•December 14, 2022•
Editors Note: The following letters to the editor were submitted by Cami Badman’s honors English students at Sullivan High School. Studnts picked a debatable topic of their choice and used the techniques they learned in class. Several letters were provided to us and we have chosen to print the following letters. These are a continuation from last week’s edition.

Dear Editor,
Throughout recent years, standardized testing has become more prevalent across the United States. Millions of students are forced to test long hours and told to try their best. However, these tests fail to accurately measure the students of America. All things considered, there should not be standardized tests in schools. Derrick Meador, an education expert, exclaims,“ Students are tested on grade-appropriate material but they are not retested to determine if they have learned information they tested poorly on the year before.” If students are not retested, how would anyone know whether they have improved or not? With inaccurate tests, there should be no point in requiring students to take the tests in the first place. Read More

•December 14, 2022•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

If you haven’t gotten around to buying, addressing or mailing holiday cards yet, odds are you either aren’t going to or you are waiting to see who is sending you one before you decide in whom you should invest SIXTY CENTS in postage.
If you’re one of those sentimental types, the least you can do is address the card properly. Especially if the only ones you’ll send them to are your bosses.
What follows will look familiar if you’re the type to clip and laminate all of my columns.
This isn’t about greeting card etiquette but rather punctuation.
If my mailbox is a sign, it’s clear a reminder is in order.
Before you send your photo card to the printer or fill out that first envelope, a few words of caution: Unless your addressees are Irish or French, chances are they don’t have an apostrophe in their surnames.
If you’re addressing a card to Reggie and Gertrude Jones and the nine children in their blended family but don’t want to name them all, don’t write The Jones’ family, The Jones’ or The Joneses’. Read More