Nation should address

aggression in children
The fact that high levels of aggression in children and poor school performance go together is relevant to the nationwide debate on education. According to author Timothy A. Cavell, “Currently, the prognosis for aggressive children is poor. Services provided by mental health, education and juvenile justice agencies often have little impact on the downward trajectory of aggressive children.”
I found that an effective intervention with exceptionally aggressive ninth-graders was telling these students, still in their formative years, the consequences of their current behavioral course — “a life of crime and a life in jail.” However, I was told that saying such things is “taboo in public education.” By the time it is not taboo, it’s too late.
The consequences affect suburbanites as well as urban communities. Current policies are worse than ineffective. The vast majority of ninth grade mathematics students in urban schools cannot do the simple addition and subtraction they should have learned in grade school. I observed a class taught by a teacher held out to me as a model. I heard him telling students he would give them “100 percent credit” if, in solving a simple equation, they just showed him the steps, even if their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were wrong. This is fraud.
I have found the main reason these students do not know simple addition and subtraction or the steps in solving a simple equation is their refusal to learn, which is part of their aggressive behavior.

Satish Chandra

Cambridge, Mass.

Florida election was a fraud
The findings of the recently announced Florida recounts take on new meaning in light of evidence that Gov. Jeb Bush ordered the striking of thousands of legitimate voters from the rolls just months before the fateful 2000 election, in defiance of two Florida Supreme Court injunctions against it.
In a memo issued Sept. 18, 2000, Bush ordered counties to require
ex-felons to file for restoration of civil rights, a direct violation of both a Florida statute and the Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause, which requires every state to accept the legal rulings of other states. Bush was asking ex-felons to apply for clemency to restore the voting rights they already had. A documented 13,141 voters were wrongfully purged from the rolls, and an estimated additional 50,000 to 100,000 were struck as well.
Recount or not, given the 500-vote margin of difference between Bush and Gore in the official election results, the implications of Gov. Bush’s illegal orders are clear: The Florida election was fraudulent, and the Bush “victory” is highly suspect.
It is a travesty that this occurred and an outrage that the mainstream media has not brought these facts to light, so the people could put pressure on Congress to demand a full federal investigation. This is the real Election 2000 story, and until the “powers-that-ought-not-be” and the illegal acts they are willing to commit to secure and remain in power are exposed, our country is the poorer.

Char Heitman

Eugene