Letters to the Editor: May 28 – June 3, 2015
Commercialized School Environments Aren’t ‘Risky’
Editor,
I laughed at Lou Mauro’s concern (Falls Church News-Press Guest Commentary, May 21 – 27, 2015) “No Need for New City of F.C. High School Redux”) about schools in “urban commercialized environment.” Has he ever been to a big city? I attended public elementary and high school in New York City. Brooklyn Technical High School being in urban commercialized downtown Brooklyn surely didn’t bother its 6,000 students. Many city – and some suburban – schools are in exactly the dynamic environment Mauro frets about.
Rather than being distracting and risky settings, they’re wonderful, lively, diverse, educational, realistic places for learning. That is, they mirror the greater real world – how can that be bad for students? And they provide partnership opportunities between schools and nearby neighborhoods and businesses.
Gabriel Goldberg
Falls Church
GLBT People Are Not Healthier Than Rest Of the Population
Editor,
I am no fan of trying to change people, nor do I have any expertise in psychology. There is however, probably written in passion, an egregious error in one sentence of Wayne Besen’s column “Ban Conversion Therapy” in the May 21-27 edition of the News-Press. It reads,” All leading mental health associations have emphatically declared that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are mentally sound.” As a standalone sentence it is clearly in error since it means that “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people” are mentally healthier than the rest of the population.
One could say that, “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people” are as mentally healthy as the rest of the population or more simply that sexual orientation is not a mental disorder.
Henry J. Gordon
Falls Church
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