Readers Write (Sept. 24): Child care workers, end of life, Palestinian statehood, hikers in Iran

I would like to suggest that family child care providers consider promoting their economic interests through a statewide trade association rather than through unionization. Unions represent employees. Trade associations, on the other hand, represent the economic interests of businesses. Family child care providers are businesses. Their economic interests are best promoted through the trade association model, not though unionization. Funding such an association could be accomplished through a "checkoff" fee charged for each child day of service provided. Such mechanisms are common in the agriculture sector.

MORRIS MANNING, SILVER BAY, MINN.

Thanks for publicizing the Honoring Choices Minnesota project about end-of-life issues ("Preparing for life's final stage," Sept. 18). When my 87-year-old mother was dying in a nationally respected hospital in 2010, I was shocked and angry that she was given inadequate pain relief until family members requested more relief for her obvious distress.

She was in a coronary care unit; there was no room in the hospice. When we family members begged for continuous pain relief, it was given inappropriately. This likely prolonged her life in a coma for days, not just hours, causing unnecessary family exhaustion and unnecessary government costs.

Medical facilities, please have someone on hand who can give advice to staff who are not experts on end-of-life care. Family members, advocate for your loved ones at the end of their lives.

JULIE M. EVANS, BLOOMINGTON

They say that Palestine and Israel must negotiate before giving Palestine statehood, but they don't say why. They say Palestine statehood now would lead to bloodshed, but they don't say why. Saying it does not make it so. Even saying it over and over does not make it so. So please tell me why. They say Palestine statehood would result in Israel occupying a sovereign state. What is it that Israel is occupying now?

It surprises me that those in the media call the money paid for the release of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer from an Iranian prison as "bail" when it actually was a ransom ("So happy we are free," Sept. 22).

TIM ABRAHAM, MINNETONKA

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The released hikers caught walking the border between a warring and rogue nation had no business being there in the first place. Iran pocketed some easy ransom money.

Does anybody in the U.S. State Department do any thinking? They must have ways to prevent foolish ventures like that of these hikers.

Steve Chapman is totally disingenuous when he suggests that President Obama should retire, then suggests that Democrats could put up Hillary Clinton for president ("Obama should call it quits. Seriously," Sept. 21). Yes, she could do the job, but Chapman knows full well that the GOP would go after her and her family. She's the person that Republicans love to hate.

GENNA ANDERSON, ST. PAUL

As a retired kindergarten teacher with 34 years in the classroom, I have a mathematical bone to pick with David M. Perlman ("Kids would love math -- if we'd let them," Sept. 21)" He proposes that children ought to be taught math by specialists, as early as the first grade. But very morning in our classrooms, children are taught math in fun and practical ways by a math specialist -- also known as the classroom teacher. We discuss the calendar date, day of the week, and how many days there are until the next holiday or birthday. We chart the weather and make charts to determine how students arrive at school.

I would like Perlman, who describes himself as an experienced math teacher, to go online and view the standards in math for kindergarten to see how much is truly expected of our children. I also invite him to spend some time in any kindergarten class to view how math is taught in meaningful, fun and hands-on ways.

Here is a math problem for this expert to solve that may explain some of the challenges facing our children. When I began teaching kindergarten, I had a full-time aide and 18 students with a budget in excess of $800. When I left, I had a $250 budget, 24 students and no classroom aide. How do those numbers add up?

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Perlman misunderstood his experience as an assistant in a Montessori classroom, where a teacher asked him to take a math material away from a child who wasn't yet ready for it. Montessori math materials offer a method of delving deeply into mathematics in a way that leads to understanding and loving math in a profound and lasting way. They are sequential and are designed to meet a child's mastery of the subject area if offered in the intended order. To give a child a lesson in a material without the foundation of previous materials has the potential to turn a child away from instead of toward a given subject. Trained Montessori teachers have years of training and experience to help them determine when a child is ready for a material.

PAULETTE ZOE, MINNEAPOLIS