Small, homogeneous

The BDN story (Nov. 4-5) about Maine children scoring at the top of the nation in reading and writing is important information. One of the reasons for these high scores is the teacher-student ratio in our state which is among the lowest in the nation. Our teachers have more time to work with each student on a one-to-one basis. Maine schools have not experienced the explosion of new students which have swamped the schools in other states.

Fairfax County, Va., is using more than 500 trailers to handle the overflow of new students and children are being taught who speak more than 70 languages. According to friends who live in Virginia, programs for gifted children are being cut in order to hire interpreters to meet the needs of immigrant children. Parents who are unhappy about these changes are accused of being “anti-immigrant,” and there is a climate of censorship and irritability about the whole issue.

Maine is often described by outsiders as “lacking diversity,” and we are made to feel that we should apologize for being homogeneous. It is time that we talked about the advantages of remaining small and homogeneous, instead of becoming something we are not. Shirley Lawson Eddington