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Parents can be too quick to
demand special education

In response to Arthur Choy's Dec. 27 View Point column, I'd like to point out that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Choy wrote that he tells his wife, a special-education teacher, to quit and become a regular classroom teacher, implying that the latter is less stressful.

All teachers -- in Hawaii and on the mainland -- are overburdened with seemingly endless mandated paperwork. I myself have entered the only profession where hard-earned credentials are tucked away in a scrapbook rather than handsomely displayed on the office (aka classroom) walls.

This is my fourth year of teaching at a public elementary school in Washington, D.C. Each year, I come home to Oahu to swap stories with my cousin, a five-year public school elementary classroom teacher herself.

I've found that we face the same day-to-day hardships regarding principals, parents, paperwork and children -- despite the cultural differences and 5,000 miles between us.

But the real point of my letter is this: Do all the labeled special education children truly qualify as needing specialized educational services? Have parents really exhausted every avenue of involvement in the child's academic learning? Or is it more a question of expectations? In some cases, are there any expectations at all?

From my experience of being that "soldier on the front line," there has been a huge increase in IEPs (Individual Education Plans) and, in most cases, the child does not have serious neurological deficits to warrant such services.

In my parents' generation, special educational was for the severely mentally retarded. Now, if a child can't sit still or doesn't grasp a concept in 10 seconds, parents demand a meeting and the special-education process to boot.

Hawaii's Felix Consent Decree, while sincere with intention, empowers parents to shirk from the responsibility of aiding in their child's academic development. In this sense, I believe special-ed teachers are being used and abused more so than regular teachers.

Unless your child has serious neurological deficits, do the work yourself. Save the special-education teachers for those who truly have special needs.

LeeMarie Armstrong
Pearl City

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State should just buy casino in Nevada

Instead of legalizing gambling in Hawaii and taking away tourism money away from our local businesses, the state should look into actually building or purchasing a casino in Las Vegas. Then, it could send the profits back to the islands.

Casinos are bought and sold all the time. What difference does it make to us where the gambling money comes from? This way, we can have the best of both worlds --the money will come in but the crime and unsavory elements will stay out. Worth discussing?

Frank Adolfi
Kailua

Quotables "It's not realistic and stealthy-looking, not coiled as if it's going to strike anybody. It's more playful in design." Clarence Lee HAWAII GRAPHIC DESIGNER Describing the serpent he depicted on the new 34-cent postage stamp celebrating the Year of the Snake in the 2001 lunar calendar "We have to pay for other people's stupidity and ignorance." "Lei" DISGRUNTLED OAHU RESIDENT AND NEW YEAR'S EVE CELEBRANT Complaining about the need to buy a $25 permit at satellite city halls before being able to purchase 5,000 firecrackers for celebratory purposes

High on the spirit of holiday giving

Thanks for printing D. McRae's Dec. 23 letter about how the "12 Days of Christmas" refers to the 12 days it took the Magi (Three Wise Men) to reach Bethlehem after seeing the famous bright star that announced the birth of Jesus.

The song helped inspire me to pen the following variation:

On the Third Day of Christmas,
the Governor gave Hawaii:
Seven medicinal plants
(Four little keiki,
Three filled with buds)
A second set of rules,
And a form for your doctor
to keep you free.

Wally Bachman

10 ways to improve traffic flow on Oahu

In a 1999 Annual Urban Mobility Study conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute, it was estimated that traffic tie-ups on Oahu cost the average driver $510 a year.

I propose 10 simple, efficient, inexpensive and common sense ways to alleviate traffic congestion on Oahu and "speed the flow" without risking hundreds of millions of dollars on a new system like Bus Rapid Transit:

1) Police should have better guidelines to keep traffic moving around accidents on freeways.

2) Designate Piikoi as one-way makai and Pensacola one way mauka, making access on and off H-1 and in and out of the Ala Moana area quick and easy. (This was recommended in a study prepared for OMPO in 1991.) Consider making other streets one way.

3) Is there anticipation of a tank attack in Honolulu? If not, why spend close to $2 million on costly concrete barriers that could stop a tank, like the one at the McCully overpass?

4) Educate inattentive drivers who wait 10-15 car lengths before moving at a green light and who drive under the speed limit. And whatever happened to the police crackdown on blocking intersections? Maybe the "big brother" cameras can bust these scofflaws.

5) Prohibit on-street parking in busy areas such as Ala Moana -- not just during rush-hour periods but on nights and weekends, too.

6) Synchronize more stop lights. Consider seasonal or special event demands and the effect that traffic light timing has during these periods. Install more sensors to detect normal traffic demands, as they work well.

7) Ban more left turns at major intersections during peak traffic hours.

8) Make common sense repairs to freeway ramps.

9) Identify potential problem areas and fix them before they materialize. Only in Hawaii do we close roads for months on end when rocks tumble down cliffs. A specific rock problem currently exists in Makapuu, so fix it now.

10) Eliminate Christmas, Christmas shopping, after-Christmas sales and malls in general. Nah, just kidding. Happy New Year and keep the traffic moving in 2001.

Sen. Fred Hemmings
Member, Oahu Metropolitan
Planning Organization

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