letters.

Money Talks

I appreciated the article about the two teenage girls who attended the same school but led totally different lives ("Money Matters," 12/13/99).

I attend a high school where I see the same discriminations occur daily. Money and social status are the things that everyone values the most. It is very blatant that kids segregate into groups based on financial status, looks, and place on the social hierarchy. This doesn't seem right, but it really has become this way.

If people were more open-minded, then how much money someone had in their wallet would be irrelevant.

KRISTA FERGUSON Shawnee, Kans.

Our class was discontented by the way in which the author presented the contrast of the two individuals. We feel that the author portrayed a biased view in favor of Ada Estrella [the less affluent girl] and did not accurately exhibit the true situations of both individuals.

JESSE PLACE, DREW HEINRICH, DAVE NOVOTNY, JESSICA GREGORY, JESSICA GORDON Belvidere, N.J.

You missed a very important opportunity. The subject of class difference in our society is an urgent and necessary topic, yet the word "class" was never mentioned in the story. Why not? Part of educating young people on social issues is providing the language skills to name them. The other crucial part is race. The different races of the two young women were never mentioned.

TRINA JACKSON Teen Voices magazine, Boston, Mass.

Bias Is Bogus

The SAT, in my judgment, is a fair test ("The Big Fear," 10/18/99). It's not culturally biased. When I, as an Asian-American, took the SAT and did its test preps, I didn't encounter any problems with questions that were entrenched in any specific culture. To the contrary, I thought it was very diverse. Money, on the other hand, is an unfair advantage. We need to make schools more alike in scholastic courses.

NORMAN NGUYEN Ticonderoga, N. Y.

When Art Shocks

Your article ("A Sensation--But Is It Art?" 11/1/99) told of an artist who put elephant dung on a portrait of the Virgin Mary. He...