Less big audio during the dynamite I...

Less big audio during the dynamite

I went to the Fourth of July Starlight Bowl Fireworks Show for the

first time after living in Burbank for the last 30 years. I had fun

and saw several people I knew. As great as the whole thing was, I

have one complaint that makes me wonder if I am out of touch with

everyone else who was there.

My complaint is from the start of the program at about 6:45 p.m.

until the end of the fireworks, at about 9:30 p.m., there was never a

quiet time for people to talk without having to yell at each other

over the constant playing of music. It would have been so nice, in my

opinion, to have been able to talk at intermission without the

blasting of recorded music. Everyone had just been listening to an

hour and a half of music anyway, so give us a break so we can relax

and socialize for a few minutes!

I feel the fireworks would have been more fun if I could have

heard the oohs and ahs and reactions from the audience. Instead, the

fireworks show was accompanied with the loudest music of the night.

From 6:45 to 9:30 p.m. it was never-ending loud music.

It seems you can’t get away from the constant bombardment of music

or TV anymore. You go to the doctor and you can’t read in the waiting

room because there is a TV going. You stand in line at the market and

a TV is going. You may have to sit in the bar area of a crowded

restaurant to eat and TVs are going. You go to movies and are blasted

with commercials, so you can’t talk before the movie starts. Am I the

only one who feels a little quiet once in a while would be welcomed?

One thing that really made me smile was seeing kids at the

Starlight Bowl listening to their Walkmans while the band was playing

on stage. Maybe some people would say I am getting too old. Am I?

ROBERT RUSH

Burbank

Glad it’s not another holiday

I enjoyed the letters from Wanda Sheppard, “Recognition is a

slippery slope,” June 25; and Anita Davidson, “Recognition is not the

right path,” June 25; and the two-cents bit from Chris Vartanian with

his tone and attitude, “Schiff represents Armenian-Americans,” June

29. I was happy to hear, according to Vartanian’s letter, that the

Armenian community will not ask for a federal holiday. That will give

Rep. Adam Schiff more time to work on problems for his other

constituents such as veterans affairs, the Social Security issue and

he can look into the Native American genocide recognition as Anita

Davidson suggested.

They may not ask for a federal memorial day, but it seems they are

pushing for a city memorial day in Glendale and Burbank. In Glendale,

when they had had the flags at half staff on the City Hall, and in

Burbank they are trying to reschedule our parade when it falls on

their genocide day. The wishes of other citizens are not considered.

A good example of that is the private memorial they want Glendale to

erect on public land.

The Armenian community should ask billionaire Kirk Kerkorian to

buy land and build the memorial and not ask the people of Glendale.

LEROY BRANDT

Burbank

Foreign language should count

Foreign language classes should absolutely count as credit for

required vocational courses.

High-achieving students in Burbank have enough trouble competing

with students from districts with “college prep” programs. It is

impossible for a Burbank student to attain a grade-point average as

high as some of the more affluent districts, not because Burbank

students aren’t capable, but because the archaic graduation

requirement for a practical art class prevents them from taking an

honors or advance placement class that would elevate them and put

them in competition with the “wealthy” districts.

It is asinine that the district requires an obviously

college-bound student to take a “practical art” class in order to

graduate. If the district included a one-week checkbook-balancing

module in the health/sex ed requirement in ninth grade, most

college-bound kids would have all the practical art they need.

School Board member Larry Applebaum says that considering foreign

language a practical art is “a stretch,” adding that he “values the

importance of exposing students to different workable skills.” Is

speaking another language not a marketable skill?

Applebaum’s attitude is nothing more or less than an extension or

restatement of the current administration’s aim to build a menial,

unrepresented, easily manipulated work force of service employees,

rather than encourage all students to strive for college degrees and

be the best they can be. Obviously there will always be a need for

menial labor, and there is no shame in being a skilled tradesperson.

There is a real problem in this district with administrators,

counselors and, as exemplified by Applebaum, board members

encouraging mediocrity. Many parents of high achievers are well aware

of this phenomenon and have been fighting it for years. It’s time to

shed some light on meaningless, arbitrary graduation requirements

that do not allow Burbank kids to compete with college-bound students

from wealthier district, and stop applying cookie-cutter,

across-the-board requirements over and above basic math, English and

writing skills.

LESLIE STRUNK

Burbank

Practical skills is a summer endeavor

As the parent of a college-bound daughter entering eighth grade at

Jordan Middle School next year, reading “Swap could help students,”

July 13, made my stomach hurt.

The thought that many college-bound students are basically

penalized by having to take their practical arts requirements outside

of high school is ridiculous. If you want to expose students who are

not on the college track by their freshman year to vocational courses

by making those courses a graduation requirement, go ahead.

But the time to expose college-bound students to different

workable skills is during the summer, not as a forced part of

curriculum when they should be taking higher math, science and

foreign language courses to fulfill rigorous college admissions

requirements!

We should be doing all we can to support college-bound students in

their goals, not the least of which should be allowing foreign

language classes to count as credit for required vocational courses.

NIKKI CAPSHAW

Burbank

Foreign language a skill for life

In an ideal world of limitless time and limitless resources, you

would do both, of course. Anything you learn in life, your whole life

through, enriches you and adds to what you can do with your life.

However, young people presently have neither.

The situation is so typical of the hypocrisy the adult world

displays toward young people. We demand that you do or learn all

these things before you graduate, and at the same time we urge them

to prepare for college, but we do not provide the resources within

the school system to do so, such as summer classes to meet

requirements which far exceed the time limits of four years of high

school.

As for substituting foreign language, which the school board is

considering, yes we should.

While we need to remedy the paucity of languages offered within

the schools, having four years of any language at a young enough age

trains the mind to learn others, at least. Besides its obvious

utility in a global economy, language training is a gymnastic for the

brain, which trains the brain the same way sports train the body.

Unless we can conquer this hypocrisy of demanding five years

worth of coursework in four years of high school, then we definitely

need some form of substitution or alternative.

MAUDE HAM

Burbank