Go Van Meter!

 GO VAN METER!

It's good that the Des Moines Register is keeping us up-to-date on what's happening around Iowa.  The article in the Sunday paper about the parents in Van Meter complaining about their public school is right on.  The complaining parents have it correct - - our K-12 education system here in Iowa is not for the purpose of educating children.  And those who think otherwise need to understand that.

The parents of Van Meter certainly understand that.  They are of the view, widely held and historically correct, that our K-12 schools are for the purpose of providing fodder for business (ready for employment).  We need workers.  Nobody has enough workers and without workers profits are limited.  Sure, we also need a few people like doctors, dentists, lawyers, investment advisers, real estate agents, and such,  but you don't need to know anything about critical race theory for these professions.

It is helpful in modern life to be able to read and write.  The problem is that once a kid learns to read and write, he or she needs to be limited in what one reads and writes.  It doesn't help anybody if some kid reads the book "Melissa" or knows where Ukraine is located.  The most any kid needs to know is how to read an instruction manual and count to a 100 - - maybe a little multiplication and division.  Kids are malleable as we know; they can be trained to run a machine or heat up a burger at McDonalds or mix a coffee concoction at Starbucks.  And you don't need to know about transgender people in order to fix stuff; you know like a furnace or an air conditioner.  Other people can show you how to do that.

Now the teachers who are the subject of these complaints have somehow come to the conclusion that the children they are trying to teach will, when adults, leave Van Meter and go to a city; a city somewhere - - maybe Iowa but more likely somewhere else in the country.  In that city they may actually run across people of a different color, different sexual orientation, different political views, and whatnot.  You can't blame these parents in the fear that this will be the result of an education; the less their kids know the less likely they will leave rural Iowa and venture into the world where things are different.  We don't want that.

So once again kudos to the parents of Van Meter and let's hope other parents around Iowa come to the fore and emulate them.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo