Some lessons are worth teaching

Re “ ‘Inner light’ lessons burn parents,” April 14

I volunteer from time to time for Spirituality for Kids. There is nothing “religious” about it -- unless you think that teaching children how to improve the quality of their lives is religious.

As morality is lost in our culture, what is wrong with teaching moral values in the schools? What is wrong with teaching kids to listen to the voice in their head that tells them they can do it, go for it, or do the right thing? For most of us, that voice is a lot softer than the one that tells us we can’t, and we aren’t good enough, and to be selfish.

We repeat the same mistakes over and over. We fight the same wars in different places and solve nothing. We are destroying the planet because we don’t pay attention to anything other than ourselves. We don’t know what our children will be when they grow up, but we do know they will be human beings. What is wrong with teaching them to be confident, humane, caring ones?

Jayne Zakheim

Los Angeles

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The controversy over the Spirituality for Kids program in L.A. reminds me of the time our local district tried to introduce a program that taught philosophy to children, basically focusing on good thinking skills.

Some parents objected strongly, as was evidenced by the comment of one child just before she took an exam: “My mom says if this is about thinking, I can’t take the test!”

Susan Cuttriss

Fillmore