Advice from a teacher in a battleground state: Mitt Romney's and Barack Obama's political teams are cordially invited to my third-grade language arts class. My students and I will show them how to accurately summarize what someone else says or writes and then put it in their own words.

It's an important skill that the candidates and their party leaders lack. When they so badly bungle the platform of their opponent, it makes me really, really nervous about their ability to analyze what is being said by our enemies, economists, educators, and health care experts. The candidates are smarter than that, and I hate it when they act like America isn't smart enough to realize what they are doing.

Third-graders know better. Why don't they?

Kathryn Walseman

King George