The writer of The Proof Is in the District's Report asked "Are we to assume that once again there has been a mistake in printing statistics ... ?" Well, any Manhasset High School student knows all too well the problem that occurs when you "assume." In this case, the "mistake" is that of the writer, not of Manhasset Public Schools. You see, the graph printed with the letter in question is not displaying the results of all AP examinations taken by both Manhasset students and nationally in 2004, but only the results of the AP examination given in the subject of statistics! (i.e., there is an AP Statistics exam given, just as there is one given for AP Chemistry or AP History, to name only a few.)

Perhaps, had the writer received an education from the very school system being attacked, such a blinding, mistake might not have been made. But, the real problem goes far deeper. In their attempt to arouse community sentiment against our schools, too many people, like the author of that amusingly inaccurate letter, have spewed forth a continuous stream of misinformation, distortion, misleading partial statistics and downright lies. Unfortunately, in an age when too many of us form our opinions from 30-second sound bites and slick television ads that never even approach either the real issues or the truth, those lies often make far more of an impact than do the later corrections and statements of fact.

The question each of us should ask, then, is whether such insults as the letter from which I quoted were offered simply as the uneducated mistakes of someone who doesn't know any better, or the intentional acts of someone attempting to sway public opinion without regard to ethics or the truth. Either way, they are not worthy of our attention - or of that of our board of education.

Paul Leone Peters