Barbara A. VonVillas

There has been a mass of misrepresentation related to Middletown’s West Main Road project. Most of it is built on emotional or personal bias leading to misinformation and/or misinterpretation rather than fact. As a result, productive action related to increasing housing within the project (as well as in other areas of the town) has been delayed by noise while the benefits to the Town of Middletown and its residents are being derailed by opinion and personal interest.

The author, a former teacher, argues that student reliance on technology is negatively impacting their reading and writing skills. The author observed that students who relied on digital formats for reading performed worse than those who used hard copies. The author advocates for restricting cellphone use in schools to improve educational outcomes.

I was an English teacher in the Middletown Public Schools for 18 years, followed by multiple years in school administration in three states, including seven years as a Rhode Island superintendent of schools. After I retired from the public sector, I taught professional and public writing at Roger Williams University for another 18 years.