To the editor:

The Coastland Times Sunday front page featured one of the most important issues with which a county government should be expected to deal, namely the efficacy of public school education. The Sunday newspaper further informed readers that “a proposed five-year strategy is on the table for Dare County schools,” such strategy to be discussed during a public meeting to be held in Nags Head later this week.

However, the mostly inspirational material presented, consisting of trendy “buzz words” and obtuse jargon (eg. “student empathy interviews,” “healthy (sic) lifetime choices,” “collective greatness” and such) leads a reader to wonder if anything meaningful is intended in the way of education. For example, nowhere among the expressed five-year platitudes can a reader find mention of, or even suggestion of, the need to develop critical thinking, powers of reasoning, good judgement, and problem solving, attributes that are sorely needed throughout our country, presumably needed in Dare County as well.

As a continuing, several-decades-long student, writer, and public speaker concerning energy and environmental issues, it has become quite clear to me, for example, that too many students, their young parents, and a cadre of young school teachers have been deprived of scientific knowledge concerning Earth’s environment, its weather, and its climate.

Hopefully there will exist enough practical enthusiasm supporting the aforementioned five-year plan that, what so far appears to be simply “feel-good” busy work, will be replaced with down-to-Earth education based upon empirical data seasoned with inquisitiveness, skepticism, self-discipline, and common sense.

M. S. Medeiros Jr.

Kitty Hawk

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