Departments : Letters :
Letters April 2007
Our readers speak out
The lasting impact of sharing
I had an article in your wonderful magazine in February 1995 ("How I Shared Lessons in Life During Daily Story,"), and it opened a healing door I never expected. The article was about losing my 16-year-old son, and the importance of sharing this life event with my class. I cannot believe how many friends I have made since the publication of that article. I received over 50 letters from other teachers; one teacher from Tennessee even visited me. There were a lot of teachers out there who needed some healing, too.
Pam Schluter
Wareham, MA
Climate-diet debate
I think Kay Berglund Newhouse needs to rethink the message she gives to students ("Our Changing Climate," February 2007). The box in her article titled "What We Can Do" encourages people to "eat a vegetarian meal." I have problems with teachers promoting something that has minimal impact. Yes, animals produce manure, resulting in methane, but so does rice. Should her students not eat rice? Landfills are the largest source of methane emissions in the United States. Should we stop dumping garbage? The biggest impact the students can have on reducing emissions is to rely less on fossil fuel combustion. Have them research how they can reduce their use of fossil fuels.
Monica Pastor
Mesa, Arizona
Kay Berglund Newhouse responds:
The gas methane (CH4) is indeed produced by landfills, and reducing your contributions to landfills, as Ms. Pastor suggests, is another excellent way to reduce your impact on global warming: Reduce how much you buy, consider composting and increase how much you reuse or recycle. In the United States, CH4 production from landfills is roughly equivalent to that of ruminant digestion and manure handling (at least it was in 2003, the most recent year that EPA cites: www.epa.gov/methane/sources.html).
In addition, a meat-based meal uses more than 10 times as much fossil fuel as a plant-based meal. So, a vegetarian diet drastically reduces carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, too. Think about it this way: You're not only consuming the cow; you're also "consuming" the grain the cow ate, and all the pesticides, fertilizers and farm machinery that went into producing both the cow and what it ate.
One of the things I try to do is empower students to investigate and make decisions of their own. Thinking about food choices from an environmental standpoint is a new area of exploration for many of us, and has more power than we may realize.
Prehistoric praise
I teach fifth grade and I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed Maryann Manning's article in the February 2007 issue of Teaching K-8 ("Oral Reading Dinosaurs"). I especially enjoyed her mention of the Fastaraptor syndrome. It really seems to be an issue these days. I receive many students who read fluently, but have no comprehension skills. Your article also enlightened me to the Toomucharasaurus. I tend to fall into that category! I will try to do better in that area. Thanks again for a wonderful article. I look forward to reading many more.
Jon Johnson
via e-mail
April, 2007, Vol.37, No.7
