UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – Contrary to conventional wisdom, English-only pre-kindergarten classrooms may not help native Spanish-speaking children become better prepared for school. According to research by FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Spanish-speaking children had better social skills when their teachers spoke some Spanish.

“Many early childhood programs are moving toward a system that may isolate children who are learning English, leaving them at risk for social and language problems,” said an author of the study, Gisele Crawford, a research associate at FPG. The study will be published in the April issue of Early Education and Development.

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Spring Break for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is from April 2-6, with a Teacher Workday scheduled on Monday, April 9.  Classes will resume for all students and staff on Tuesday, April 10.

Another important date for April is a delayed opening that is scheduled for April 19.

Vacaciones de Primavera del 2-6 de abril

Las vacaciones de Primavera para las escuelas de Chapel Hill-Carrboro serán del 2 al 6 de abril, con un Día de Trabajo para los Maestros que será el Lunes, 9 de abril.  Las Clases comenzarán nuevamente el Martes, 10 de abril para todos los estudiantes y para el personal docente.

Otra fecha importante para el mes de abril es el Día de Apertura Demorada que será el 19 de abril.

Take a Walk in the Woods and Pay Attention to the Beech Leaves

By Ken Moore

As Dave Cook engagingly describes in The Piedmont Almanac, “There is something conclusive about the day the old brown beech leaves fall.” Dave’s observation is for the fourth week of March — and he is right on target for this seasonal occurrence in our local Piedmont region around Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

It took me more than two decades to become aware of this recurring seasonal phenomenon. Ten years ago, while driving into town, I realized that the beautiful pale copper-brown leaves that had been clinging to the low horizontal branches of a grove of beech trees the evening before were suddenly absent, having overnight carpeted the forest floor. That morning 10 years ago was April 1, an easy date to remember. I was so intrigued by that observation that I made a mental note to be acutely watchful of the lingering beech tree leaves in future years to determine whether or not an April 1 overnight dropping of beech leaves is one of those actions to anticipate as regularly as the return of the swallows or that reappearance of the hummingbird with the opening of the first columbine flower.

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By Erica Eisdorfer

Recently, NPR’s Terry Gross commented to The New York Review of Books that it’s hard to interview writers who say they’re motivated by the urge to “tell stories.” She says that very often that’s all there is. They’re full up; they spill. If they’re talented enough, we read. In Sacred Games, the enormous new novel by Vikram Chandra, we read compulsively, unable to put the book down.

Sacred Games was preceded by the sort of respectful excitement in the industry that indicates that while the book’s a page-turner, it’s very, very smart and will require smart and patient readers, and thus the readership isn’t guaranteed. The novel thrills (an important thread of the story pits Hindu and Muslim mafia dons against each other), but will the heightened feeling alone keep us reading? Will we have the fortitude to handle the political history, the religious philosophy, the massive information of Sacred Games? Not to worry. Once you open it, it owns you.

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True to Community

The best compliment I can give to The Carrboro Citizen, for its first issue, is that it is truly “community.” In an age of increasing media fragmentation of local interest, The Citizen shows that it intends to cover what’s significant for everybody in its community. I have lived in Chapel Hill all my life, edited and published a predecessor semi-weekly in Carrboro for five years (1954-59) and believe I was dedicated to this same mission. I am confident you will be even more successful and fulfill your “community” mission.

Roland Giduz
Chapel Hill

Parts of story were fabricated

The story in the March 7 Carrboro Commons headlined “Patrolling in the Passenger Seat,” by Nick Sotolongo, detailing a ride-along with Carrboro Police Officer Paul Reinas, contained some story elements that were fabricated. Academic disciplinary action has been taken, and the Commons apologizes to Officer Reinas, the Carrboro Police Department, the readers of the Commons, as well as to the readers of The Carrboro Citizen, which reprinted the story in its March 21 inaugural edition.

Jock Lauterer
Faculty Adviser
The Carrboro Commons

The family of Doris Lohr Mabe Wood, 80, would like to celebrate her peaceful passing on March 24, 2007 in Virginia Beach, VA.

Doris was a homemaker and proud of her years of service as a school bus driver for the City of Chesapeake, VA. Doris was twice widowed; widow of James Lee Wood and previously of James Roy Mabe.

Doris was born to the late Hubert D. Lohr and Bercella Heilig Lohr of High Point. She was preceded in death by her son, Skeeter L. Wood; two sisters, Mary McCasland and Margaret Skeeters; and two brothers, Dale and David Lohr.
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A story about a ride-along with Carrboro police contained sections that did not happen or happened on a different night.

The author of the story did not help police direct traffic as reported and an incident with a person who spray-painted a driveway took place on an earlier evening — not during the ride-along. The Citizen regrets the error. An apology about the story is in Letters to the Editor on Page 7.

The names of Board of Aldermen member Jacquie Gist’s and Yep Roc’s Tor Hansen were misspelled