Let’s leave the teaching to the teachers, and learn with them instead of working against them.
We are in the midst of a heated debate about who should decide what belongs in the public school curriculum. Voices from many ideological perspectives have weighed in on this question. For instance, in the April 24 Sunday edition of the Valley News, a summary of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut’s recent op-ed included the following: Edelblut defended parental concerns about a poster in a classroom that contained the word “socialism.” He also objected to the opening day in an art class in which the teacher asked which pronouns (he/she/they) students preferred.
Teachers are trained not just in what they teach but also how they teach it. The “how” includes treating our students as human beings with diverse backgrounds, which requires a sensitivity to inclusiveness. Students have a voice too, and they should not be afraid to express it. If students are only allowed to parrot their parents’ views without ever allowing themselves to pay attention to the other kids in the classroom, as well as other views from outside the town, state and nation in which they live, they are not being allowed to receive an education.
Circling back to Edelblut’s objections, might students understand American democracy and its institutions better by learning about similar forms of government in other countries? What is a “social-democrat”? What does “socialist” mean in 2022? Is it similar to “Labour” (as in the British “Labour” party)? As for the opening day of art class, during which Edelblut believes that art should be taught, not language arts (he/she/they are pronouns), does the Commissioner understand what teaching art entails? How would he represent himself (and others) were he to draw, paint, sculpt or collage? In art class, but not only in art class, the question of identity is essential.
Annabelle Cone
Lebanon
Your feature article on April 24, “Cremation’s stunning rise,” offered a wealth of information about how we ponder end-of-life decisions, with special attention to how bodies are handled after death. Preference for cremation has grown rapidly and is now very high, especially in cold climates. This is unfortunate, considering the environmental crisis that demands, with ever greater urgency, that we consider the harmful impacts of our day-to-day actions.
Cremation pollutes the air with particulates. An enormous amount of energy is needed to generate the hours of intense heat required to reduce a body to ash. Given those facts, you may be drawn to explore alternatives. We believe that in a very few years, burial preferences will change once again, as burial choices become a natural part of the dust-to-dust cycle of life.
In March, the City of Lebanon finalized changes to its cemetery ordinance to allow green burial (also called natural burial) in two municipal cemeteries, West Lebanon Cemetery and Old Pine Tree Cemetery. The local nonprofit Sustainable Lebanon supported these changes. Other towns and cities in the Upper Valley and all over the country are taking this step.
If you would like more information about making an environmentally positive choice as a part of your own “exit strategy,” the Green Burial Council website is an excellent place to begin: https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/.
You also can email Sustainable Lebanon at sustainablelebanon@outlook.com, or visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SustainableLebanonNH.
Judith and Phil Bush
West Lebanon
The writers are members of Sustainable Lebanon.
In June 2020, the Windsor Vermont Historical Association (WVHA) placed a small engraved metal plaque in front of a long-uninhabited house on State Street in Windsor. The plaque noted that a woman named Dinah (last name still being researched) had once lived in that house as a slave. The plaque said little else, but more information about this part of our region’s history can be found, to start with, here: https://www.vnews.com/Windsor-weighs-how-best-to-honor-a-woman-sold-as-a-slave-35382108.
It didn’t take long before this rather modest plaque was defaced. I tried to think that the substance covering the plaque was some kind of gum from one of the enormous black walnut trees that tower over the property, but clearly it was a man-made substance that had been deliberately smeared onto the plaque. It is an enamel or epoxy-like substance, and it is nowhere else in the vicinity. It is only on the plaque, so the few words — basically just Dinah’s name — can no longer be read.
I was sure this would be widely noticed and the plaque would soon be cleaned or removed, but after a few months of seeing it sitting there in its defaced state, I wrote to the WVHA. It’s been a few more months now, and I haven’t heard back from the WVHA, nor have I seen that the plaque has been cleaned or removed. It remains there, an utter insult to not just Dinah, but to all of us who want Windsor to be, and be known as, a racism-free town.
Dia Ballou
Windsor