LETTER: Critical Race Theory in our schools

I read with interest the June 16 letter to the editor (“Teaching race”) on “critical race theory.” There are pros and cons for both sides of teaching it — not with teaching the truth, but when and where.

In grammar school, I learned about the U.S. presidents — all the good things they did and their heroic deeds. In high school, I learned more details: George Washington left the presidency downtrodden and disgraced; Andrew Jackson was a thug; Abraham Lincoln made an alliance with out-of-state Nevada mine workers by absconding Nevada’s sovereign land to receive three electoral votes for his re-election in 1864; Woodrow Wilson was a racist and a segregationist who was bedridden almost his entire second term leaving his wife to run the affairs of state; John Kennedy’s father was a rum-runner during Prohibition and used nefarious friends and acquaintances to pack-the vote in favor of his son in the 1960 presidential election to defeat Richard Nixon; Dwight Eisenhower played golf more than he governed and — similar to Franklin Delano Roosevelt — had a mistress.

Almost all families have skeletons-in-the-closet that they regret speaking about or choose the appropriate time wisely when they do to ensure family members are mature enough to understand the context. The history of American civilization is no different.