letters.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

One Tongue or Two?

I have to disagree with Kirk Douglas's disapproval of bilingual education (Opinion, 11/1/99). If languages are taught early enough, children can learn two fluently. I am a 16-year-old Puerto Rican. My first words were in Spanish, but my mother decided to stop teaching me Spanish. We lived in an English-speaking neighborhood, and she was afraid I would have trouble when I started school. I wish I had continued to learn Spanish, because now I am looked upon as not a real Hispanic because I can't speak Spanish fluently.

ADRIENNE MONTALVO

Columbus, Ohio

When people of other countries come here, America offers them free education, health care, and more fights than you can shake a stick at. And in return, these people demand that we speak their language in school? Hello! They came to America; America did not come to them!

REBECCA SCHLOER

Butternut, Wisc.

Before I Fight Again

When I was in middle school, I remember getting into a fight because of evolution ("Faith vs. Science," 10/4/99). He was for it and I was against it. If the teaching of evolution is going to cause people to fight, they should stop teaching it and leave it be.

JAKE ANDERSON

Madisonville, Ky.

Calculators Unfair

In my Probability and Statistics course ("Calculators Throw Teachers a Curve," 11/1/99), the teacher always shows us how to work the problem without the calculator first. As for the SATs, it is unfair that students who use a graphing calculator have an advantage. Why not ban all calculator use?

MELISSA LACONCA

Spring Hill, Fla.

Gangsta Cartoons

The comics your magazine chooses to include portray youth in a bad light. Not every teen wears baggy pants and T-shirts and looks like they belong to a street gang.

KIMBERLY BIERY

Tivoli, Texas

Population Solution?

I read in another magazine that they are offering $200 to crack addicts to stop having babies: To solve the population problem ("Are We Running Out of Room?" 10/18/99), I think they should do the same thing on a larger scale. Offer a reward to people who will participate in long-term birth...