Wow! If you watched Monday night’s nationally televised Bears game, you saw a hard-fought, well-deserved home team victory. You also saw the city of Chicago on a perfect autumn night displayed in all its glory. The flyover shots of open-air Soldier Field teeming with excited fans. Panoramic views across the city of the classic Chicago River bridges, world-renowned architecture, a vibrant Navy Pier, and the picturesque lakefront and Museum Campus. Like the Bears, that Chicago night couldn’t be beat. We live in an amazing world-class city.
Now fast-forward five years: What will we be seeing? An oversized domed stadium with a corporate logo surrounded by the vast suburban sprawl of Arlington Heights or the industrial landscape of Hammond, with Illinois fans probably paying an out-of-state ticket surcharge?
Come on, Chicago. We have to step up and figure out a Chicago Bears solution. There are at least a dozen mayoral candidates lined up looking for votes. Any ideas from this group?
Voices need to be heard by our aldermen and other elected officials. Let’s at least give it a good, better, best effort.
— Lindsay R. Resnick, Chicago
Wild card games inaccessible
Writing for all Chicago baseball fans, I would like to thank MLB for making it nearly impossible to see our teams in the wild card games. We pay to see them during the regular season, then the playoffs get moved to TV providers many of us have no access to.
— Frank Chambers Jr., Chicago
Questions about AI school
The article on the Alpha School proposed for Evanston should raise many questions (“An AI school without teachers looks to move into former Roycemore building,” Sept. 27):
• Is Alpha School’s dependence on artificial intelligence tutoring for academics effective when most current research says it is valuable as a supplement rather than a replacement for instruction?
• If the AI programs are more like worksheets than Socratic dialogues, do they foster critical thinking effectively?
• Does the use of extrinsic motivation/rewards do more harm than good?
• What is the training of the adult “guides” who replace teachers?
• What about the lack of enrichment classes such as music and art?
• Is the required Alpha Bootcamp too stressful? The use of heart monitors too invasive?
• Doesn’t the high tuition self-select a student body that comes to school already advantaged?
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• Why is all the data about results self-reported, without external validation?
There are aspects I do find appealing. I avidly support the small student-staffer ratio, the time devoted to life skills and real-world experiences, project-based and problem-based learning, and the use of the mascot, Steve the Yet Yeti, to promote a “growth mindset” — the conviction that learners can grow and develop through hard work and learning from failures.
But we should be concerned about the level of self-promotion, the lack of outside validation and the dependence on AI tutoring that marketing expert Edward Nevraumont says is closer to a “turbocharged spreadsheet checklist with a spaced‑repetition algorithm.” I am less concerned with Evanston’s ultimate zoning decision than I am with the potential consequences for students who would enroll in the school.
We should be wary.
— Ellen Jo Ljung, Geneva
The use of AI in education
Two articles in the Sunday edition caught my interest. I was appalled to read that Roycemore in Evanston, previously a private school, is going to open as an artificial intelligence-run school. I’m happy that a new school is opening to serve children but stunned to read it will not be staffed by teachers.
What is happening in our education system?
AI is definitely an asset when used appropriately. But not as a way to teach young children. Now I will refer to another article in the Sunday Tribune, correctly titled “Hidden cost of AI isn’t your data. It’s your ability to think.”
Why do we want to take young minds, make them dependent on AI, and not give them the opportunity to think and grow? And also, why would our future college students want to become teachers? I wonder who is making these decisions for the future generations.
I am a fan of AI — after I write a paper, I may want some guidance as to how to express certain aspects. But I like to use my own brain to formulate my thoughts. AI can be incorporated in a program for young students, but that should not replace certified teachers who have spent years studying how to use one’s ability to think.
I’m hoping this new development at Roycemore will provoke more thought so we do the right thing for our future generations. They deserve better.
— Myrna Silver, Coral Gables, Florida
CPS should consolidate
There are more than 11,000 fewer students in Chicago Public Schools this year. What does that mean for the school system? For taxpayers, it means that classrooms that go unoccupied will still need to be maintained and heated.
Suburban schools that experience a loss in students make the decision to close schools to save money. Chicago must make the same decision and close schools.
It’s been 13 years since the last consolidation.
— Jerome C. Malon, Chicago
The CTU will disagree
I read with interest the Tribune Editorial Board’s Chicago Board of Education endorsements and also Clarence Page’s column in Monday’s paper (“Nikole Hannah-Jones demonstrates why parents sometimes need to go to school, too”). Page is especially insightful and bold.
I anticipate that the Chicago Teachers Union’s response to both will be especially righteous and rationalizing.
— Mike Noonan, Elmhurst
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Look to ‘Mississippi miracle’
Paige Ponder in a recent op-ed (“In Chicago, what does student success actually look like?” Sept. 28) asks what student success looks like. The answer is obvious: high academic achievement. The methods for achieving the success are also obvious, but inexplicably, she ignores them.
Namely, emulate the “Mississippi miracle” in which fourth grade achievement in reading skyrocketed from 49th to ninth place in the nation, despite the fact that Mississippi spends 60% of what Illinois spends per pupil on education.
— Robert Eme, Evanston
Protect wetlands in Illinois
I’m worried that the coverage of the activist opposition to the proposed Grayslake data center is missing an important point: Data center development is just one in a myriad of threats facing crucial wetland habitats such as Grayslake. Ad hoc opposition is not a sustainable strategy to ensure wetlands receive necessary protections.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to narrow the Clean Water Act’s protective purview has placed Illinois wetlands in extreme danger. We have just 10% of our original wetlands, and without federal protections, these ecosystems will only increase in rarity. Wetlands are valuable not just as natural spaces and wildlife habitats, but also as “kidneys” of the ecosystem. They filter harmful pollutants and excess nutrients from our water supply. As storm buffer zones, they limit the damage of extreme weather events, reducing economic and social fallout. Nationwide, wetlands serve as quintessential carbon sinks, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions with staggering efficiency.
These areas deserve protection from unregulated development. Illinois lawmakers recognize the risk of leaving wetlands unprotected. The proposed Wetlands Protection Act would grant the Department of Natural Resources permitting power. Let’s call on our leaders to prioritize this issue in the upcoming legislative session.
As students, residents, water recreationists and wildlife lovers, we need to take action now to protect wetlands before they are gone forever.
— Orin Gentner, student, Illinois PIRG at the University of Illinois Chicago
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].