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I’m sure the story “His father’s iconic bus, his dream” (Sept. 27) stirred emotions in many readers. I remember the day of the plane crash like yesterday — I was at a conference downtown when it was announced, and there was stunned silence, then soft crying all over the room. Paul Wellstone was such a unique person and U.S. senator. There were probably areas of policy on which I would not agree with him, but he was a person of great integrity and energy and a true public servant. He worked tirelessly to actually create meaningful bipartisan legislation that mattered, and the work that he did with his Republican counterpart, the late Rep. Jim Ramstad (our congressman and a person of equivalent integrity and service ethic), on mental health coverage, addiction treatment and human trafficking served as a model for what was and could be. That is, if the will to do the work is there, if compromise is seen as a positive rather than “caving” — if politicians could stop talking long enough to listen to each other and learn something and if both sides could stop caring about the screaming extremists on both ends and just work for the people they are supposed to serve.
I can’t imagine the loss for his sons, but I hope they know how much difference their father’s work made for so many. Rest in peace, Sen. Wellstone. Perhaps getting the green bus back on the road will give some healing and comfort to his family, and inspire all of us to emulate those qualities that made him special.
Cindy Smith, Edina
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Re-evaluate academic success
The debate over charter schools vs. traditional schools is moot if we judge their success by graduation rates or scores on standardized tests. If we really want to have successful students, we need to re-evaluate how academic success is measured. Let me get the conversation going.
Why have we made a distinction between elementary school and high school for hundreds of years? Any parent of teenagers can tell you that the brains of elementary kids work differently from the brains of high school kids.
Elementary schools teach concrete ideas because elementary kids think concretely. They teach students the things they need to know: numbers, letters, colors, look both ways before you cross the street, be nice to others, and the like. Fortunately, it is easy to test for knowledge: One either knows stuff or one doesn’t.