To the Editor:
Re “Pandemic Steals Another Tradition: Remote Learning Means No More Snow Days” (news article, Sept. 27):
Your article really hit home! I am a mother of four, about to be a grandmother of two and a veteran high school teacher. Some of my favorite childhood memories and my children’s favorite memories include snow days: sleeping in, sledding, snowman-making, fort-building, hot chocolate with marshmallows or a day in pajamas.
Our children have had enough magical experiences whisked away from them in the last year. Please keep a snow day, as magical today as it ever was. Let the children go out and play in the snow!
Wendy Morris
Pennington, N.J.
Give Children Their Privacy
To the Editor:
Re “Brooklyn School Mourns, Then Returns” (news article, Sept. 29):
Reading about an elementary school where a teacher will ask students “how they feel that day” brought back memories of my childhood at the Brooklyn Ethical Culture School, where teachers continually probed students’ feelings.
When I told my parents that I didn’t want to talk about my feelings with anyone at school except my personal friends, my father suggested that I memorize the following sentence: “I’m sorry, but that’s too private for me to discuss with you.”
More than half a century later, I still consider it the most useful sentence I have ever learned. Who is teaching it to children nowadays? Who is even giving them a chance to develop the concept of emotional privacy?
Felicia Nimue Ackerman
Providence, R.I.
Help Black Small Businesses Recover
To the Editor:
When the National Community Reinvestment Coalition sent “mystery shoppers” to banks in the Washington area, they found that Black business owners had a harder time getting Paycheck Protection Program loans than their white counterparts.
The UpState New York Black Chamber of Commerce was not surprised. We know that minority entrepreneurs are at least twice as likely to seek alternative financial products like Merchant Cash Advances to meet their credit needs, according to the Federal Reserve.
These advances provide fast cash at a high price that is not clearly disclosed to borrowers. The Small Business Truth in Lending Act, passed this summer by the New York Legislature and awaiting the governor’s signature, would give borrowers the information they need to make informed decisions.
Lack of access to Paycheck Protection Program loans led to the loss of countless minority-owned businesses. Predatory lenders are now targeting those that are barely hanging on. That’s why we’re urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign the Small Business Truth in Lending Act and give New York’s small businesses a fighting chance at recovery.
Anthony M. Gaddy
Albany, N.Y.
The writer is president and chief executive of the UpState New York Black Chamber of Commerce.