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About The Hood River news. (Hood River, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 2015)
A4 V IEWPOINT Hood River News, Wednesday, January 14, 2015 O ur readers write JOE PETSHOW Publisher/President, Eagle Newspapers, Inc. CHELSEA MARR General Manager JODY THOMPSON Advertising Manager DICK NAFSINGER Publisher, Emeritus (1933-2011) TOM LANCTOT Past President, Eagle Newspapers, Inc. KIRBY NEUMANN-REA Editor TONY METHVIN Columbia Gorge Press Manager DAVID MARVIN Production Manager Subscription $42 per year in Hood River trade area. $68 outside trade area. NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION Printed on OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION recycled paper. Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County Published Every Wednesday & Saturday by Hood River News, P.O. Box 390, Hood River, Oregon 97031 • (541) 386-1234 • FAX 386-6796 Member of the Associated Press Game time Not the Ducks, but the House and Senate T he two squads will go head-to-head in a con- test of strength and strategy. Heads will butt, sweat will pour and per- haps even some blood will flow, and support- ers will fill the seats paying close attention to the gritty maneuvers by rivals on both sides of the … floor. No, we’re not talking about Duck football anymore. We’ve witnessed that frustrating contest, in which we learned that Mr. Jones, Cardale, is the Real Deal, and a man who goes by Zeke is not the punchline, but the puncher of linemen. Marcus Mariota’s future re- mains the big question, but otherwise our month-long football obsession can settle into the background along with the buckets of Buckeye confetti. Can we focus on another bruising test of wills? The Oregon Legislature is about to back in session, and Ohio State is the least of our concerns now. The 2015 Session’s pre-game ceremony was Monday, with Gov. John Kitzhaber’s fourth inauguration and the swearing in of Oregon legislators including Hood River’s Sen. Chuck Thomsen and Rep. Mark Johnson. Congratulations to those gentlemen who survived tough challenges from able opponents in November and deservedly return for another term in Salem. On laptops and chalkboards, coaches from both sides of the aisle are preparing for stiff competition over minimum wage, transportation funding, educa- tion reform, and how the state will make sense of en- acting and enforcing the dramatic changes in marijua- na laws. Then there is the entire matter of how well the Legislature chooses to fund education, P-20: pre-school through grad-school, the new game plan under Kitzhaber’s work-in-progress education strategy. Will Oregonians pay as much attention to that as they did to the Oregon Duck gridders’ glorious 2014-15 run? The whole Ducks-Bucks lead-up and even the game were fun (despite the outcome) and rallying behind Mark Helfrich’s lads gave Oregonians something to share. Taking nothing away from that heady experi- ence, however, the real test of our togetherness starts in two weeks in Salem. Will the sense of unity of the past few weeks carry into what is sure to be a con- tentious session in Salem? With more than 1,400 proposed bills introduced Monday, Democrats and Republicans have started doing a virtual taping up and reviewing of film as they prepare for what is sure to be a tussle kicking off Feb. 2, with a lot more on the line than a football game held in Texas. Cold nights, warm bed I got involved with the Hood River Warming Shelter program last year as a volunteer. It is one of those ex- periences that just leaves you feeling good. To be able to offer someone a warm cot on a cold night is a small thing to those of us with our own beds. But getting a chance to be warm and dry for awhile is every- thing to them. There are a variety of shifts available starting in the early evening. My personal choice is the late night when all I need to do is be there in a comfortable chair with my book and computer. There is Wifi available. All that is required is a lit- tle generosity of spirit. Please con- tact the Site Coordinators at hoodrivercares@gmail.com for more information. Marg Guth Hood River A vision of peace What an inspiration it was this Sunday to see the people in Paris and France join together to say, “Je Suis Charlie!” This was a sponta- neous people’s march — people of different faiths and ethnic back- grounds, the “silent majority” — more than 2.5 million people who came out on the street to show their unity. People like us. It was a wonderful image, a vision to hold on to — all people working to- gether in peace, standing for free- dom with respect for others. Even though we may not see each other out on the street, I believe, the ma- jority of us share this vision. That it will live on in our imagination in the coming years. Lawrence Jones Hood River Good job, Obama News flash: I am not a fan of Obama, but that being said, it gets me when the news media blasts Obama for not going to Paris to support France after the shootings. I did not see French or any of the leaders of any other nation stand- ing on US soil after 911, so I say good job Mr. President. Jim Burdick Parkdale Standardized testing a disservice Standardized testing in schools has become increasingly harmful to your children and your public schools for reasons including un- warranted stress on children, loss of instructional time, and narrow- ing of curriculum. Recently, Super- intendent Goldman extolled the virtues of Common Core Stan- dards and Smarter Balance stan- dardized tests. If he had stopped with Common Core, I wouldn’t be writing. Since these standards are new, teachers’ opinions are still de- veloping. In general, though, teach- ers support and maintain high standards for students — provided they are developmentally appropri- ate. However, the overwhelming ma- jority of educators working direct- ly w i t h ch i l d re n b e l i eve o u r decades long experiment in high stakes standardized testing is not only a complete failure but also harmful to children — so harmful that some Hood River teachers are taking the extraordinary step of exempting their own children from testing. Supt. Goldman states he is “will- ing to be disturbed if it means [he] can help our children succeed later on.” The problem with this state- ment is that there is absolutely no evidence these new tests — any more than the previous tests — will help our children succeed. What we know for certain, howev- er, is that we now spend more time assessing our students and less time instructing. I hear from our high school that we set aside 16 hours for each student to complete testing. For the fourth graders I teach, we anticipate 6 to 8 hours. Additionally, there will be test-tak- ing practice, and administration has other assessments for even more practice. It is likely that by the end of the year, an elementary student will spend more time prac- ticing and taking standardized tests than in PE or Music. The amount of time, money, and effort we put into standardized testing is truly disturbing, and a huge dis- service to our children. We agree wholeheartedly with Supt. Goldman regarding the lack of resources. Oregon ranks 46th lowest in funding relative to GDP. If we aspire to lofty standards, pol- icymakers need to be serious about providing adequate resources. If you desire more information on exempting your child from har mful standardized testing, email o p t o u t h o o d r iv - er@gmail.com. Kelvin Calkins President, Hood River Education Association Hood River Standardized tests not working In his Jan. 6 Another Voice letter, (Superintendent) Dan Goldman left out that the Common Core State Standards were designed, in part, to circumvent federal restrictions on the adoption of a national curricu- lum, hence the insertion of the word “state” in the brand name. States were coerced into adopting the Common Core by requirements attached to the federal Race to the Top grants and, later, the No Child Left Behind waivers. For an eye-opening and historical review of how and why the Common Core was created and adopted, in- cluding a thorough look at the impli- cations for our children, read “The Problems with the Common Core” by Stan Karp, found on rethink- ingschools.org. This article is one of many that sheds light on the politics behind the top down, market-driven engine driving the Common Core, including details on who created it, the billionaire-financed marketing campaign in support of it, its long- term funding credibility and much more. After a decade of testing showing that millions of students could not meet the NCLB standards, the founders of Common Core have fur- ther increased standards, putting our most vulnerable students (Eng- lish learners, learning disabled, etc.) at risk. It is a myth that more rigor equates to more or better learning as Fairtest.org offers: “If a child struggles to clear the high bar at five feet, she will not become a ‘world class’ jumper because someone raised the bar to six feet and yelled ‘jump higher,’ or if her ‘poor’ perfor- mance is used to punish her coach.” While the Common Core curricu- lum itself may be fresh and relevant to today’s children, it will be the high-stakes testing that will eventu- ally lead Common Core down the fa- miliar path of NCLB. Pay close at- tention and do your own research. If you feel that high-stakes standard- ized testing is not right for your child, remember that you have the legal right to opt-out in Oregon. “Opting-out” is when a par- ent/guardian chooses to have a child not take the state standardized test, without personal penalty. For details on how to opt-out and instead have your child assessed in a d i f f e r e n t w ay, l o g o n t o OptOutOregon.org. There you will find answers to many questions you may have about the conse- quences of opting out. Karen Ford Hood River Budget solutions Superintendent Dan Goldman’s commentary about the Common Core Standards was both informa- tive and upbeat in explaining the positive and necessary aspects of this progressive education reform. I fully agree that students need to process information and not merely memorize facts. However, I found the portion of the commentary quite disappoint- ing. In his second year as superin- tendent, Mr. Goldman has already played the budget card to explain our district’s academic performance woes. This explanation has grown quite old over the years. As I taxpay- er and father, I find it both disre- spectful and unprofessional. Our education budget has been re- duced annually for a decade and this is a trend will likely continue. I find it unacceptable that the highly-edu- cated and well-paid people responsi- ble for our children’s futures cannot work harder to come up any new ideas. Our district continues to pass children who fail to meet grade stan- dards, tolerates excessively rude and disruptive behavior, and continues to reward students for the smallest positive behaviors. Meanwhile, teachers’ hands are tied to appropri- ately discipline repeat offenders. In- stead, they are forced to spend their days redirecting and correcting be- haviors, which should have been learned years ago. How do these things affect the budget? Teachers, counselors, and principals are forced to devote valu- able time to meet with parents, de- velop behavior plans, fill out count- less forms, and communicate repeat- edly with parents through emails and phone calls to address these stu- dents’ special needs. Maybe we could start by address- ing some of the aforementioned problems and teachers can get back to teaching. Steve Kaplan Hood River Every single soldier: looking for photos to help honor Vietnam fallen My name is Janna Hoehn. I am a 25 year resident of Maui, Hawaii. Six years ago, my husband and I made our first trip to Washington, D.C. Because Vietnam was the war that was going on while I was in high school, the first memorial on my list was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Even though I never knew anyone killed in Vietnam, I wanted an rubbing of one of the names. I approached the Wall and choose a name ... Gregory John Crossman ... an MIA. When I returned home, I decid- ed to research Gregory and try to find his family, in the event they were never able to go to the Wall, I would send them the etch- ing, hoping they would share a photo with me of Gregory. Off and on for six months I researched every way possible and never found any family. I was quite disappointed, but I had one more possibility: my cousin, our family historian. Six weeks later, she found a college photo of Gregory. Two years later I saw a story on our local news about the “Faces Never Forgotten” for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. The goal, to put a face with every name that is etched on the Wall. I immediately sent in the photo I had of Gregory Crossman. Five days later I received an email from Jan Scruggs, the Founder and President of the Vietnam Wall. He thanked me for sending the photo. It was the first for this Soldier. He asked me if I could help him find the photos for the 42 Maui County Soldiers that were killed in Vietnam. I told him it would be an honor. I have always hoped I could to do something for the Vietnam Vet- erans as the way they were treated when they returned. Here was my chance. What I thought would be a very easy pro- ject, with Maui being so small, was any- thing but easy. I started by combing the phone books, calling every like name of each soldier, and I found about 10 of them this way. Then off to archived yearbooks for every high school on Maui, I found a few more; to the library to look for obitu- aries, where I found 3 more; and to the Maui News. They printed a beautiful front page article about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the Education Center. I started receiving calls from all over the United States sending me photos. I was un- aware how many people read the Maui News online. The Maui News ran an arti- cle about every six weeks printing the list PHOTOS NEEDED Janna Hoehn seeks photos of the following local men: Keith Perkins, 1942-1967, Hood River Rudy L. Baldon, 1946-1969, Hood River Charles W. Bauman,1936-1966, Maupin of names of photos I still needed. Every time they ran a story, I would re- ceive another photo or two. After six months of searching, I had a photo of every Solider from Maui County. Once I had all the photos I decided I did not want to keep this to myself. I needed to share it with Maui County. I had a display made with all 42 photos, and I take it all over roes’ stories and sacrifice will never be for- gotten. My plea is this: If anyone is related, a friend or a classmate to any of the young men on the list I would very much appre- ciate hearing from you. Even if you don’t have a photo but know which school any of these young ■ men attended, it I have been would be so help- very involved in ful. We need to ob- trying to locate tain a photo of photos of the Na- every single sol- tive American sol- dier whose names diers, which are etched on The brought me to Wall, all 58,300 of star t searching them. To date we for ALL soldiers have over 38,000 Submitted photo in Califor nia. photos. Over 60 newspa- VIETNAM WALL photo curator Janna Hoehn with a I am also look- pers have run the portion of her photo display. ing for an individ- story throughout ual that would Califor nia. The like to volunteer response has been amazing, I have collect- to do some footwork in your community if ed over 1100 photos since May 2013. With we do not find all the photos. your help it will be more. Please submit any photos or informa- All of these photos will be submitted to tion to Janna Hoehn at: the “Wall of Faces” online memorial with neverforgotten2014@gmail.com the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, as For more information about the Educa- well as in the future Education Center that tion Center or make a donation to help will be adjacent to the Vietnam Wall in build the Center go to: Washington, D.C. www.vvmf.org/thewall Putting a face with a name changes the Mahalo, whole dynamic of the Wall. It keeps these Janna Hoehn soldiers alive and will honor them, our he- Maui giving presentations to high schools, libraries and civic groups. It has been very well received. Once I finished finding all the Maui County photos, I moved on to my home- town in Califor- nia and found the six soldiers from my childhood home, Hemet and San Jacinto, Calif.
