This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Hard to Believe

We have lived in Guilford for more than 24 years and have enjoyed the strong sense of community and decency to each other that many of its citizens share. It is disheartening to see how the conversations around education have devolved over the past couple of months, particularly the accusations thrown at our Board of Education (BOE) volunteers who have committed countless hours for the betterment of our schools. We all want our children educated to be engaged and informed citizens and part of that is understanding the country’s history and struggles.

Teaching our children about inequality and racism is not Critical Race Theory (CRT). Even the person who launched the national movement against that term has admitted that he uses the term CRT in a way that is divorced from its original meaning. It’s also not Marxism and continuing to shout these buzzwords as a form of name-calling does not help move the conversation forward.

Using editorials or public meetings to accuse BOE members of lying or to state as fact changes in the curriculum that are not accurate also fuels this flame and pushes people apart. We have as a community avoided most of the unproductive, polarized culture that exists at the national level; we are saddened to think that this may no longer be true. It’s hard to believe that any of us in Guilford want our town to adopt the toxic political style of the national level.

Jim and Laurie Dray

Guilford