To the Editor:
Regarding “Promises to ‘Unlikely’ Graduates” by Megan K. Stack (Guest essay in Opinion magazine, June 9):
Ms. Stack offers parents, educators, and teens wisdom and perspective on resilience and hope.
A teenager I worked with several years ago who struggled academically and with other issues in high school but is now a successful adult contacted me recently and told me that the biggest misconception he had as a child was that everyone told him that if he didn’t excel in high school, he’d never amount to anything.
What changed his life and helped him persevere was when his father got help through family therapy and finally believed in him, even though his son’s academic performance was not very good.
Young people are work in progress, on different trajectories that can be tipped in either direction by adults. Children are sensitive to the implicit messages they receive from their parents about what failure and success look like. An exaggerated sense of risk, born out of parents’ own fears, feeds their children’s anxieties and increases the pressure to meet expectations lest they disappoint.
Ironically, this mindset prevents kids from sustaining intrinsic motivation and developing a stable sense of self to guide them, skills associated with resilience and future success in college.
Lynn Margolies
Newton, Massachusetts
The author is a clinical psychologist working with teenagers and their parents.
To the Editor:
Kudos to Megan K. Stack for writing an essay for graduating students who don’t know what to do next.
I remember graduating from college feeling completely unsure of what to do next and filled with sadness and anxiety (made worse by the fact that I graduated during the 2008 recession).
It took some soul searching, hard work and a bit of luck, but I found my place at work and in the world.
Evan Miller
Pittsburgh
The author is a project manager at a financial institution.
To the Editor:
It is unfortunate that college-bound high school graduates are described as “successful” and the encouragement given to other students misses some important points.
Not every child is cut out for college, nor can they afford or incur the large amounts of debt required for college tuition. Today’s skilled workers, or artisans, are facing an employment crisis as skilled laborers retire.
Many companies offer paid training and work-share programs that can help you land a challenging, high-paying job with great growth potential in fields like construction, automotive and aviation — without having to pay for college tuition.
Susan Besson
Evanston, Illinois
To the Editor:
Megan K. Stack’s wonderful essay reminded me of something I have thought about many times in my 40+ years as a high school teacher and administrator.
When I heard comments about promises that seemed unfulfilled or a general misdirection, the phrase “they’re not a finished product” almost always seemed appropriate.
Over the years, I have enjoyed attending alumni events and seeing for myself how high school grades may or may not predict a student’s future. My conclusion is that there is simply no way to know what the future holds for any particular high school graduate.
Michael Chimes
Alamuchi, New Jersey
Alito and “sanctity”
To the Editor:
Regarding Mark O. DeGirolamy’s “What Did Alito Do Wrong?” (Guest essay in Opinion magazine, June 15):
I found it extremely troubling that Professor DeGirolamy endorsed Justice Samuel Alito’s comments about a return to “godliness.” Thomas Jefferson made the case for separation of church and state in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.
Relying on God and piety for morality led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a disaster for women in this country. Religious beliefs have no place in our justice system.
Nancy Gerber
Madison, Connecticut
Sudan’s ‘epic tragedy’
To the Editor:
Regarding “War-ravaged Sudan pushes it towards the abyss” (June 8, front page):
Sudan’s war is a tragedy of epic proportions that has continued since the country was divided in two in 2011. For more than 50 years, conflict has ravaged Sudan unabated, driving men to combat and women to unimaginable violence.
I was born into this violence and became a refugee at the age of five. As this article makes clear, Sudan is once again on the brink of catastrophe. Children will be separated from their families, made homeless and endure years of deep trauma and abuse. Many will starve to death.
“Starvation is being used as a weapon in Sudan. The United Nations must speak clearly and forcefully that Sudan is suffering from starvation and recognize the massive death toll and anarchy that will result if self-serving parties continue to choose sides between the military and militias vying for control of the country, instead of helping to negotiate a lasting peace.”
Abang Anade Osou
Sydney, Australia
The author is a national ambassador for the Australian Refugee Council and a survivor of the 1983 Sudanese civil war.
Protecting whistleblowers
To the Editor:
“Insider warns of OpenAI’s reckless race to become No. 1” by Kevin Roose (The Shift, June 5th, front page) is a reminder of how much we rely on whistleblowers to step forward and alert the world to dangerous practices, often at their own peril, motivated only by their own ethical standards.
It also serves as a stark reminder that whistleblowers currently rely on a patchwork of protections and programs run by individual agencies for specific industries.
We need a broader, more inclusive approach to whistleblower protection that covers all employees in the technology sector, which remains shrouded in secrecy and largely unregulated even as it creates new and mysterious products that will impact our lives in ways we don’t yet fully understand.
Artificial intelligence and social media are the most urgent examples of industries in desperate need of the transparency that only whistleblowers can provide, but we must use this opportunity to extend whistleblower protections even more broadly so that we don’t have to wait for the next open letter from an insider to find out who was leaking.
Sam Brown
Washington
The author is a whistleblower lawyer.
Dreading Election Night
To the Editor:
I loved election nights ever since I was a kid. I can tell you who won and who lost every election ever, and who their VP was, or would have been, if they had won. I can also tell you who the third party candidates were and if they influenced the outcome of the election. I would take a nap that day so I could stay up late.
I am dreading election night this year and am planning on not getting enough sleep the night before so I can sleep through to election day.
Republican election deniers are trying to make it seem like Donald Trump will win or that the election will be rigged. We don’t know what the outcome of this election will be.
We, the people, have an obligation to fix this. We must hold our legislators, our judicial system, and of course the media accountable. Right now we have a problem with too much polling and not enough reporting; too much on mood and too little on facts. We have an obligation to do better.
Elliot Miller
Bala Sinwood, Pennsylvania
