Smothering ideologies

Thank you for sharing this. I can see how, from the outside, looking at what appear to be two opposing sides, things can look extreme. As an educator for much of my life, one of the key things I learned about creating a healthy environment for learning is for each student to feel safe, to feel like they belong, and for there also to be a certain level of "discomfort" or perhaps a better word would be "challenge" to overcome. Working towards more "equity and inclusion" is one of the key ways educators are trying to help children to feel "safe" in schools. I remember sitting with a High School student who was in tears, having seen a rainbow flag draped outside her school entrance for the first time. She was a senior and she said "This is the first time I've ever felt safe here, seeing that flag." The school administrator sitting right across from her became teary eyed too. They had never realized that a small symbol like a rainbow could make a student feel more welcome and safe. Imagine a kindergarten student, then, looking at picture books in the classroom, and wondering why none of the families shown in those books looks like her family, with two moms, or perhaps a foster family, or perhaps a family where the mother is white and the father is black. Educators who want children to feel safe and included will not be allowed to have books like "All Kinds of Families" in their classrooms in Florida and Texas.

From the "discomfort" standpoint, how can you teach about slavery without students feeling a certain level of discomfort? Again, as an educator, a little discomfort opens doors to learning that would otherwise stay closed. Some of the students will feel discomfort because the slaves look like them. Others will feel discomfort because the slaveholders look like them. What a great place for the start of some incredible explorations and conversations!

Taking the time to look closely at what a particular school board, administration, PTA, etc.... are actually doing, getting beyond the hyper-partisan rhetoric, is really important. If you truly do care about public education, and you must if you took the time to write this letter to the editor, I'd encourage you to do what I do, dig in deeper here at home where you have the most power. See what our county is doing, see what each district is doing. Look at the actual documents which are incredibly detailed and thorough and make judgements based on those. I personally find what our (San Mateo) county and local school districts are doing to be positive.

Excellent letter. The bane of the left is over reaching and the SF Board of Education did just that. Next up is getting rid of SF's prosecutors that have made the city unlivable with their "catch and release" of criminal offenders.