More Columns From This Author

Winning the election by a hair
April 18, 2012

In this space last May, we mentioned 26 potential candidates for the Republican nominee, one of whom will in all likelihood face Barack Obama in the Presidential election this fall. Of those named, all 26 are still alive and perhaps interested in the nomination, which may not be determined before the party’s Tampa convention in August.

The economic value of a teacher
March 28, 2012

The ills of public schools are frequently mentioned in the press, on radio and television, on talk shows, public forums, and computer bits. Reporters love to mention drug-related events at a school, school shootings, falling SAT scores, graduation of poor students, failing teachers, poor teacher preparation, poor buildings built at astonishing costs, principals who fail to fire unsuccessful teachers...

Good schools
February 15, 2012

After many years of involvement in public education, I am frequently asked about the shortcomings of schools, of the new problems facing teachers, and of the nation’s poor performance on tests. Almost everyone who ever went to school thinks he’s an expert on education.

Homeless in the District of Columbia
January 4, 2012

Homelessness is a blight on a civilized nation, and the problem is acute in our nation’s capital. As the economy has floundered and the unemployment rate has soared, a growing number of homeless families from outside the District have migrated into the City in search of shelter.

I love small towns
December 7, 2011

I’ve always been fascinated with small towns and have lived and worked in a good many: Tarboro, Rocky Mount, Chapel Hill, Boone, and Raleigh as it was then, in North Carolina; Highland Springs, Short Pump, Charlottesville, Hopewell, and Chester, Virginia before it became suburbia.

What became of recess?
November 9, 2011

Some 50 years ago I was an elementary school principal in western Henrico County. In those days, Short Pump was so rural that people made fun of it and considered it a suburb of Charlottesville. A Richmond reporter, who was one of my PTA vice-presidents called me on a Saturday afternoon and asked, “What ever happened to recess?

What about chess?
October 12, 2011

While playing bridge recently with an elementary school teacher, she said, “Some of my gifted children play chess.”

Delegate Riley E. Ingram
September 21, 2011

This summer the Virginia General Assembly did what it is required to do every 10 years: It redistricted the state’s House and Senate. Since Virginia has a population of about 8 million, each of the 100 Delegates should represent about 80,000 persons.

A legendary Chester resident
September 7, 2011

Judge Kermit V. Rooke, a longtime resident of Chester, was often seen at the old Post Office wearing a black suit, a yellowing straw hat, and carrying a cane. In retirement, Judge Rooke kept an office on the second story of the Insurance Building where he chewed a cigar, talked on the telephone, and wrote wills for the elderly, gratis.

An education for lawmakers
August 10, 2011

Bessines, France is a village of 1,600 persons located 60 miles west of Paris. Beginning in 1948 until operations ended in 1995, it was a great mining center for uranium, and it enabled France to lead the world in the production of electricity from nuclear energy.