We're all 100 percent for keeping the elementary schools in their communities opposed to making a warehouse for the kids, so to speak.

An artificial field would be a godsend to some schools.

Once a year, we have a stamp show that features exhibits made by the kids from various schools. It's a great activity, and keeps them involved in stamp collecting. Those are some of the best attended meetings. Everyone loves having the kids.

It's not uncommon for private schools across the nation to hold kids back for a year, normally in the intermediate age, ... It's for academic reasons, emotional, physical reasons, to fully develop the child. It wasn't to gain an athletic advantage. It was to develop the study habits to succeed in college.

Would anyone advocate that we take the fences off the playground for elementary schools and just let kids run around in the streets? ... By the same token, why would we allow schools to sort of poison our kids with junk food?

What we need here is if schools are going to stay (with it), young kids need to start now. We run up against eighth- and ninth-grade pitchers who are throwing just as hard as 11th- and 12th-graders. None of these girls have played before.