Hanover Principal Helped Us
I would like to thank the many Hanover teachers and administrators who have helped my family during the last two years. I am humbled by their kindness and outstanding skills in helping my children and encouraging them to reach their full potential.
One of these people was Matt Laramie. Our family has known Matt for over a decade. When I transitioned my children into the public schools, he was a friendly and kind face to welcome two of my youngest into the Ray School. He did a wonderful job and my children adored him as their principal.
My heart breaks for the way my town has dealt with allegations about use of a school professional development account. Do we not care about people? Do we have any compassion in us to deal with supposed missteps without destroying people? I am ashamed of what we have done to this incredibly kind-hearted, amazing principal.
Do we really want to be known as a town where people’s lives are destroyed? I question the seeming lack of common sense approaches to problem-solving.
Laura Lindsay
Hanover
Sexism Isn’t Funny in Comics
Newspaper comic strips, as well as other media, reflect the embedded norms of our culture. Two comic strips that ran in the April 30 Valley News are misogynist enough to make me steam. Both trivialize the objectification of female bodies. The first, Hagar the Horrible, makes light of sex trafficking. The second strip I’m writing about is Shoe. Here are the dialogues.
Hagar: “I’m back from plundering the rich sultan of Persia!” Helga: “Did you get enough?” Hagar: “There’s never enough!” Helga (angrily): “I’ll be the judge of that!” In this final panel, the smiling Hagar stands in the doorway of their home, flanked by two curvaceous, scantily clad, smiling young women.
Skyler (next to Cosmo, who is watching TV): “What’re you watching?” Shoe: “Women’s beach volleyball.” Skyler: “Who’s winning?” Shoe: “Who cares?”
Occasionally, rather than letting such reprehensible aggressions slide by, I find myself compelled to speak up. This is one such instance.
Peggy Richardson
Hartford
Co-Op Job Has Worked for Me
I work in the Hanover Co-op’s produce department and want to share my experiences with the community. It is really important that Co-op members and the public know that my experience in eight-plus years of work here is totally different from claims of widespread worker mistreatment that some supporters of Concerned About the Co-op have mentioned.
When I started in the dairy department, I quickly realized that the Co-op is different from your run-of-the-mill grocery store, because for starters, my manager took the time to invest in me, and helped me rise to dairy supervisor within a few years. I then made the mistake of leaving for another company, and after only six months applied to return to the Co-op. Hanover store manager Steve Miller thought enough of my past performance to rehire me in an entry-level position in produce. I proved myself again by proactive learning in this new department, and moved up to team leader in two years.
Co-op management’s approach to training and advancing staff has helped me qualify for steady advancement, and I am grateful. Examples: I have attended two seminars for leadership development and am a member of our Leadership Committee for Culture Change.
Management here does care about the employees and continually takes steps to make working at the Co-op more enjoyable, including internal training to hold managers at all levels accountable to the code of conduct that they sign when they accept a supervisory position.
The Concerned About the Co-op group’s misrepresentations seem to stem not from employees, but from people who have no idea what happens on a daily basis. They claim to be speaking up for the Co-op workforce, but they are very wrong and the staff is tired of it. We come to work every day and still love our jobs. We care about this company, and I take a stand by speaking up.
I have 40 more years of work ahead, and I plan on being here for all of them. When the next election comes around, I may even run for a seat on the board.
John Holmes
Hartland
Illiteracy in the Schools
Twelve years ago, there was a front-page article in a local newspaper revealing how a ninth-grader learned to read and write in four months after receiving tutoring from a 12th-grader. I put these two together. Every afternoon, after classes, they worked their magic.
For more than 20 years, I have written letters to the editor exposing the disgraceful tacit acceptance of illiteracy by American educators. I have suggested a simple test that would identify non-learners. I hoped someone would contact me. No one cares. Those kids were losers then and remain mentally crippled throughout their lives.
It costs over $100,000 of taxpayer money to pay for each high school graduate’s education (K-12). Illiterates learn little, yet they receive diplomas. The people running our schools are ripping us off.
This is my last letter (the 28th) about illiteracy. The young man who learned to read in high school spent some time in jail. We wrote letters back and forth. It got me to thinking about inmates. Did their illiteracy contribute to their incarceration?
Inspired by her time helping a younger classmate, the high school senior went to college to learn how to help the handicapped. She became a tutor for autistic children.
Roger Small
Claremon
Solar or Agriculture?
I have noticed that many of my neighbors who loudly proclaim the virtues of solar fields are also among the more vocal proponents of local agriculture. How can one support local agriculture while paving meadows with solar panels? I, for one, am very troubled at the sight of solar arrays in what once were productive fields, and I fear that when my neighbors begin to see the problem, it will be too late.
Ernie Amsden
South Royalton