Letters

Homeschool hooky
I just read your hatchet job on homeschooling ["No place like home"] in the March 18 issue. I understand that you think you've found a major problem brewing in Texas society and with education in the state. In some ways you have. However, did you once wonder where it was that these parents of wayward children were finding out about homeschooling as a dodge? Who's been telling them that they can take their children out and claim that they're homeschooling and avoid truancy fines?

Well, it's not legitimate homeschoolers. Most homeschoolers (and the vast majority are legitimate) lead very disciplined lives and have control of their children. That's why the children get ahead in school instead of behind. For most homeschoolers, it's not so much a matter of protecting their children from outside influences as it is that homeschooling parents want to make sure the values they are trying to pass on are not systematically undermined 40 waking hours a week.

I'll tell you who is informing irresponsible parents of homeschooling as a loophole: school administrators. You see, the parents who are out to avoid truancy fines are also the parents of disruptive children--the kind of kids that make public schools look bad and cause problems with school administrators. As a legislative aide, I've had occasion to hear of this kind of activity, admittedly second- or third-hand.

However, think about it. It makes sense. Suppose you're a school administrator and there's this disruptive kid you can't get rid of. The parents don't care and tell you to your face that, as far as they're concerned, the kid is wasting his time in school. Well, you say, "Take the kid out." And they say, "Yeah, and get in trouble with the law over truancy? No way."

Well now, you've got an ace in the hole. You say, "Just write me a letter saying you're homeschooling, and you're safe."

Why would a school administrator do this? Well, it helps make homeschooling look bad, and most administrators like that. For another thing, it gets this kid and his parents, who are royal pains, out of your school. You get less headaches, and your test scores improve to boot. And the kid isn't even included in the dropout statistics.

Think about it.
Byron Schlomach
Via e-mail

Got The Ticket
In response to March 18's "Talking up The Ticket" by Robert Wilonsky: Mr. W.'s write-up on "The Ticket" is so accurate from this avid listener's point of view that I thought I wrote the damn thing. I will go so far as to say with confidence that anyone who listens to The Ticket and doesn't agree with just about everything written does not listen very often, or in other words, is not a P-1.

Daniel Flores
Via e-mail

I think the article got it right concerning sports radio. I myself enjoy more sports and less dorm room antics (I tried to study in college). I wish Cooperstein were still on the air, and I cannot listen to Rocco. Thanks for the coverage of this station. Living in Fort Worth, I don't see your columns at all, but I enjoyed this one. By the way, anything you can write about Rocco, truthfully or otherwise, that will get him canned is perfectly good by me.

Randy
Via e-mail

Editor's note: You may have gotten your wish. See this week's Buzz column.

I greatly enjoyed Robert Wilonsky's article on the KTCK personalities. Wilonsky was right on target with his evaluation of Rocco Pendola. I can never qualify as a "P-1" because my radio goes elsewhere from noon to three.

Denver Doggett
Via e-mail

Robert Wilonsky gets it! Finally a writer who accepts The Ticket for exactly what it is! Thanks for the story.

Randell Hendricks
Via e-mail

I have to extol the greatness of Robert Wilonsky for providing the unwashed masses of the metroplex with the most insightful piece done on The Ticket to date.

Like the great Gil LeBreton before him, Wilonsky refuses to capitulate to the ridiculous pressure exerted by his peers in the local media to dismiss The Ticket as an insignificant passing fad.

The sooner the rest of the so-called scribes in the metroplex pull their heads out of their collective "ace," the better!

Sideshow Bob
Via e-mail

Great article. You should do a follow-up sidebar on Gordo's obvious controlled insanity.

Steven E. Rogers
Via e-mail

Rock rules
The Rules of Listening to Rock:
1. Never, ever wear sandals.
2. No matter what you think, the bartender is not your friend. He hates you.
3. The door people hate you too.
4. The bouncers hate you the most.
5. If you've never heard of Velvet or Pleather, you're not a Toadies fan.

6. Respect people's personal space. Quit flailing your arms--this isn't aerobics class.

7. You might think you look cool with that cigarette, but I don't. Blow smoke in my direction once more, and you're gonna be wishing you were back at Blue Planet with the rest of your kind.

8. Don't pay $15 to get into Trees to see a band you've never heard of. Trees is not that cool.