As a graduate of Monta Vista High School, I've been through the so-called "system," a process where students take a heavy dosage of advanced placement and honors classes to maximize their chances of going to college. While I was never pressured by my parents and in fact enjoyed the challenges of these advanced classes, I will still throw my two cents into the blame war from the Courier's March 10 article "Low grades in AP class raising questions."

The article mentions four main culprits: the students, the parents, the teachers and the school administration. I don't think that the administration is at fault because the whole ideology of taking advanced classes has become so ingrained at Monta Vista and Lynbrook that any administrative effort would prove useless. The teachers shouldn't be blamed either because AP classes are meant to help students get college credit, thus they should be as hard as college classes. My experience as a teacher cadet made me realize what stress teachers deal with every day, especially those devoted to teaching an AP class. The students should not be held responsible either. Most of them would rather get out of this "system" and cut down their workload. Most of the time, though, the parents won't let them.

Students are not able to escape what some would call academic hell because many parents just won't allow it. They keep insisting that their children have to go to some Ivy League school or UC Berkeley because they believe that is the only way students can be successful and happy.

To the students who know what I'm talking about: there's more to life than getting into that dream school, getting that 5.0 or making six-digit figures. My unweighted GPA and SAT scores were below UCLA and UC Berkeley's averages, but I still got into both schools.

If you'd be more comfortable at UCSD than at Harvard, by all means go to UCSD. There's no point in going to a school that you don't want, because if you don't feel comfortable there, you won't do well in your classes. As much as I want to become a doctor making over a hundred thousand a year, I'd be just as happy coming back to Monta Vista teaching physics and making less than $50,000.

Choose a career that you love, not one that will get you a lot of money, because you might be doing it for a long, long time. The bottom line is this: learn what you want to learn, do what you want to do, and live how you want to live.

Daniel Nguyen

Monta Vista High School graduate 2003

The thing students are
missing is a social life

The article of March 10 "Low grades in AP classes raising questions" itself raised some important points. Students should only take—or, at worst, only be allowed to take—AP classes at the greatest discretion.

Many students in our "high-powered" district fail to realize that the colleges they so ambitiously desire to enter will often prefer the more well-rounded student to the heavier transcript. Students who spend their lives on Advanced Placement U.S. history homework had better be planning to major in some sort of social science; AP classes should reflect genuine interests or strengths, rather than abandonment of arts, sports and sleep.

Many AP classes are more rigorous than the college equivalent. This can be beneficial to those who want a jumpstart on, say, their biology major—but at the same time, it means more work for those who have AP bio tacked onto their other four AP's and honors classes. Many students resort to cheating in order to preserve their treasured 4.5. For my part, I don't want to have heart surgery performed by a "bright young doctor" who cheated his way through medical school.

Perhaps the least important (and sadly so) item which students are missing out on is their social life. True, some develop friends with their study groups or cheating circles, but whatever happened to seeing movies on Friday nights? Now, the only relaxation students get comes with a calculus textbook as a pillow.

Some students are stronger than others and do have the ability to handle a giant course load and come out with flying colors. These students are those who are accepted to MIT and Harvard—for the rest, college classes are indeed still offered by colleges.

Peter Hilton

Cupertino

Stevens Creek, De Anza
corner unplanned growth

As a resident of Cupertino for the past 40 years, I am offended by the commercial building that is being allowed in our once-charming city.

This letter is in response to the Courier's March 3 letter from Nolan Chen concerning a "General Plan" for growth in Cupertino. As I recall, there was a general plan established previously; however, it would appear that a variance is not difficult to have approved.

Point in fact: the corner of Stevens Creek and De Anza boulevards is an excellent example of unplanned urban growth going completely astray that cannot be justified in any way. Do we have a planning commission that has members with a personal agenda to allow such irresponsible growth?

What has happened to the concept of Spanish architecture that was to be followed for construction in Cupertino? The Oaks is an example of a charming, relaxing complex, and is that to be destroyed also?

Dolores Seiverson

Cupertino

City is not providing affordable housing

Hats off to all those Cupertino residents who worked on the General Plan this past year. I was present when the results were presented to the city council on March 1 and 2.

As a longtime resident of Cupertino, I was particularly interested in the recommendations of the community forum and housing task force. I regret to say that I was very disappointed by their majority report.

Those recommendations, which essentially urged the city to continue with the present housing policy goals and programs, do not meet state housing element law requirements and do not address the jobs and housing imbalance (even though possibly not quite as severe as previously).

Also, the recommendations will actually prevent Cupertino from providing for its diverse work force—teachers, library workers, firefighters, retail employees, young families, seniors, and city employees. Most of them are on salaries or pensions that would preclude them from ever buying a home in Cupertino where the median price of a home is a staggering $800,000.

Local governments have a moral responsibility to provide housing for all their employed and retired persons and families. Building more "above-moderate" housing than is necessary, as Cupertino has done, shows a lack of concern for all.

Between 1989 and 1999, Cupertino built approximately 155 "affordable" homes, well below the projected need of 1,600, whereas 2,114 "above-moderate income" homes were built when the need was only 1,587, according to the last housing element cycle.

Cupertino is a wonderful place to work and live. I would not choose to live anywhere else. It is my most sincere hope that the city council, the task force members and community members will come up with a General Plan that reflects a resolve to meet the moral responsibilities to its people by providing well-designed, good-quality housing, priced within the means of all employed and retired persons and families. This, in turn, will not only benefit Cupertino's diverse work force, seniors and young families; it will strengthen the economic health of Cupertino.

Gertrude Welch

Cupertino

Incorporated properties
counted as unincorporated

After reading in the Feb. 25 issue of the Courier: "Sievert also discovered that properties that had redeveloped and incorporated were counted as unincorporated. The city denied that," I wrote to City Manager David Knapp and asked for clarification from Cupertino's annexation authority. Planning Director Steve Piasecki responded with: "Colin [Jung, senior planner] checked the list and informs me that the parcels you noted below are unincorporated and were counted."

For the record, I repeat: Monta Vista properties that had redeveloped and incorporated were counted as unincorporated. Additionally, so-called "residents" who do not reside in Monta Vista were counted in favor of annexation. Also, Cupertino purchased a third-party "private, for-sale real estate database" list to prepare its mailing list instead of the law-mandated "assessment roll being prepared by the county, for the purpose of the annual levy and collection of any taxes or assessments..."

Finally, at least eight properties did not receive a public hearing notice, and since all eight are missing from the official record/staff report, any explanation—including the one that Mr. Jung hand-wrote six of the eight notices—is akin to the dog ate my homework.

Fun fact: Cupertino used the exact same process to annex Monta Vista as it used to annex both Garden Gate and Rancho.

Susan Sievert

Monta Vista

Council could accede to
will of concerned citizens

Regis withdrew its Oaks condo proposal, but this won't be the last attempt by the owner of the Oaks to build high-density housing on its property.

We must be proactive in stopping more hideous high-density development. Ballot initiatives are usually a poor way to set policy. But when special interests are able to exercise undue influence over politicians, in order to win approval of ill-conceived projects, this limits our alternatives. Residents are dismayed over what's being done to our city under the false monikers of "Mixed Use," and "Smart Growth."

Now, terrified that these initiatives will pass by an overwhelming majority, the city is considering legal action against the individuals who signed the letter submitted with the initiatives. Whoever came up with this McCarthy-era tactic should resign in disgrace. The citizens of Cupertino won't stand for these underhanded attacks.

To paraphrase the president, 'We're a great city, we're a city of resolve, we're a city that can't be cowed by evil-doers.'

There is an easy solution to this matter, one that can defuse tempers and make everyone but the developers happy.

The council could accede to the will of the citizens and simply adopt the three CCC initiatives. This would avoid a costly and embarrassing campaign and election. The developers can either comply with the very reasonable provisions in the initiatives or move on to devastate another city.

Steven Scharf

Cupertino