We Believe...
Bold lettering indicates “We Believe...” statements as presented by Lincoln Hohler; Italic lettering is our response.
We believe...
All children can learn.
We agree.
In educating the whole child – academically, socially, and emotionally.
Academically, yes, we agree.
Socially, we believe that learning needs to align with American society norms but not with individual values—those of the student, teacher or family. We believe that teaching values is the place of the family, not the school.
Emotionally, most teachers and administrators are not qualified/licensed to do this. Other than teaching common courtesy that we would show any other human being, emotional health is best left to those trained to handle it. Otherwise it can actually be harmful to students which we believe is the case with some of the Social-Emotional Learning curriculum.
Every child is unique, coming to us with differing abilities, strengths, and areas of need.
We agree but we don't believe that it is the school’s job to meet every need. Teachers and staff are already overburdened with their responsibilities. This is the responsibility of the family.
To effectively teach children, we must seek to understand who they are, their backgrounds, and their experiences.
We agree but students also need to be taught to fit into existing American society. Knowing the background and experiences of students should help the educator to better integrate students into existing American society in order for them to be successful in life.
Our mission is to address the unique learning, emotional, and social needs of each student, while extending and accelerating their strengths.
We agree that each child is unique, but American society has a set of cultural norms, and children need to learn to fit into existing American societal norms. Educating children in academic subjects should be the primary mission of the district.
That a one-size-fits-all approach falls short in meeting the needs of today’s student.
We agree that students have different needs and that teachers should assist students in addressing those needs but we do not want standards to be lowered because that hurts all students.
One’s culture has a profound impact on daily life and experiences.
We agree, but again, the role of schools is to prepare students to succeed in existing American society. It is the role of the family to develop and teach culture to their children. Schools should not impose a culture or ideology on students. They should teach students how to learn, not what to learn.
One’s perception of the world is grounded in life experiences.
We agree, but we are not clear on what this has to do with education.
One’s experiences naturally create personal assumptions, explicit and implicit biases, and often, stereotypes.
We agree that bias and stereotypes are not good and need to be addressed when they come up. But again this is not the focus of education. The role of the school is to teach students HOW to think, not WHAT to think.
All people, especially educators, have the responsibility to seek and understand how our own perspectives and beliefs vary from those of the culture of the children and families of the community we serve.
Certainly we should be aware that our own beliefs may differ from those of others. But again the role of the school is to teach academics and shared American culture and help students to understand and embrace this culture in order to be successful in the future. The goal should be to each facts, not values. Teaching values and beliefs is the role of the family.
All people have the responsibility to seek and understand how our own perspectives and beliefs vary from those of our neighbors.
We agree but again, this should not be a major component of educating children.
Superintendent Lincoln Hohler stated "Our kids do need to hear Black lives matter. That does not mean that we are subscribing to or promoting the political organization Black Lives Matter. That means the kids I serve understand that I do value them."
We agree with this statement. However, in order to avoid confusion in the minds of students and families, we request that the district use words that don’t align with the self-identified Marxist organization BLM.