Dear Editor,
I would like to publicly thank each and every one of you who put forth the effort to make the recent John Ford Home event possible and a special thank you to all those who attended whether spectator or participant. A grand time was had by all.
We had several re-enactors who moved in on Thursday evening and went to a great deal of effort and expense to be prepared for a special educational experience for the local schools. Though I can’t place myself among those, I made the effort to arrive early dressed appropriately with all my accessories prepared to tell and demonstrate various weaponry and attempt to teach some parts of OUR history that has been removed from our public education system.
Obviously even our local schools have decided that this part of history is no longer suitable for OUR children and grandchildren. When this event was scheduled it was understood that two local schools had committed to attend, but apparently they changed their mind. The only schools that made the trip were two home schools. I would be willing to make wagers that those students will long remember being able to fire period rifles and even participate as a cannon was fired.
Such a shame that more young ladies and gentlemen had to miss such excitement because it was withheld from them. We have four separate public schools here in Marion County and not one deemed OUR history important enough to spend a few hours to expose their students to a real history lesson unlike any classroom can provide.
To my knowledge only one of the four schools had any type of excuse to not attend, but with that being said they didn’t have any excuse either because homecoming is an event that is dominated by high school and junior high classes whereas the students who have previously attended our event have been the lower grades.
The lack of attendance was much to my embarrassment and for all of my fellow compatriots who always come for school day; our disappointment is not for ourselves but for the students who missed an opportunity they may never have again.
My question to OUR local schools is: Have you stooped so low to political correctness that you refuse to give your students a chance to experience for themselves a small sample of what their ancestors stood for? I am well aware that each school can provide a good explanation for deciding to overlook the event, but they have no problem devoting a half day or a day or even a couple of days here and there for a sporting event or a conference or just to attend the fair located in another state.
Maybe all the parents and grandparents should remind the administrators that these are OUR children they are taking control of and WE want OUR history told or at least being given to opportunity. Just maybe those administrators should think about issues such as this before determining that a tax increase will be necessary for the funding they are requesting. Maybe, just maybe, we should let the grade school education system go back to teaching grade school classes instead of trying to make everyone a computer specialist or the cover story for “Sports Illustrated.”
To say the least, I was very disappointed when not one student that mine and your tax money is being used to educate was there to experience “living history.”
Randy McNease
Columbia
