DARIEN, Conn. - The following letter was written by Bob Kernan of Darien.

It was with great disappointment and dismay that I heard about the Board of Education's proposal to cut the elementary foreign language program in its latest budget negotiations. I will leave to others making the argument for why this program is important, but, briefly, they include the proven cognitive benefits of early language learning, and remaining educationally competitive with our neighboring towns.

My larger concern is what the cutting of this program says about the priorities of ...

DARIEN, Conn. — The following comments on the Hoyt Street sidewalk project were made by Darien Representative Town Meeting member Holly Schulz at Monday night's Board of Selectmen meeting.

I'm requesting, on behalf of my neighborhood, that the Board of Selectmen include $250,000 in the 2012-13 budget to be allocated for sidewalk construction along Hoyt Street from Leeds Lane to Talmadge Hill Road (or Barringer Road if an agreement cannot be reached with New Canaan for them to allow us to construct the walk all the way). It is 0.5 mile (2,640 linear feet) from Leeds ...

NORWALK, Conn. – The number of human-trafficking cases increases significantly in cities that host major sporting events such as the World Cup and the Olympics, according to children's rights advocates and law enforcement officials. In the weeks leading up to the 2010 World Cup, 40,000 sex workers were taken to South Africa, and the attorney general of Texas anticipated 10,000 cases of human trafficking leading up to the Super Bowl last year in Dallas, according to published reports.

We can expect the same at this year's Super Bowl in Indianapolis. State Sen. Randy Head of ...

Claims have been made that the iPad is a wonderful tool for those on the autistic spectrum, and if my iPhone is any indication, the claims are correct.

Peter is in love with my iPhone. He has learned how to download games and plays everything from Cut the Rope to Brain Pop (an app he decided to download on his own). He has taken to reorganizing the apps and creating folders, already filling two with his name.

Peter also likes texting and often writes to his sister from just across the house. I have also caught him answering my texts with friends, so I let them in ...

At a certain point in every student’s life, he or she is forced to take the most dreaded kind of test—standardized. By my definition, a standardized test is when some unknown money-hungry establishment convinces educators that they must evaluate students by putting them in a stuffy room for an extended period of time and surround them with clouds of eraser dust and judgment. There are lots of lead-filled ovals, coffees and longing stares at the clock. It is one of the worst experiences of any student’s career, but I have discovered that the event can be brightened by extensive ...

Toilet paper and butter. One is a necessity for most of us but I'll leave it to you to figure out which.

The little details in life can really get on your nerves if you let them. Well-rested and fed, on a day when what I set out to do is entirely possible for a mere mortal, I can fairly easily not sweat the small stuff, like running out of toilet paper and butter on a night when those two things were in fact, both necessities. I notice the times when the little stuff makes me crazy is when my life is out of balance and I have too much capacity to care about life's trivial ...

Little in youth sports elicits more eye rolls and derisive laughter than this: when it comes to little kids, we often don’t keep score. 

I coach Little League baseball and the more competitive CYO basketball. In both, we don't keep score for first and second grade games. The prevailing assumption is clear: most want to take a pipe wrench to the policy. “You’re coddling them,” parents snort.  “We keep score anyway,” the kids bray. 

How is it that so many parents and kids can be so wrong? 

Forgive the brusqueness, but I don’t have a shred of ...