My Letter to the Editor, or, Another Goddamn Bee in my Bonnet

So demonstrating my mastery of yet another literary form (I already have porn and scathing movie reviews under my belt), I just got a new letter to the editor published in the SF Chronicle. (This makes about four or five total. I don’t remember exactly.)

It’s a response to an Op-Ed piece about universal access to pre-school, which you probably should look at if you want to make sense of my letter (or if you just want to get your dander up). Or you can just appreciate by itself, in all its context-free glory.

My letter reads as follows and begins now:

Editor — I’m very glad that Daffodil Altan had a good life and a good education without preschool (“A time-honored alternative to universal preschool,” Dec. 28). But apparently she failed to learn that a single counter-example doesn’t disprove a statistical trend.

Nobody is claiming that every single disadvantaged kid who doesn’t get preschool will grow up to be a thug. Nobody is arguing that preschool is the sole solution to poverty and crime. And nobody is trying to force preschool on parents who don’t want it. Advocates of universal preschool are simply claiming that preschool, on the whole, gives a better chance at life to large numbers of kids, and that it should be available to parents who want it.

Altan’s early experience at her mother’s knee sounds wonderful and worthwhile — but it is one person’s experience, and as such it makes a terrible argument against a program that could be hugely beneficial to thousands.

GRETA CHRISTINA
San Francisco

Not bad, huh? I do so enjoy the whole “rational yet snippy” tone that letters to the editor seem to call for. Anyway, you can see the letter in the Chron itself if you like. (You have to scroll about halfway down the Letters page.) Yay! I’m a star!

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My Letter to the Editor, or, Another Goddamn Bee in my Bonnet
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