Dear Editor,
I consider myself one of the broader-minded citizens of this liberal republic of ours. I believe the death penalty is inhumane, multiculturalism a plus, racism abominable, open inquiry a godsend and liberal education the bedrock of our future prosperity. However, I have been made indignant.
I read with absolute horror the article in yesterday’s paper on progressive teaching practices employed by our elementary schools. Here I refer particularly to what seemed to be accolades given to Miss Snyder of Grant Elementary in Sharmantown, Missouri. There is nothing praiseworthy about her desire to repress the color green.
My son, Jeffrey, was in Miss Snyder’s 2nd grade class last year and this issue, I can assure you, caused considerable trouble for the entire class, including both pupils and parents. It has been an entire summer and two months into the autumn and my boy Jeffy just this past weekend said his little sister’s kelly green sweater was “kind of brownish”. And, frankly, he’s surly when we try to correct him.
Miss Snyder’s perverse fear of the color green gains credence thanks to your article’s strained virtuosity. I quote: “By withdrawing from the traditional palette a color most of the children had already learned, Miss Snyder forces them to confront a world with unexplainable elisions and lacunae.”
Put simply, this is a monstrous line of argumentation. I’m sure you’d seen how Miss Snyder had carefully snipped all references to the color green out of the textbooks. Perhaps the journalist noted how, on the color chart that hangs over the blackboard, she had more haphazardly ripped green away, taking half of yellow (“llow”) and blue with it. When the children were asked to read “Grey eggs and ham” at a school recital, it was high tragedy. What a farce!
Granted we all need to go carefully when we approach a color, and particularly green, it does not excuse its complete omission from the syllabus of a second-grade class! Green’s correlations with riots in some parts of the world and its symbolic value to peoples we are currently at war with are facts. The school board has developed a very explicit set of rules concerning the teaching of primary and secondary colors. Miss Snyder’s refusal to teach green is a breach of educational guidelines.
Every time our proud nation goes to war, the usual truisms are trotted out, about preserving our values and protecting our freedoms. Well, I believe our right to a complete spectrum should not so easily be abandoned. I remember a time when green was a cherished hue and belonged to the top tier of favorite colors of popular groups. Like the Environmentalists. RIP. And the Muslims. Praise Allah!
Miss Snyder’s pernicious desire to repress the color green and her willingness to introduce a worrying note of uncertainty in color recognition is part of our societal failure to address the influence of color as a whole. If we let this trend go unchecked, when will purple and orange go? Preserving and communicating colors must be one of our highest calls. In order to prepare them for life and to enter into the debate that is color, our children must be exposed to the grotesque reality of green, and even the existential dread of puce.
Like many other parents, my husband and I would like our children to decide for themselves what colors to believe in. It is such an important choice. It will impact their future tremendously. We do not wish to influence them unduly. Nonetheless, our careful efforts to provide them with a neutral basis for choosing color is undermined by the school’s clumsy handling of color instruction.
We all want our children to choose red. It would be a mistake to make this choice on their behalf by repressing one or another color. This nation is built upon a society that is open and willing to face every color. It is this tradition that we need to teach our children. In other words, Miss Snyder: Teach green!
Respectfully yours,
Josie McManomann
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