To The Reader’s Forum:

There has been much discussion on the first and second amendment, school shootings, sex crimes, opioid addition and abortion. There is no denying that we are faced with what may seem to be an unsurmountable task for our country. Many, too many, children are aversively affected and regardless of their station in life should concern us all.

Amy L. Wax, Law Professor at the University of Pennsylvania wrote an op-ed with Larry Alexander of San Diego Law School titled, “Paying the Price of the Countries Bourgeois Culture” In it they lay out what they believe is the bases of this country’s problems. To summarize they state that few Americans are qualified for jobs available, opioid abuse is wide spread, homicide plaques inner cities and almost half of our children are born out of wedlock and raised by single mothers, many college students lack basic skills and high school students rank below two dozen other countries. Amy Wax added that from the end of World War II to the 1960s, the cultural script changed. The former values gradually dissolved and society shifted into irresponsible behaviors.

Public education once reflected the, “the culture script” of parents and community. We grew a strong healthy country and became the world’s leader who championed the born free spirit. Schools and parents were childhood trainers who nurtured the young supporting each other to produce good citizens for the future. Jamestown and the surrounding area gave to the world people who made tremendous examples of what a healthy society looks like, Roger Tory Peterson, Lucy Ball, Justice Robert H. Jackson to name a few.

Our children are our future, it is they who must enter adulthood well rounded and proficient in all disciplines. It is they who must be encouraged to preform to their best abilities and capabilities with the understanding that such is varied and all are acceptable. Martin Luther King brought to light that all should be judged by the content of their character, educators must reflect this in the classrooms. This can not be accomplished without only the very best education possible for all children regardless of who they are. All children have potential and all educators must be required to recognized it in every child and have the talent and abilities to nurture and grow those possibilities. Social agendas have no place in public education, all children have to know is there are differences in all of us and they have no other needs than that.

Audrey Shelgren

Kennedy