Letters

The Quest for a Superkid

Pressure didn't make kids smarter 10 years ago, and more pressure won't make them geniuses today [THE PARENT TRAP, April 30]. I think we all would have grown to be happier adults if we had had enough time to play when we were children--and we wouldn't have become so obsessed with getting our children to the top of the moneymaking pyramid. There are more important things in life than being rich, like having fun. MAKELLA CRAELIUS Somerset, N.J.

How refreshing to read that people are realizing that kids need to be kids. I cringe when I see small children walking home from elementary school with full backpacks. Play and time to be creative and wonder and wander, and time to be with family members, are so important for children's intellectual growth--and they wouldn't hurt us adults either. MARLA B. RAMIREZ Ukiah, Calif.

Re the alleged IQ-boosting effect of the music of Bach and Mozart: we should be encouraging children to listen to it not for how it stimulates the brain but for how it stimulates the heart. BARBARA KLASKIN HARRIS Los Angeles

In trying to tease out the factors that gave rise to the recent findings that children in day care become more aggressive and attention seeking, are we perhaps looking in the wrong direction? Maybe it isn't the day care that makes the difference but the parents. Perhaps parents whose children are in day care are very stressed out, busy and preoccupied when at home, and therefore the children develop demanding behaviors. PEARL O. HOBERMAN Teaneck, N.J.

What kids really need is parents and other adults who pay attention. A study that finds only a mother can provide good child care is inaccurate. Is a short-tempered mother better than a patient caregiver? Is an uninterested mother better than an involved father or grandparent? What nonsense! Mothers work for the same reason that fathers do: to earn a living to support their families. Reading of studies that sound Chicken Little alarms about the effects of day care only creates an additional burden on those of us who are trying to do the best we can for our families. LORAINE JONG Orinda, Calif.

When is someone going to say what the real solution is to the problems kids are having today? Stay home, parents, and rear your children! If that doesn't fit into your plan, then do everyone a favor, and don't have any. SANDY DAIGER Topeka, Kans.

A few kids on the receiving end of the push to create little Einsteins let us know how they were holding up (or not). "Most kids are not born geniuses; we have to strain our brains until they bleed," wrote a 12-year-old from Massachusetts, adding, "Parents are competing with other parents to see whose kid is better and smarter." Declared a California teen: "I usually don't finish my homework until 11 p.m. I'm so stressed. I get good grades, but I'm in fear that without more extracurricular activities, I may not get into the college I want." And we got this poignant e-mail from a 14-year-old Ontario girl: "School is great, and so is studying, but sometimes when I'm working inside on a beautiful day I almost start to cry. I hope I don't wake up some day to find I spent my entire childhood behind a textbook."

Slow Fade to Blank

Thank you, Roger Rosenblatt, for writing about your reactions to your mother's death from Alzheimer's [ESSAY, April 30]. My mother also died of this disease two months ago. You have eloquently expressed many of my own feelings at watching my mother slowly slip away. As I walk to work past the flowering trees, enjoying the fresh smell of spring that she loved so much, I miss her. But I had been missing her for some years now. Take a breath of spring, Mr. Rosenblatt. I am, and I think our mothers are too. FELICIA ZETLER Pittsburgh, Pa.

With all due respect to Rosenblatt and his loss, how dare he perpetuate the myth that when a person has Alzheimer's disease, "it takes away everything"? My mother also died of Alzheimer's, and what is amazing about the disease is not what is lost but what remains. The fact is, even when so much of the brain is damaged, people can still respond to human touch, to the voices of those they love, to music, humor and kindness. Yes, Alzheimer's is a terrible disease, but astoundingly, love and joy and beauty do endure in its midst. KATHY LAURENHUE Director of Special Projects Mather Institute on Aging Evanston, Ill.

Double Trouble

Matt Rees' article on the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Hizballah [WORLD, April 30] stated that the "Palestinians are suffering under a heavy-handed Israeli backlash." Is he indicating that the Israelis have the unmitigated chutzpah not to cooperate docilely with their own annihilation? What are they to do--just sit and wait for the knives of the terrorists to be sharpened? RUDOLPH A. MASRY Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.

If Hamas and Hizballah start cooperating, it may lead to an even more powerful terrorist campaign that Israel will have to deal with alone. Does the U.S. government expect Israel to let terrorists bomb its cities and towns and then make concessions to them? The Palestinians won't be happy until they control every holy site in Israel, which everyone knows will never happen. MARTIN KRESHON Charlotte, N.C.

Fly Me to the Moon

If American millionaire Dennis Tito wants to pay millions to stay at the universe's most expensive hotel, the International Space Station [SPACE, April 30], then the partners who own the place should take the money! Is it any more "distasteful" for NASA to charge a steep admission for visitors to gawk at the boringly earthbound Kennedy Space Center? NASA may be missing the boat on pocketing well-needed research money for something that will become commonplace in the future: paid space visits. DAN HERAUF Calgary

Efficacious Herb

Your article "St. John's What?" [MEDICINE, April 30] tells of the millions who take St. John's wort, most of them for mild depression or the occasional blues. The new study you wrote about included 200 subjects, all of whom suffered from "major depression." Perhaps before discounting the herb's effectiveness, researchers should target folks having mild depression. St. John's wort seems to work for me--but heck, I also occasionally take ginkgo biloba to increase mental agility and clear thinking! MEL DAVIS Addison, Texas

St. John's Wort was never intended for use by severely depressed people. It is for short-term use and should never be taken daily for long periods of time. St. John's is safe when used properly and does take the edge off PMS, the blues and mild depression. PEG BOARDMAN Somerset, Mass.

Correction

In our story on Napster that mentioned Senate Judiciary Committee hearings [BUSINESS, April 16], we incorrectly said that musicians Alanis Morissette and Don Henley joined Napster CEO Hank Barry in trying "to sell the Senate on compulsory licenses--giving websites the same status as radio stations, which pay royalty fees for playing music." Rather, Morissette did not directly address the issue of licensing, and Henley stated that compulsory licenses should be considered, but only as a last resort.