As a retired American history AP teacher I read with much interest the article concerning gifted and talented and AP classes offered in Nacogdoches High School. I applaud the district in looking for guidance in redefining the GT program and broadening the criteria from IQ tests results to other indicators. I was also greatly relieved when Nacogdoches ISD responded by defending its teachers regarding selection of GT students. However, I am concerned about the lack of distinction between GT and AP courses and the intent of each.

I know how much dedication it takes on the part of teachers and students to commit to an AP course. In addition to meeting the state requirements, the AP curriculum is very content-driven, with the ultimate goal of taking and getting a grade of 3 or higher on a standardized test at the end of the course to get college credit. Whether or not a student should select such a course is clearly outlined in the catalog of courses issued by NISD. There are, according to the most recent catalog, only 9 AP courses offered. The pre-AP courses are numerous and the curriculum and methods used in these classes should be challenging students to achieve at higher levels without having to take a national standardized test. I would? hope that these classes are not just "more" of the same content to meet state requirements but that the higher levels of learning and interest are being addressed.

I fully agree with Halverson's statement that "what we really have to do is build a strong academic culture and expectations for all of our students, so we don't miss that potential." Measuring a strong academic culture does not mean, however, measuring the ethnic distribution in AP courses. I hope the quality of gifted and talented, pre-AP and AP courses will not be diluted. If this happens the district will suffer. I have seen it happen elsewhere and it does not benefit anyone.

Barbara Roberts

Chireno

Retired AP teacher

Austin ISD

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Thanks for finally publishing some truth about Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Thanks to her, your share of the gross national debt is now $30,211.48. This same amount is each also each of your dependents' share.

Ty Box

2651 CR 817

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Re: Sentinel Oct. 22 article on needs of new NHS Library

It seems a bit peculiar that the "new" library now needs 12,000 more books, to meet TEA guidelines. Apparently, the Nacogdoches High School library wasn't 12,000 books short until "it was out with the old books (12,000 of them, 'whose average publishing date was 1968') and in with the new." What sort of regard for the written word would jettison most of the literature in the English language? One can only ask, is there any Dickens left? any Austen, any Trollope, any Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitigerald, Conrad, Eliots (T.S. and George)? Any unabridged Shakespeare? Is anyone left? And how were those 12,000 "old books" outed from the glittering new library?

Even more disturbing, what of the volumes donated to the NHS library to honor its administrators, its teachers, its students, in particular those deceased and remembered by books dedicated to their memories?

After having read the article I called Kathy McCuen to inquire if the rare, pristine 1909 edition of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," presented to the library in 2004 to commemorate the graduation of my students in my final year as a teacher at NHS, remained among the holdings. She directed me to the library's online catalogue to learn if the valuable-and-once-valued book had made the cut. That book is no longer among the holdings.

Nor are two signed copies "Maxwell Anderson" (1976) and "The Life of Maxwell Anderson" (1983) personally presented to the library by the author, former Stephen F. Austin State University professor Dr. Alfred Shivers when in 1997, he spoke to NHS English III students about modern American drama and dramatists.

Perhaps now is the time to ask at what price has this attempt to breathe "new life into the NHS library" come?"

Leann K. West

Nacogdoches

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Evolution Is A Religion

Mr. Bryan Byrd recently stated that those who do not support evolution are ignorant.

Evolution is a religion and not a science at all. This is a statement from an evolutionist (Dr. Michael Ruse) who says it might best be understood as a worldview, a religious claim of naturalism that holds that natureis all there is.

No, "science" has not proved the earth is old. The oldest written records we have, apart from the Bible, are in Egypt and Sumeria, and these only go back a few thousand years. The great fossil "record," instead of displaying vast ages of evolution, really shows the remains of a worldwide hydraulic cataclysm.

Nowhere in the fossil record are there any genuine evolutionary transitional forms between kinds, and certainly no one has ever observed true evolution taking place in all recorded history. Many geologists now recognize that all formations were laid down very rapidly. The flood of Noah.

There are many who try to join the Bible with evolution with their gap theory, etc. There is no way you can reconcile the Bible to evolution. God created the earth in six 24-hour days, just as we now have. This is true or the whole Bible is false. He rested on the seventh day.

There is overwhelming scientific evidence to support creation and a young earth only thousands of years old.

The evolutionists start with their answer and then fill in everything to match, and they are constantly changing what they thought was true yesterday. The Bible and creation is the same now as always.

Roland Muckleroy

Nacogdoches

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Looks like to me the difference over the past nine months under the Democrats is that millions of folks are out of work — 10 percent and climbing.

The Nobel Peace Prize: Look who got one: Carter and Gore.

Peace? What about that does Obama know?

Let's get real here. You say for three reasons — to improve the economy? Hurry and get started.

How about Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh. We need more of them. You should give an IQ test to both of then. You might even learn something.

Obama got the Nobel Prize — I wonder who cares.

I will agree with John, painting out president as a humanist, socialist, fascist dictator — and you don't know what that means?

A Democratic Party chairman should know everything.

You state Obama was a Christian and he sat in the Rev. Wright's church for some 20 years and did not even remember. Wright was not the only nut Obama hung out with, egg heads.

How about this health care, that Obama wants passed. The illegal folks get the same as all Americans. Who pays for this — you and I.

Government is trying to run banks, but they can't even run the Whitehouse.

Millions of Americans are out of work, gas and everything else. Have you shopped lately?

Obama does a lot of talking and walking, eight on Air Force 1 or the copter; he can sure burn fuel.

Now I know what a Depression is. I lived in one. I also know what a war is. I fought in one\u201A in Korea. Under a president call Harry S. Truman

You should be proud to be a Democrat.

I was a soldier.

I am a soldier.

I will always be a soldier

Sgt. Bobby York

212 E. Lane Drive.