Letters to the Editor

New curriculum ideas are laughable

I found Saray Navarro’s ideas for “incentives” to keep L.A. students in school (“Give LAUSD students new incentives to stay in school,” Feb. 23) laughable at best.

It is ridiculous to say that the best way to teach children is to show them how to draw better graffiti or push “racial awareness” classes that do nothing but serve to segregate and separate students of different ethnic backgrounds.

Instead of promoting ridiculous ideas and nutty agendas, perhaps we should focus on actually teaching kids arithmetic and the basics of reading and writing in English.

Maybe then we wouldn’t have a school system where so many students feel the need to drop out.

Daniel B. Rego

UCLA Class of 2000

Hillel rabbi should not leave his post

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller remains and will continue to remain director of Hillel at UCLA because the students want him there.

The rabbi has made a career of taking controversial stands on political and religious issues, but it is precisely his cross-denominational nature that makes him so successful.

If the number of students attending Hillel events is any indication of his post-incident suitability to serve as Hillel director, then Rabbi Seidler-Feller unquestionably deserves to retain his job.

David Lazar’s column (“Give kicking rabbi the boot,” Feb. 20) is not an argument addressing the rabbi’s fitness to direct Hillel, but is rather a vain attempt to embarrass Rabbi Seidler-Feller into resigning.

Jacob Leven

Third-year, mechanical engineering