Correct they mostly are, but also are people with two heads.

Well, I have been here now for about a quarter of a century, still have not met anyone with more than one head.

I was also told Tasmanians are living in the past and the state has an “anti-group”, that I totally agree is true.

If it was not for people like, Josef Chromy or Errol Stewart, Launceston would be a boring place.

As soon as someone with foresight proposes something which will attract tourists, meaning jobs for Tasmanians, plus money to be spent here the “anti-group” comes out.

Right now it’s don’t want a cable car in Hobart, must not sink a vessel on the East Coast, against mountain bike tracks, don’t want a train through the bush and so on.

What next?

I’M WRITING to congratulate The Examiner for October 11 edition.

It was inspiring to read of the couple who moved to Tasmania and why.

It was terrific to see the support given to the Launceston Show and its five highlights.

Ditto the history of the Earl Arts Centre.

I hope the wider part of Northern Tasmania continues to support your newspaper.

You and your team run an institution that contributes mightily to our community.

WENDY Tuohy (The Examiner, September 29) comments on the use of the word “missus”.

I  agree that it was total stupidity for Mr Milne to use the word in his capacity as an executive with the ABC.

I don’t use the word in my lifestyle and social networks ever.

But I have counselled men and women for 35 years in many, many contexts, and have come across the use of the word “missus” from time to time.

I accept with Wendy that the use of the word “missus” will often sound and be disempowering and diminishing to women.

Unlike Wendy I will not simply reduce it to “code for lower status”.  

There is strong merit in claiming that it can be used in this way, but my experience of its use has been more in the line of meaning:

Simply my partner, the one who does indeed wield the significant power in this relationship or in certain contexts in this relationship.  

The second meaning may be begrudging, but does not signify male ownership.

I would have preferred that Wendy dedicated the space in the article to analyse context and motive of that ABC executive and explain why she reached that conclusion about the particular use of the word “missus”.   

Her recourse to the dominant theory of patriarchy is one dimensional.

She will find it increasingly challenged by commentators who see huge explanatory-type errors in its discourse.  

Wendy – dig a bit deeper, please talk with more men.

AGAIN we hear politicians wishing children to be begin schooling younger.

Despite a body of empirical studies showing little evidence earlier schooling improves educational and economic outcomes.

A recent study by a leader in educational research, Stanford University found children who were enrolled in kindergarten at age 6 (instead of 5) had measurably better scores on tests of self-control by the time they were 7 and 11.

Self-control - know as “executive function” - is one of the more important traits children can possess in their early years.

A strong degree of executive function signals children are able to budget their time and maintain focus even when they’re faced with distractions.

Executive function forms a vital component of resilience.

The Stanford study found a one-year delay in the start of school dramatically reduces inattention/hyperactivity a measure of self regulation strongly linked to negative achievement.

They found that this large effect persists as child ages.  

Children who started school one year later had 73 per cent better scores on tests of their hyperactivity and inattention with associated better academic performance.

PISA a tool to compare educational attainment between countries found Finland, for example ranked 8th versus Australia 21, where it isn’t uncommon for children to begin schooling until age 8. Much of their childhood is spent either at home or in a form of childcare, where the biggest emphases are on playtime and social skills.

A strong economy depends upon a better educated and resilient workforce and perhaps starting school too soon is counterproductive.

I WOULD like to preface this letter with a statement that I acknowledge the important work teachers do and that I understand they work hard, often in difficult circumstances but to learn this week that my child would not go back to her Catholic school on Monday because the teachers were taking the show day public holiday “in lieu” due to it falling during the school holidays is ridiculous.

Surely you would just record one less annual leave day taken during the two- week period given the impact it has on a whole school of students and the ripple effect to those parents, a large majority of whom work?