BRATTLEBORO-Tom Nolan objects angrily to Brattleboro Common Sense's remarks about the banners in the Dummerston School. Please ignore the irrelevant details about the climate committee which he chaired. BCS has just as much authority, since we started the committee and had two associates on it.
We did not draw attention to either of them, as Mr. Nolan does. We only mentioned the illegal ejection of a member from the committee as an example of censorship, which is relevant to the matter of the banners in school.
Mr. Nolan says we shamed two school directors. We referred simply to "a school director" - there are seven - and we mentioned no one by name except those whom we wished to praise: Supt. Mark Speno, and especially teacher Ellen Rago, who hung the Harris and Trump banners in the school. This is the matter at hand.
Mr. Nolan complains that kids should be kids and says that "schools must also be sanctuaries for children from the idiotic din that is American-pop-culture political discourse." Mr. Nolan and BCS might agree about the tone of political discourse, but it is what it is.
Education is not for protecting children from reality. This truth should be too obvious to state. The Latin roots of the word education show the meaning - to lead out.
We described examples of our projects leading people out to meet the other side in discussions about abortion and about public discourse itself. No dangerous free speech is involved here. No one yelled "FIRE!" in a crowded theater; no one even promoted Trump's policies in the school.
A teacher has been criticized for simply showing a bit of political discourse to her students. Her self-defense should be a lesson for Mr. Nolan. She wrote to the school board:
"As a teacher, it is my responsibility to do all that I can to ensure that the students who do not fit into the dominant political culture know that they belong. This is not only necessary for the education of our students, it is symbolic of how democracy is supposed to work. [Democracy] is about coming together to discuss issues, find ways to compromise, and move forward towards a shared goal."
People like Mr. Nolan have good intentions, but they become over-protective. Maybe they are alarmed because they feel their own sanctuary is burst, because other people disagree with them, and because they want to show tolerance for conservatives.
But tolerance is not a threat. Without it our schools and communities will become gated sanctuaries, and there will be no compromise, no discussion, only festering resentments.
Can you imagine where that leads?
Kurt Daims
Brattleboro
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