Educate Future Leaders to Think Independently

I was outraged by the article on Roger Lowenstein and his attempts to subvert young minds under the guise of education (“Making Social Justice Part of the Curriculum,” Oct. 9). We’ve seen that kind of education before, provided by people like Pol Pot in Cambodia and Mao Tse-tung in China. For Lowenstein to claim that he is not pushing “any particular political agenda” is disingenuous. I wonder how many hours of the day his students are exposed to the benefits of capitalism or of a civilian-controlled military. My guess is not many of the great things about our country would fit into Lowenstein’s political agenda.

His purpose, educating a child to produce the next “Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez,” is silly. The purpose of education is to teach children how to think so they can make up their own minds about issues. To do that, both sides must be put forth without bias. I don’t imagine that happens very often at his Leadership Academy. Indoctrinating young minds has consequences that we can see very clearly in places like the Middle East. The really sad part of all this is that Lowenstein is doing this with our tax dollars. Somebody should remind him that this is the U.S., not Saudi Arabia.

Paul Derouin

El Segundo