Punishment fit deed

Sometime during my 40-year teaching career at Catholic High School, I was asked by Father George Tribou, the principal and head of the English department, to speak at a faculty meeting about using writing as a punishment. I urged teachers not to use mindless, repetitive writing; for example, copying pages from a phone book. Instead, I requested, with Tribou’s blessing, that teachers assign topics that would educate.

Lanette Grate has written to chastise Steve Straessle, CHS’ principal, for making a football-field vandal write a paper about Father Tribou. She incorrectly claims, twice, that perfection is required. In truth, it must be considered an A effort by its judges (which leaves room for mistakes), a mark she says he is “unlikely to attain.” In that comment she misses the very nature of the assignment and what CHS is all about: high expectations. Bringing students to a realization that they can achieve more than they knew themselves to be capable of is what the school is all about—she could ask any alumnus.

Grate laments that the writing will teach him “nothing about himself.” I dare say this boy has learned a profound amount about himself in the last few weeks. What he needs to know more about is the man he so crudely depicted in his paint-spraying insult. In his research and inquiries about Monsignor Tribou, I predict that what he will learn about the famed principal will have a profound and positive effect on him. Well done. MICHAEL J. MORAN

Little Rock