Bird museum permit should be a no-brainer

It is an indisputable fact that this country's growth has come at the hands of a well-educated society and students well versed in science and math.

But we now are on pretty shaky ground.

While other countries like China are turning out students with talents in those fields, the United States is trying figure out why its middle and high school students have not shown any improvement in those areas in the past five years, according to InternationalEd.org.

An article on this Web site argues that it is not enough for American school children to be compared to other children in the country, but that their achievement needs to be tracked globally. After all, how do you compete globally if you don't know what your competition is doing?

A report on this site says our success hinges on the national standards and alignment of math and science, strong core curriculum, rigorous teacher preparation, exams to motivate students and time on task. It seems secondary students in China spend a month more in school each year than we do, and spend twice as much time studying.

A local science teacher recently made the comment that so much emphasis is being placed on reading in elementary school, that there is little room for science until middle school.

And living in a rural community, the opportunity to expose school children to science is pretty limited, with the exception of a summer camp coordinated by the Sandpoint Parks and Rec Department.

This community now has another resource to get kids hooked on math and science: The Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center. Drs. Forrest and Pam Riddle Bird and Rachel Riddle have great plans for the facility, all geared toward turning kids onto these subjects, including science camps.

Already, they have hooked up the kids with docents, including retired Top Gun CO Chris Wilson and Quest employees.

Our hope is that the Bonner County Commissioners and the Planning Board will support the conditional use permit for this facility, recognizing that this is an easily accessible and much needed resource unlike anything in the area.

They have built it. The students are coming and learning.

Who could have a problem with that?

—MARLISA KEYES,

staff writer