Letter to the Editor: Transparency Needed in Education

I recently watched a story in North Carolina where a parent complained about a teacher who made her child pick cotton as part of a history lesson on the Industrial Revolution. Knowing the general history of cotton picking as well as manual labor, the complaint had to either be racially motivated or concerning students with disabilities.

The school in question released a statement that the lesson had nothing to do with race or slavery. Although I am a white person, my grandfather was a sharecropper, and my father started helping him pick cotton at age 5. Modern technology replaced most of manual labor and should know how their ancestors survived. Taxpayers are responsible for funding public education and have the right to know what is taught in our school district. It is getting to where all teachers would be required to provide syllabuses, like in college, to parents on registration day that would cover all topics during the school year with an opportunity for parents to ask questions prior to giving consent.

I do agree that all faculty should undergo trainings to address racial and cultural sensitivities along with providing reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. There should be transparency on lesson plans and parents have the right to know besides the principal prior to the start of the academic year.

If parents disagree with a teacher’s lesson plan, they have the right to homeschool their child to their own standards as long as attendance is reported. Parents are the deciding factor on what their child learns as they have to sign consents for field trips, acknowledging grades on report cards, punishment for misconduct, etc.

Children have a right to a proper education, but transparency is needed so the parents would be aware before a “sensitive” topic arises in class.