To the editor:

Let us suppose that there are no schools in your neighborhood, so you decide to start one. You face some decisions.

Will your school teach how language works, or embrace the idea that grammar is racist? Will it teach that 2 + 2 are 4, or opt for the view that the idea of objective math is false? Will it teach intensive phonics?

Will it have generous amounts of history, or skimp on that while putting the topics of white privilege and implicit white bias front and center (while overlooking examples of virulent anti-white racism)?

Will the thinking of America’s founders be carefully studied, or largely ignored?

Will your school emphasize what the free enterprise system has produced and compare that with the record of socialism, or will it instill socialist thinking? Will it stress that many tens of millions of people were slaughtered by their own government when Communism prevailed, or remain silent on this?

In covering slavery, will your school include not only the fact that it was an age-old and world-wide institution, but also some information about those who led the movement against it (e.g., Wilberforce, Newton, Clarkson)? Or will such things be canceled?

The list goes on. But this must be included yet: Will the students be viewed as still belonging to their parents, or as belonging to you?

Will any of these decisions be difficult?

A related thought experiment: Suppose there are two schools in your neighborhood. One teaches that grammar is racist, and on down the line. The other goes the other route. Leaving aside the option of home-schooling, to which of these two would you send your children to be educated?

A few key quotations: “If you point out the bad grammar, however, you will be called a racist – because ‘grammar is racist.’ Google it if you don’t believe me.” (Michael Rectenwald, Beyond Woke, p. 27) “The anti-slavery movement was spearheaded by people who would today be called ‘the religious right’ and its organization was created by conservative businessmen. … [I]t was businessmen, devout religious leaders and Western imperialists who together destroyed slavery around the world.” (Thomas Sowell, “Ending Slavery”) “I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way ….” (Aruna Khilanani)

R.E. Wehrwein

New Ulm