Bennett Scores Court’s Ruling That Lets Children Skip Class

It’s a mistake to let children skip classes just because their parents find the textbooks objectionable, Education Secretary William J. Bennett said Thursday in criticizing a landmark federal court ruling.

“The effort to achieve a consensus in what should be taught, particularly in the area of values, should not be undercut by allowing people to opt out of discussions of these things if they have disagreements with this or that,” Bennett said.

It was his first comments on the ruling last week by a Tennessee federal judge permitting seven fundamentalist Christian families to teach their children reading at home rather than be forced to read textbooks that offend their religious sensibilities.

The textbook series included excerpts from works such as “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

Discusses Issues in Case

Prefacing his remarks by saying he did not make it a practice to talk specifically about cases under appeal in the federal courts, Bennett went on at length to discuss what he called the issues in the case.

He said that whatever one’s feelings about the particular plaintiffs in this case, “I think it is very easy to understand and be sympathetic with parents generally who have complained about a whole range of textbooks.”

But, he said: “I do not think judicial intervention is the right course, the right solution. . . . We should not substitute judges for the community. Education policy should be made by the community, school boards and elected officials.”

As for the suggestion that if parents don’t like what is going on in class, they have the right to pull their children out, he said: “I think that’s a mistake. It undercuts the effort to teach the elements of our culture.”