LACMA Docent Reinstated

Re “Fired Docent Back at Museum,” Sept. 28: I’ve no doubt the girls’ principal, who deemed Ed Keinholz’s artwork and L.A. County Museum of Art docent Stephanie Riseley’s commentary about it “clearly inappropriate,” also believes much of what the media and clothiers offer young girls these days also inappropriate. But what this person failed to see is that art and intelligent commentary about it fortified those girls’ minds with some priceless ideas: “You only get one first sexual experience, so think before you act. Make it meaningful.”

Watch prime-time TV and look at the alternative ideas offered 10-year-olds; look at recent studies regarding today’s average age for first-time intercourse. The commentary provided insight to enable the kids to sidestep the very things many decry children falling prey to in the first place. This story seems to go right to the core of a few, very old problems: We don’t give our children’s intelligence any room to grow; it’s stunted because many adults are intellectually stunted; and some societies never learn how to utilize art to create better ones.

JOHN DE HERRERA

Malibu

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Riseley seems to have forgotten that being a volunteer docent for a museum is a privilege and not a right. A good docent acts as the voice for a museum and commands respect for his or her breadth of knowledge and demeanor. By threatening LACMA with a lawsuit for defamation and violations of freedom of speech, Riseley reinforced that her priorities placed her interests in the driver’s seat and the museum’s considerations for appropriateness in the back seat, with the fifth-grade children.

LAURENCE ROSS

Sherman Oaks