Letters: “Irreparable damage” | Grade inflation

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more about Letters to the Editor.

“Irreparable death” no
probably at Oakland airport

Subject: “Oakland Airport Name Change Stalled” (Page A1, November 14).

For anyone who doesn’t know, this body of water inside the Golden Gate is called the San Francisco Bay. This geographic name does not belong to the city or county of San Francisco and may be used freely at will. Any attempt to block the use of a geographic name is a fool’s errand.

Both the initiation and review of these frivolous lawsuits have eliminated the tenuous trust that once existed in the justice system.

R Côté
Castro Valley

The students do not have
“right” to note inflation

Subject: “Grade inflation is spreading from high schools to colleges” (page A6, November 13).

Karin Klein’s essay on grade inflation demonstrates that “grade suppression” harms learning.

As a teacher in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District in the 1980s, I was openly pressured to outperform seniors who had done absolutely nothing in my class. A few years later, as a teaching assistant in the English department at UC Berkeley, I was “strongly encouraged” to pass a student who could not write an essay without grammatical errors in every sentence.

Grade inflation was already well underway due to the pressure to move students up through the system. However, in today’s academic environment, when students and their parents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and go into debt to pursue a college education, the student is the consumer with the presumed “right” to be satisfied with the product.

Catherine Jordan
Berkeley

Refusing new homes
is immoral, illegal

Subject: “California city sued for ‘unlawful ban on new housing’” (November 5).

Blocking housing construction, especially for our most vulnerable residents like the homeless, during a crisis and housing shortage should be considered an utterly shameful act and should be the subject of more prosecution.

While I know people tend to be stingy about what goes on around their homes, this stinginess has reached a point where the town of Woodside attempted to declare itself mountain lion habitat to avoid building mountain lion shelters. -shelter.

I don’t think this problem will be solved simply by suing cities; it’s the result of decades of homeownership policy, exclusion, and politicians burying their heads in the sand. We need to solve this problem among the litany of others we face.

Yusuke Mori
Dublin

The nation seems to have
diverted from justice

Subject: “Justice Department Ends Prosecution of Trump” (page A1, November 26).

Of all the injustices arising from this election, this one made me sick.

Donald Trump blatantly trampled on the Constitution by attempting to falsify the results of the 2020 election. Our justice system is so broken that it will never be tried again. He can claim total justification. Case closed. I can’t stand it.

I fear for the pivotal point we have reached here in my country.

Barbara Morita
The Cerrito

School is over
the rule of law

Subject: “Justice Department Ends Prosecution of Trump” (page A1, November 26).

To all the students I’ve taught American history to: Remember how I emphasized the rule of law? Fundamental to understanding our democratic system of government was knowing that no one, not even the President of the United States, was above the law.

I guess I was wrong. Sorry, guys.

Nancy Thornton
Concord

Biden lacks authority
accept the use of missiles

Subject: “Ukraine obtains authorization to use missiles” (page A1, November 18).