was open, and even though my arrival times varied, her cage was always clean and she had a full bowl of clean water. As I walked through the facility, I observed that the other cages were clean and the water bowls filled.

Whenever the workers came around, even when they did not have food, my dog was delighted to see them. Clearly they were kind to her. On the day she was released, she strained at her leash in an attempt to greet the workers. Dogs who have been mistreated do not behave this way.

The people working in the office at the quarantine facility were friendly and helpful. When I called to see whether my dog had arrived at the airport from the Mainland, a worker in the holding area reassured me that she was there, drinking water and running around, and would be transferred to quarantine shortly. The folks at quarantine were similarly patient and reassuring when I called to confirm that she was at the Halawa facility.

The check-out process 30 days later was efficient and friendly.

Would I have preferred to avoid quarantine? Of course. But I want to belatedly thank the people who cared for my dog while she was there. It was obvious to me that they truly did care.

Virginia Rose

UH should appoint a woman as new AD

With Hugh Yoshida's official resignation as the University of Hawai'i's athletic director this December, the UH administration will have a rare opportunity to truly demonstrate its commitment to gender equity.

While UH has made significant (though not sufficient) progress toward equaling out the number of athletic scholarships offered for female and male student athletes, one area in which the UH athletic department is lacking is extensive female leadership. Over half of all women's sports teams at UH are head-coached by men (e.g., volleyball, softball, soccer, basketball). This is not to argue that these individuals are poor coaches and should be ousted.

However, it does point to an ongoing national trend in which roughly 50 percent of all women's collegiate sports teams have male head coaches. Do we ever see the reciprocal, in which any men's sporting teams are head-coached by women? Rarely, if ever.

UH does have strong and important female leadership in its athletic department (assistant athletic director Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohano-hano). Still, appointing a qualified and competent female athletic director would truly showcase UH as a national trailblazer in promoting gender equity at the Division 1A level, both in and out of sport.

David T. Mayeda
Student, University of Hawai'i

Dream a bigger dream with Hawai'i Olympics

After watching an inspiring Olympics closing ceremony hosted by Salt Lake City, a vision came to me like thunder in the wind.

Hawai'i, we should host the Summer Olympics in 2010. Imagine, each island creating a world-class facility for a specific event and sharing our gift of the aloha spirit and Hawaiian culture and dance to the world.

To the skeptics who say it cannot be done, I say "Dream a bigger dream." Do you always want to be a pebble in the pond? Remember Einstein's famous words, "Imagination is more powerful than knowledge."

Shhh. ... Do you hear it? It's the thunder.

Michael K. Griffith

Get rid of law school

Regarding "Cuts would hit UH's 'heart' ": I suggest eliminating the law school. Unnecessary from the start, it has been a pet of the legislators. A university cannot be all things.

And, by the way, have you looked in the Yellow Pages lately?

Seymour Katims