Controversial Channel One

In your editorial “A One-Year Trial Worth Trying” (Sept. 28) you noted the importance of schools taking initiative and using Channel One. As principal of Notre Dame Academy, I feel taking the initiative is the difference between excellence and mediocrity.

Our school is among 220 schools recently named a National School of Excellence by the United States Department of Education in the Blue Ribbon Schools Program. This is due in part to us taking the initiative of implementing programs like Channel One.

Channel One helps bridge the gap between what students learn in books and what is happening in the world. Books teaching about America’s Civil War and the federal government’s separation of powers take on new meaning when supplemented by Channel One reports on the Soviet Union’s breakaway republics and the Clarence Thomas nomination.

Those chastising schools for taking the initiative and exploring the possibilities of Channel One are setting a dangerous precedent of denying local schools the ability to make their own decisions.

SISTER GINA MARIE BLUNCK

Los Angeles