As retired Hacienda Science Magnet teachers, it was a pleasure to read the Willow Glen Resident article (Earth Day is every day for students going to Hacienda magnet school, May 4) recognizing Hacienda's observance of Earth Day.

For years, Carolyn Flanagan, science resource teacher, has used this annual observance as an opportunity to demonstrate to parents and guests the accrued knowledge Hacienda students gain as they progress from kindergarten to fifth grade. Flanagan's curriculum has students at each grade level focus in depth for the year on one biome found in the outdoor classroom such as the redwood forest, riparian or chaparral. It is tremendously impressive to tour that classroom each Earth Day with fifth-grade students serving as knowledgeable guides demonstrating and explaining what they have learned.

The Hacienda music program, led so ably this year by teacher Amy Hahner, enriches the Earth Day program and functions throughout the year as an adjunct to deepen students' knowledge of science concepts through music and song.

We'd like to make one slight correction to the wonderful article. The outdoor classroom is full of animals year round. The ponds contain mosquito fish and crayfish. Squirrels abound. Flanagan keeps a chart of the many resident birds like Anna's hummingbirds, belted kingfishers, house finches, and egrets, as well as migratory birds like Cooper's hawks, which are regularly seen and which are familiar to the students.

Most exciting for students are the mallards that nest every spring on the islands in the ponds and produce their broods of ducklings, which eventually make their way across Almaden Expressway to the Guadalupe River. This is truly an exemplary school with an exemplary science program.

Kathy Haydel and Elaine Gould

Willow Glen

'P. Freely not welcome' sign sends message

You're right when you say the world does not revolve around the family pet. Nor, however, does it revolve around you as you seem to believe. You are asking dog owners to control nature. Or, more importantly, one of our pets' natural instincts, to protect their family from intruders. If, when you pass a house the dog is barking loudly, chances are the dog is barking at you. You're the reason the dog is reacting, to warn his family that someone, a stranger, is very near his home.

There are many responsible dog owners out there, including the ones who pick up after their dogs. I detest as much as you do the droppings left behind by a dog with a careless owner. But as for a dog urinating, I'd be hard pressed to stop my dog from doing what comes naturally. My dog's name is I.P. Freely, and like most dogs with that name she just does what comes naturally. Just the way nature created her. If you find a problem with that, you'll have to take it up with Mother Nature.

I have to admit, I never gave it a thought that someone would resent my little dog using their front lawn as a pit stop, since the urine does no harm and I've never seen a dog urinate on a flower bed. Here's an idea: Why not place a marker or flag on your lawn that reads: "P. Freely not welcome," and dog owners will bypass your house altogether. That would be a good thing for you and even better for the dogs.

Until then, I guess you'll just have to be a little kinder, a little more understanding of human nature and more compassionate for your fellow neighbors and their pets. I'm sure they will respond in kind.

R. Wright

Willow Glen

Friday the 13th in Garden Theatre lot

On Friday the 13th I came back from the lunch hour from hell. My car was backed into at the Garden Theatre parking lot. Then I was verbally harassed by the parking nazi while the other party and I were trying to exchange information.

The harassment was more upsetting than anything else. The man insisted I move my car (it wasn't blocking anyone) and told the drivers going around me to "just take her door off." If there hadn't been a line of cars stopped for interrogation by him, the woman backing out of her parking place wouldn't have hit me.

As I was leaving the lot still upset, he had the nerve to grin and shout out. "Have a nice weekend." This horrid behavior is unacceptable. This individual is enough to keep me from shopping at any of the establishments in the Garden Theatre.

Susan Lagassa

San Jose