Skip to footer

Readers write: Good partnership, hacker photos

Letters to the editor for the Nov. 7, 2016 weekly magazine.

|
Monte LaOrange/The Post-Register/AP
Students play Zoo-phonics at Kids Korner Preschool and Daycare in Idaho Falls, Idaho. With concerns about the suspension rates of preschoolers on the rise, a new Connecticut program shows promise in reducing behaviors.
  • By Dr. Valora Washington Monitor reader
  • Carolyn Hill Monitor reader

Good partnership

Your Oct. 17 Points of Progress story, “Building success for preschoolers,” describes a successful partnership between mental health professionals and early childhood education teachers that has resulted in positive outcomes for children.

Thank you for recognizing that early educators need coaching and support and are effective when working as part of a team to address the social-emotional needs of young children.

Teachers working with young children – whether they work in preschools, child-care centers, or home-based programs – want to see those children succeed. But they know that behavior and emotional problems in the early years will only get worse if children don’t learn proper ways to handle anger and negative feelings before they enter elementary school. The consultations with mental health specialists gave teachers the skills to teach children the right ways to manage their emotions.

This promising model, backed up by the results of a study, can take away the blame that can occur between providers and parents and have everyone working together to improve children’s well-being.

Dr. Valora Washington

Chief executive officer for the Council for Professional Recognition

Hacker photos

As a Monitor supporter and promoter for many years, I cannot help but express my deep disappointment over the Sept. 12 In Pictures section, “ ‘Hacker chic’ shines at DEF CON.” Do you really feel the woman who founded this newspaper would have given her approval to feature this? I strongly doubt it. 

And as long as I’m on the keys here, Peter Rainer’s choices for movies to review, whether for or against, fall under the same dubious cloud. Yes, movies to choose from in this era are not what they once were, but there are some out there worthy of recognition. I’m not giving up on my beloved Monitor, but please don’t push it!

Carolyn Hill

Portland, Ore.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Readers write: Good partnership, hacker photos
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Readers-Respond/2016/1105/Readers-write-Good-partnership-hacker-photos
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe