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Mary Anne Royal’s Jan. 28 letter in the BDN deserves discussion. She states that she believes people are testifying to school boards in order to stifle teaching on racism. I think this is a gross misunderstanding that adds to dissension, not discussion. Did anyone actually say that racial topics should be avoided? I personally have not heard of anyone of the opinion that history should be scrubbed clean of wrongdoing.
I would encourage Royal to do some active listening to the flood of parents coming to school boards expecting their point of view to be heard. Parents are concerned that their community values be implemented in the schools’ curriculum, not overridden by it. At issue is the pointing of fingers that any one group has exclusive rights to be labeled as the culprit solely by virtue of their skin tone. Let us all uphold Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s standard of a person being judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. If history teaches us anything, it is that there is always one right group wanting to put down another group’s incorrect stance. Reason and logic have been the traditional liberal education methods to combat sociological swings.
We all need to respect dialog and point of view without rushing to judgment. Educators holding to a professional code of ethics know that they need to engage students with questions designed to foster critical thinking not propagandize their own personal point of view. Let us all stand together for facts and discussion to improve our future citizens’ understanding of historical events and forces through questioning and wonder, not through finger pointing. If we don’t learn from history, we will repeat mistakes made.
We need to be encouraging parents to become involved with our educational process, not discouraging them.
Joan Petersen
Swanville