Board Recalls are Assault on Education

Cynthia Miller, Letter to the Editor, 07/05/2022

Editor,

As a proud public school teacher for nearly forty years, I welcome the participation of parents in the education of their children. I have always viewed the best education as a collaboration between parents, teachers, and students.

However, I am very concerned about a group that calls itself “We the Parents”. This group states that its goal is to “restore the soul of the public school system in Berrien County”. The group’s objective is to promote the election of school board members who will ensure that public schools “never contradict the teaching and moral guidance of the parents”.

This is a potentially very dangerous objective. What if the parents are teaching their child to denigrate people of a different race or religion? What if the parents’ moral guidance is to discriminate against children who have two same-sex parents? What if the parents are teaching their child to be prejudiced toward people whose political point of view is different from their own? What if the parents are teaching their child that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery?

Teaching children to be respectful toward others who may be different from themselves in one or more ways is not “indoctrination”, it is teaching the “golden rule”. Teaching all aspects of our nation’s history, the good and the bad, is not being “unpatriotic”, it is being honest. If our children don’t learn the complete truth about the past they will be poorly prepared to help move our country forward into the best possible future.

The objectives of the “We the Parents” group are assaults on public education. Instead of supporting their divisive and regressive ideas, let’s elect people who want to promote positive educational outcomes and constructive collaboration between teachers and parents. The future of our community is at stake.

Cynthia Miller

Benton Harbor