To the Editor:
The March 4 opinion piece seems reasonable at first glance (“Why Educators Often Have It Wrong About Right-Leaning Parents”). However, at a time when educators are, in fact, surrounded by those who want their own versions of “political correctness” to hold sway in every level of education, authors Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane, both of whom work in organizations with rightward slants, downplay the dangers that come from increasingly strident and extreme politics in the right and “far right.”
What exactly are the “shared norms” that Hess and McShane tout? Our communities of the poor, Black, brown, and migrant people are increasingly fragmented and targeted by conservatives who don’t actually value the traditions and customs of such communities. We only have to listen to the increasingly hostile, even fascist-tinged language coming from some on the right. “Vermin” is just the most recent example of this kind of hostility. These two authors, rather than finger-wagging at educators, might be more reliable if they first disassociated themselves from the extreme right wing. That faction is not conservative at all!
Most educators already opt for understanding and discussion. That approach is seldom reciprocated!
Jon McGill
Educator
Baltimore, Md.
