Letter-writer John M.J. Madey deplores your editorial support for the contemplated University of Hawaii budget cuts (”;UH budget cuts threaten future,”; Star-Bulletin, Letters, Dec. 29). I, however, support the position set out in your editorial (”;UH faculty needs to grasp reality,”; Dec. 27).

Madey claims that the only way that we can acquire the necessary skills to master the problems we face (climate change, economic competitiveness, security—and perhaps more) is through our system of education.

I think Madey is flat wrong. Our entire system of education, almost across the board, has failed and continues to fail to produce creative men and women to address the issues Madey has in mind.

I invite Mr. Madey to read some cutting-edge material on how and why our system of education has failed and continues to fail. Sir Ken Robinson is a good place to begin. John Medina's “;Brain Rules”; is another. Tony Wagner's book “;The Global Achievement Gap”; also has much to offer.

In my view, university professors are not sacred cows to be exempted from the fiscal ax in these very trying times.

The present crisis may well be a huge opportunity to take a close look at just what our entire system of education, the university system included, does, and whether it is in fact delivering the “;necessary skills”; that so excite Mr. Madey.

If the entire system of “;higher education”; were to close down for a whole year, I do not think the world in which we live would suddenly collapse. In fact, I think closing the entire UH system down for a whole year would be a good thing—it would be an unprecedented opportunity for many of us to look at just whether university “;education”; is all that people like Mr. Madey claims that it is cracked up to be.

Just imagine how much money would be saved if the entire UH system were closed for a year. Thousands of students would be freed from the shackles having to take boring courses from boring professors, and might teach themselves a lot that they might not otherwise have learned. And the sight of hundreds of university faculty and staff standing in line to collect unemployment benefits would cut these people down to the size of ordinary mortals—if just for a while.

This, I suggest with great respect, is worth thinking about—though it might be a minority opinion.

I trust that you good people at the Star-Bulletin have little difficulty in handling minority opinions and affording them a small niche in what has so far been rather a tame and unimaginative debate.