Readers Write: (June 4): Teach for America, Johnson High, Kao Xiong case, Jesse Ventura

Some things sound much better than they actually are ("A setback for education reform," editorial, June 1). The effort of Teach For America to get more teachers into poor schools, grand as the plan is, does not in reality meet the goal of positive educational reform in my experience.

As a retired career teacher, I took a job in a charter school in inner-city St. Paul. Two TFA teachers also were hired that year. One was let go before school even started, and the other was let go the following year.

I asked one, "Why, if you wanted to be a teacher, didn't you take education classes at your undergrad university?" The answer was not very useful in understanding why a recent grad would join Teach for America.

Did these participants or the school think a person could become a great teacher with a six-week crash course in the summer? Did they just need jobs? Being a teacher is a complex and highly skilled profession. Would you go to a doctor who may have a Ph.D. but did not major in medicine?

SCHOOL SPORTS

As a teacher at one of the schools highlighted in the recent special series on prep sports ("Cash floods prep sports," May 26), I would like to thank the Star Tribune for reporting how income disparities can greatly affect schools. However, I felt that some extra information was provided — perhaps to accentuate the differences between the schools — that was taken out of context or was erroneous.

I am angry about the false impression of Johnson High School that the article may have left with readers. While the information might fit stereotypes of an urban high school, fortunately Johnson doesn't fit the stereotype.

Also, every high school, including Eden Prairie, has a school liaison officer. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that police officers, regardless of their location, carry handguns.

Few schools, however, have a police liaison officer who cares enough about kids to be a coach — a state championship coach, I might add.

Johnson High is a safe place with hardworking teachers, staff and students. That story doesn't fit the stereotype, and is very rarely told.

The writer is a teacher at Johnson High School in St. Paul.

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Attorney Mike Freeman should know that his "messages to people with loaded guns" pales in comparison to the fact that a little boy now will grow up without a father as well as without a younger brother ("Dad guilty in tot's death," June 1). The father will suffer for his mistake for the rest of his life. Don't sentence the child to a like fate.

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I really hate it when things don't go right and people blame politics. I think Kao Xiong's attorney, Steven Meshbesher, suffered from the same affliction as did his client — ­delusion!

Mr. Meshbesher, in the court of public opinion and with any subsequent jury, the outcome would be the same: guilty. The fact that your client didn't see that required this outcome — how else would he have learned?

He was so delusional he believed the shooting of his 2-year-old son by his 4-year-old son was an accident and apparently felt sure, supported by his attorney, that the jury would feel that way, too! But the facts are simple enough and don't require politics. A father left loaded handguns in reach of the four children who played in that house every day. I don't care if you hide the gun; if it's in reach of a child, it's a crime!

While speculating about potential presidential candidates in 2016 and dancing around his own candidacy, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Venture stated: "I hear we're going to get Hillary and Jeb Bush. Gee, I guess we're now in England, aren't we?"

My assumption is that the former governor is attempting to compare the Clintons and the Bushes with the House of Windsor. If Jesse is serious about running for president in 2016, I sincerely hope that he is aware that the British royals do not govern the country.

That job falls on the prime minister and parliament. Wait, unless it is all a grand conspiracy and the prime minister and parliament are really just figureheads, while the royals have been governing all along?

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Ventura wants to be our first president since Washington to not be affiliated with "either party," an apparent reference to the Democrat and Republican parties. John Adams was a Federalist. Harrison, Tyler, Taylor and Fillmore were all members of the Whig Party. Jesse, hire a fact-checker for your campaign or at least check Wikipedia!

One day Ventura announces he is filing a defamation lawsuit against an author's widow. The next day he announces he may run for president and have shock-jock Howard Stern as his vice presidential candidate. Jesse should consider a defamation lawsuit against himself.