L.A. Olympics

To the Editors:

Congratulations to Olympics Organizer Peter Ueberroth for his sound management ideas [Oct. 17]. It is too bad Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau did not have such creative talent when he was host to the 1976 Olympics. I, my children and even my grandchildren will be paying for those Games for years to come.

Michel Magnan

Montreal

The 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles should serve as an example. Politics should be set aside, and people should concentrate on what the Games are about: athletics.

Paul Robinson

Moraga, Calif.

It will be interesting to see how the world's athletes are able to compete in the Los Angeles smog.

Roland Daniel Zimany

Carlinville, Ill.

As someone who planned to attend the Moscow Games, I suggest that some kind of tribute be paid in Los Angeles to those athletes and coaches for whom 1980 was the last opportunity to participate.

Margaret C. Kupiec

Pittsburgh

The Soviets shot down the South Korean passenger jet, but the International Olympic Committee will not ban the Soviet Union from the Los Angeles Games. How, then, does the committee explain to South African athletes, both black and white, that they are not welcome?

Leonard Bonn Starker

Stellenbosch, South Africa

Arms and Man

Your article "Negotiating a Build-Down" [Oct. 17] proved that the U.S. can formulate a united front on the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. The President and Congress have finally demonstrated that they can work together to produce a proposal that will ultimately establish equilibrium for both superpowers.

Jeffrey V. FuIbright

Jackson's Gap, Ala.

Meaningful arms reduction is not going to take place until we adopt a "bilateral, verifiable freeze." By freezing the nuclear arms race now, we can sit down with the Soviets and look at what we have, not what we will have or might have. But if we continue to be hard-nosed about deploying new systems such as the MX and Pershing II, the arms race will never end.

Jeffrey S. Kasko

West Lafayette, Ind.

Nicaragua's Revolution

I was disappointed with your article on Nicaragua [Oct. 17] and its subtle but strong bias in favor of Ronald Reagan's policies. With the U.S. trying to destroy Nicaragua economically and militarily, it is no surprise that the country is preparing for war or that press censorship exists (we have also had it during wartime). No wonder improvements in health and education are coming slowly and Nicaraguans are paranoid about contras in their midst. The Sandinistas have the overwhelming support of the people. Our Government should let Nicaragua get on with its political experiment.

James R. Paulson

Northfield, Minn.

Your report on Nicaragua today gave me the impression that the Sandinistas have betrayed the goals of the revolution. Instead of demilitarizing the country and implementing democracy after ousting Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the Sandinistas have turned the country into an armed Soviet camp.

Curt Hayden

Ross, Calif.

It is useless to expect that a pluralistic Marxism may emerge in Nicaragua. Pluralism and Marxism-Leninism are mutually exclusive.

Humberto Belli

Garden City, Mich.

It does not matter what course the Sandinistas are taking. The U.S. has no business interfering and trying to alter the direction of their revolution.

Matthew M. Eichenlaub

Amherst, Mass.

If the purpose of your article on Nicaragua was to expose revolutionary excesses, then I must tell you that the only excesses exposed were your own.

Stuart Gitzes

Philadelphia

As a Nicaraguan, I want to make one thing clear. General Augusto Cesar Sandino was a man who hated dictatorships. He fought against foreign intervention, including that of the U.S. Marines, and desired a free Nicaragua. How can the present junta call itself Sandinista if no other significant political parties exist, if Soviet and Cuban advisers are on the scene, and if freedom of speech is abridged?

Nicasio Ortega

Tustin, Calif.

Reforming Immigration

By killing the Immigration Reform and Control bill [Oct. 17], the House toadied to pressure groups and our whole country was harmed. But the real losers will be the thousands of illegal aliens who were scheduled for aid and eventual citizenship.

Gordon O. Bakken

Santa Cruz, Calif.

Since Speaker Tip O'Neill blocked passage of the immigration-reform bill, his Hispanic vote will now increase by thousands per day.

Larry Bieza

St. Paul

Lady Veep

The women you mentioned as potential vice presidential candidates for 1984 [Oct. 17] were all qualified. However, you omitted the most appealing choice of all: Barbara Jordan, whose speech at the 1976 Democratic National Convention was so impressive. No matter how long the presidential campaign drags on, it would never be trite with Jordan on the ticket.

Robert C. Alden

Austin

Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President? Considering that the Democrats have seven dwarfs running for President, Ferraro would look like Snow White. I say Ferraro for President.

Al Volpe

Woodside, N. Y.

Learning to Teach

In your cover story on America's schools [Oct. 10], you quoted me as saying that for the first time in many years "the central matter is being discussed: teaching and learning. Not civil rights or free lunches or girls vs. boys."

An approach that concentrated on teaching and learning was the main contribution of my book The Paideia Proposal. The favorable response that the program elicited focused on its recommendation of three distinct types of teaching and learning that must be operative throughout the twelve years of basic schooling. These methods are in contrast to the one kind of teaching that now dominates the scene, which is didactic instruction by lectures and textbooks.

You quote John Goodlad's excellent book A Place Called School to the effect that curricular changes concerning subject-matter instruction will fail "if not accompanied by substantial improvements in pedagogy." Goodlad points out that over 70% of instructional time is devoted to "talk" by teachers that reduces students to a state of bored passivity.

Didactic instruction must take second place to the coaching of all the intellectual skills, linguistic and mathematical. Above all, didactic instruction should be subordinate to the Socratic method of teaching, which advocates asking, not telling, and calls for discussions that genuinely activate the minds of students and produce mental growth.

Mortimer J. Adler

Chicago

Autry's Reprieve

The last-minute stay of execution granted to James David Autry [Oct. 17] only heightens the bitterness we in Texas feel toward our ineffectual courts and the A.C.L.U. for its role in the case. Although it has become a cliche the question I ask is meaningful: When will our society worry more about justice for the victims of senseless crimes and less about those who commit them?

Michael K. Bathke

San Antonio

Autry deserves to die. But canceling his execution only 30 minutes before it was to take place is cruel and unusual punishment.

Charles W. Sills

Newport News, Va.

Would those who want to spare Autry's life dare sell him his next six-pack of beer?

William Branzburg

Burlingame, Calif.

Goal for Golding

TIME objected to William Golding's receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature [Oct. 17] because his books are easily comprehended by the adolescent mind. If a writer can by dramatic means induce young readers to be introspective and maybe to think constructively, should we titter at his being recognized?

Anne S. Hocking

Essex, Conn.

Your article on Golding is unfair. Golding distinguishes himself by his penetration of the human psyche. He conveys his point of view in prose that is powerfully allegorical and often highly poetic.

Christina L. Griffiths

Hamburg, West Germany This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.