Letters for April 25, 2016

Letters for April 25, 2016

Is it just me?

Yesterday my great-granddaughter came home crying from school. “Grandma, I listen and pay attention, but I just don’t understand it.” She doesn’t understand it? I don’t understand it either!

Every day I pick up my great-grandkids from school and promptly go home and do homework first; that is our priority. I’ve never considered myself an intellectual, but I’m not uneducated or ignorant either. I can pretty much hold my own, educationally and experientially. Yet, this new homework that these kids come home with has me all backed up against the wall.

Math was never my forte. However, this new math has the craziest form in arriving at the answer. In my day math was a lot simpler, and we had to memorize our timetables. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were just a matter of a few simple diagrams. While my answers are still correct, the method with which these kids must arrive at the answer is beyond me. Instead of just showing a little diagram of how they arrived at the answer, they have do this extensive, drawn-out calculation that defies purpose (to me).

Why take the back 40 to get to the barn when you can just walk 10 feet across to it? What are “friendly pairs” anyway? Again, my math skills are very limited, but they get the job done. If I try to show them how to do it the simple way they tell me they cannot do it like that because the teacher requires this long drawn-out method, will get mad, and mark it incorrect.

English (which I considered my stronger suit) is just as confusing. I feel like a complete buffoon in trying to help with something that I am just as perplexed as they are. In fact, I think I’m confusing them more by trying to help them.

To survive on this island, many households have both parents working so their children go to Grandma and Grandpa’s (or others’) homes after school. I would like to be as supportive as I can in helping them with their homework. Instead I’m finding that I am of little help because I don’t understand it. It is frustrating for them and for us.

Is there a school for grandparents to learn the “how’s, where’s and what’s” of today’s school curriculum? Or maybe I can sit in the classroom with them — I’m sure they’d like that (right).

Common Core is common to who?

Annie Crain

Lihue

Direct airport service via bus could alleviate traffic

Much has been said and written, both pro and con, about expanding the Kauai Bus service to alleviate traffic congestion. However, there has been little or no mention of an obvious change to the bus service that would, in my opinion, help alleviate some of this traffic congestion. This change would be to provide direct airport service from both the North Shore and South Shore to and from the airport with luggage permitted on the bus.

Currently it is not possible for any traveler with luggage to ride the bus with their luggage. The buses have no provision for storing luggage, not even the typical roller suitcase that airlines permit as carry-ons. Bus rules state that nothing can be stored in the aisles or on the seats.

Furthermore, there are no direct bus routes from either the North Shore or the South Shore to or from the airport. Transfers to a shuttle bus in Lihue that connects with the airport are required. This of course adds to the time required to get to the airport or get home from the airport and is yet another reason why most people just drive their car to the airport.

So, council members, if you are considering adding more buses to the system, please purchase some buses that have provisions for carrying suitcases and establish some direct airport service with these buses. You might also consider modifying some of the existing buses to have provisions for carrying passengers’ luggage. Such “cargo” provisions might also encourage more shoppers to take the bus rather than their car.

Peter Nilsen

Princeville

The high cost of food in our airport

Normally, when catching a flight to either Honolulu or the Mainland, I bypass the restaurants, knowing the prices are higher than what I am accustomed to. Two weeks ago, it was a different scenario. A snack was in order. How about a small bag of chips and a small bottle of water, all for just under $8?

There was nothing special about these two items, other than the price. By my calculations, that’s approximately 400 percent more than what these items would cost outside the airport.

If you are concerned about the cost of food at the airport concessions, and would like a change, write to the airport manager, dennis.l.neves@hawaii.gov. There is nothing wrong with a reasonable profit, but the prices currently being charged the captive audience at the airport are unreasonable.

Michael Diamant

Koloa