Growing up in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, I recall a streetcar ride to 63rd and Halsted was as exciting as a trip downtown, and the Englewood train station offered a ride to anywhere in our country. If Kenya Merritt, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s deputy mayor of business and neighborhood development, is seeking investment opportunities in Englewood (“Johnson’s team will scrap Invest South/West name, but not its aims,” Sept. 22) she might consider the investments made in Englewood’s heyday but not seen since: a capable police force assuring security and a public transportation system comparable to the service of yesterday’s streetcars.
Such investments would hasten the “vibrant commercial corridors and reliable transportation” Merritt desires, and need not take “five to seven years to show themselves.”
William O’Neill, Near West Side
Making math more confusing
As a retired language arts teacher from Ohio, I shook my head over “How CPS Is Hoping to Fix Its Math Problem” with the district-wide use of Skyline curriculum
Fifth-grade math teacher Erin Cleary had projected four separate prisms on a screen for the students to decide in small groups “Which one does not belong?” Without the benefit of seeing the image, the reader is left to presume that the prisms are somehow not similar. The students attempt to use math skills to determine the discrepancy between the four shapes. Ultimately the teacher reveals that the only difference is that three prisms have side measurements labeled in inches, while the fourth prism has sides labeled in centimeters!
Red flag!
The question “Which one does not belong?” clearly confuses by selecting the judgmental word “belong.” All four prisms “belong.” The metric system (centimeters, etc.) is in use by the rest of the planet for math and science. A less confusing, and better question for contemplation of this conundrum would be: “Which prism is different?” “Which prism is not similar to the others?” “Which prism is unlike the others?” etc.
After about 30-45 seconds with no answer, the teacher could suggest that the difference is a matter of wording.
If I had been a pupil in that classroom, I would have concluded that: I cannot trust math, I don’t like math, I cannot trust my teacher, etc.
Let’s be clear with our kids. Let’s give our kids an opportunity to understand and excel in math.
Judy Humphrys, Roscoe Village
Restaurant servers do well with tips
OK, we know what the minimum pay for a server is, but nobody talks about the average pay for a server.
It’s like people want us to think they work for starvation wages, yet we know that many do very well in serving. That is why they do this horribly low-paying job.
A minimum wage in serving should be the minimum amount the server makes at the end of the day. Restaurants are already fighting for survival in many cases, too many cases, and a one-size mandate could jeopardize the viability of many of them. Higher prices or a surcharge can reduce or eliminate tipping altogether, and servers will be worse off for their efforts.
The nice thing about tipping is that it incentivizes the workers to give their best service. A society should never try to remove incentives in the name of equality, fairness, or security.
Larry Craig, Wilmette
