Forget cursive, teach useful skills

Re: Why Johnny can’t read a thank-you note, Feb. 22. I learned how to write in cursive in Grade 3. I spent hours copying out each letter and eventually stringing them together.

Despite this, I have never used cursive writing outside of elementary school. Instead, almost all of my school assignments — I’m now in high school — and projects must be word processed. I was not taught how to type properly in school, yet that is a skill I now use every day.

Students need to be taught skills they will use, not the skills that were used in the past.

EMMA HOLMES,

16, Ottawa

Students need to pick up pencils and pens again

It’s a sad day when children won’t be able to write in cursive or do simple math.

I don’t see that as an improvement on our schools.

TERRY CUNNINGHAM, White Lake

Morning meeting prayers

Re: Ottawan to head Office of Religious Affairs, Feb. 20. Years ago at Foreign Affairs, the senior management meeting — deputy minister with assistant deputy ministers — was known as “Morning Prayers.”

One imagines that now they will really be on their knees.

ERIC BERGBUSCH,

Ottawa

Elderly baby boomers?

Re: Grey hair and the silver screen, Feb. 22. At 74, I am in the same age cohort as Dustin Hoffman (75) and Maggie Smith (78).

We are not baby boomers, as Elizabeth Payne implies in her column when she says that the success of films starring the elderly is “the latest feat of the baby boom generation.”

Sorry, the oldest baby boomers, those born right after the Second World War ended are still in their 60s. True, the boomers are a big part of the audience for these great films, but the director and actors are not baby boomers themselves. Do the math.

JO WOOD,

Ottawa

Weeping over designs

Re: Wabano gets set to open its wings, Feb. 20. I wept when I saw the proposed design for the Wabano Centre in the Citizen. It is not only a stunning design — it is breathtaking. I can hardly wait to actually see it on the street.

But I also wept because Ottawa condominiums being proposed (and built) are so woefully uninspired and boringly bland. They will not hold anyone’s gaze.

No doubt we will all continue to weep while we look at those tall boxes reflecting back the lack of design vision on the part of those builders, and the city’s abdication on demanding more aesthetically pleasing elements. At least throw some facades on those condos. Please!

JULIE ZAHORUK TANNER,

Orléans

Unnecessary study

Re: New study raises questions about religion as deterrent against criminal behaviour, Feb. 18. I’m constantly surprised by what surprises people. I read about this study, which raises questions about religion as a deterrent against criminal behaviour.

Was a study really necessary for that?

For years, newspapers have been full of stories about pedophile priests and members of the Church hierarchy who protect them, Christian bigotry in the United States, Muslim terrorists, and religious violence in the Middle East. And that’s without mentioning discrimination against women and the war on homosexuality when it’s not on homosexuals.

The only people who really believe religion could be a deterrent against criminal behaviour are those who put more trust in faith than in what they see with their own eyes.

GENE SAUVé,

Gatineau

Curtain of secrecy

Re: Up to 76 nuclear waste loads planned, Feb. 21. Thanks to the Citizen for printing this well-researched, elaborate report on AECL’s plan to rid itself of its deadly waste by shipping it 2,000 kilometres to SRS in South Carolina. Scores of truck shipments are needed if this project is ever approved.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission seems to hide behind a curtain of secrecy and reporter Ian MacLeod seems to have had better luck obtaining information about any details from United States sources.

The CNSC keeps repeating its assurances that everything is safely regulated and there have been no “major” accidents with millions of shipments over the years.

And, oh yes, terrorists will be out of luck, because heavily armed police will be accompanying each shipment. But not so the public, because if there’s an accident and huge areas are contaminated, then Canada’s 35-year-old Nuclear Liability Act will hardly compensate those thousands of citizens on both sides of the border with its $75-million cap. Will this glorious “insurance” safety net ever be brought up to modern standards after Chornobyl and Fukushima?

ZIGGY KLEINAU,

Binbrook