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A CLARIFICATION

In their informative and thoughtful January article ("NCLB and the Competitiveness Agenda"), Frederick Hess and Andrew Rotherham place me with critics "who argue that America's children are already over-worked and overtested." This claim is not wrong, but it needs clarification.

I do indeed object to loading primary-age kids with homework and drill, displacing the play through which young children learn best. And, second, I strongly object to unnecessary and trivial work, accompanied by the relentless pursuit of high grades, that characterizes much of secondary school education. The emphasis on objectives specified in advance and on testing is pushing us into a new age of anti-intellectualism. I hate to see intellectual life converted into mental labor.--Nel Noddings, via e-mail.

APPALACHIAN AMERICANS

I just finished reading Bobby Starnes' December Thoughts on Teaching and was drawn into it by two things. First, to read a bit of the history of Line Fork Settlement School was a joy and a confirmation of my own roots in Kentucky--at Viper, just down the river from Line Fork. Appalachian Americans, as some of my Kentucky friends and colleagues here in Florida call themselves, are a hearty breed, strongly independent and resourceful. There are many of us found throughout this country and living in the various cultures of this world, using our skills and character to make a difference in the lives of others and adding our own flavor...