Parent-teachers

Amanda Yskamp's article on home-schooling ("Class Struggle," June 11) was informative and balanced. How nice that you didn't let all home-schoolers come across as extremists.

I am writing because as the parent of four home-school "graduates," I was dismayed that your listed resources did not include the HomeSchool Association of California (HSC). Started in 1987 by a small group of Bay Area home-schooling moms, the HSC is the oldest secular home-school group in California. This grassroots nonprofit volunteer organization has been monitoring California legislation and working to keep home-schooling available to all Californians in its current noninvasive form for 20-plus years. This group was the first to hold a statewide inclusive home-school conference which has become an annual summer event.

Thanks for adding www.hsc.org to your list of home-school resources.

Melissa Hatheway

Petaluma

You try it, sistah

I am a credentialed teacher who has taught for the past 14 years at five different public high school sites. I am one of the few public high school teachers I know who is in favor of a parent's right to home-school their children. However, I really object to Dawn Martin's uninformed comments and misinterpretation of statistics. If she thinks that credentialed teachers (and yes, there are some really bad ones whom I have worked with) are the primary cause of California's poor public school showing and that she could do a better job, then I challenge her to spend a month in a public school classroom of 30-plus students with vast needs and skill levels that vary from the abused kid of crack-addicted parents to the kids given a sense of entitlement by their parents that would put British royalty to shame.

It's easy to judge a public school teacher when you get to teach a few kids you have known all your life (your own), you have very involved parents (yourselves) and you have the ability to discipline and encourage in ways completely unavailable to any public school teacher.

Get real with your conclusions or walk in my shoes for awhile.

Steve Salkovics

Sebastopol

DIY Kudos

Inspired by his own personal headaches, Joe Meisch's temple massager ("Inventing Locally," June 4) is the perfect tool for the 21st century: made in the U.S.A., nonpolluting, personally relaxing and self-administered. An added plus is his generous donations to fellow vets. I wish this entrepreneur the best of luck in promoting his handiwork. I'm ordering several for my fellow co-workers so they can relax.

Virginia Strom-Martin

Duncans Mills

Dept. of Corrections

One could blame it on the fine weather, the end-of-school jones or just plain stupidity. Given the choices, we prefer to stick to our Protestant underpinnings and blame it on the fairies.

Bad fairies!

Their gossamer wings a'flutter, the fairies overlooked two now-smarting recording studios in Leilani Clark's otherwise fine roundup of audio palaces ("The Hills Are Alive," June 4). Focused Audio (www.focusedaudio.com) and Studio E in Sebastopol would each like you, the rapacious recording consumer, to know that they, too, are open for business and would welcome yours.

Trailing small scraps of rose-colored silk, the fairies next evilly engineered the loss of a K in photographer Jocelyn Knight's surname ("Stop the Spray," Green Zone, June 11). Evil silken fairies!

In that same issue, the fairies—after restoring themselves with delicate sips of early morning dew from gilded acorn cups—managed to distract me just long enough that the tag information on the Stage review ("Men Behaving Badly") became duplicated by their cunning, dew-infused ways. The Sam Shepherd fraternal warfare drama True West plays through June 29 at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center. Leading Ladies, the kind of farce that fairies love best, continues through July 6 at the Sixth Street Playhouse.

Cunning, dew-infused fairies!

The Ed.

gathering moss

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