‘Gifted Students Under Fire’

Andrew Wolf’s piece on gifted and talented education outlines one of the next big debates in education reform. I write a syndicated column for parents on education topics and reader mail shows concern about cuts of these programs [“Gifted Students Under Fire,” Opinion, November 30, 2004].

Parents of children who would benefit from accelerated programs are finding, as Mr. Wolf notes, that it’s increasingly difficult for schools to make the case for them because of budget priorities, charges of elitism, unclear “No Child Left Behind” direction on the gifted, or the belief that if you start a program every student must have access.

The broader community – including universities and businesses – needs to weigh in to support parents and educators who believe we’re doing a disservice to students who can move faster and achieve more than the mainstream.

LEANNA LANDSMANN
Manhattan

PBS and Wal-Mart

Bruce Bartlett’s recent column attacking the “Frontline” broadcast, “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” is inaccurate and has a whiff of sour grapes [“PBS Airs a Hit-Piece on Wal-Mart,” Opinion, November 19, 2004].

While “Frontline” producers did extensively interview Mr. Bartlett, it was at his suggestion that we also contacted Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute.

Mr. Lindsey, along with others, made many of the economic and free-trade points Mr. Bartlett claims were missing from the program.

In addition, the “Frontline” documentary quite clearly gave Wal-Mart credit for helping cut the cost of living and helping to boost American productivity, while its strategies were cutting into good American jobs.

As for Mr. Bartlett’s complaint that the Wal-Mart spokesperson was” ineffectual,” we should note that “Frontline” sought an interview with Wal-Mart’s chief executive officer, Lee Scott, but he declined.

Wal-Mart did provide two spokespeople. We used them both.

LOUIS WILEY
Executive Editor
“Frontline” – WGBH Boston

Jewish Paris

The article on “Jewish Paris,” a phrase that comes increasingly to seem like an oxymoron, overlooked the interesting background of the Museum of Jewish Art and History described in the last paragraph [“Past and Present Intersect in Jewish Paris,” Tyler Maroney, Travel, November 26, 2004].

Built in the 17th century as a hotel particulier for a court functionary, the mansion was later acquired by a member of the nobility. After the Revolution the building became the town hall of the Seventh Arrondissement.

By the mid-19th century the neighborhood had declined and the once great house had been transformed into a commercial property divided into a number of small workshops where Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe lived and worked at trades such as the production of small leather goods.

In 1942, foreign-born Jews were rounded up by the Paris police and after being interned under hellish conditions in camps on the outskirts of the city, in full view of the French residents of the neighboring buildings, were put on trains by French functionaries to be sent back where they had come from – to “the East.”

Those Jews who managed to elude capture went into hiding, but two-thirds of the Jewish population of France, French citizens as well as the foreign-born, were sent to the death camps by their French countrymen. Among them were infants and toddlers who had been torn from their parents and whom French deputy Pierre Laval decided it would be a good idea to send to “rejoin” them.

Throughout the war years, in the “free zone” of Vichy as well as in the German-occupied zone, the French spirit of entrepreneurship had a field day, as the profession of informing on Jews in hiding led to the acquisition of the property – real estate, furniture, paintings – of those whose sudden departure had made their belongings available.

After the war, the mansion on the aptly named Rue du Temple was acquired by the city of Paris and restored, and in 1986 the then-mayor of Paris – none other than Jacques Chirac – proposed that the building be made into a museum commemorating the culture the French had proved so adept in helping to eradicate.

It is a noble attempt, by the French government and the Jews living in France today, to paper over the dark past, but in the face of the current resurgence of anti-Semitism in France, the museum’s own history says more about the relationship of the Jews to Paris than the “Jewish patisseries and trendy boutiques” described by the author of the article.

RITA KRAMER
Manhattan
Mrs. Kramer is the author of “When Morning Comes,” the story of a Jewish resistance group in World War II France.

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