The right and wrong of it

Having read the commentaries from Ms. Amy Johnson and Mr. John Donley, I would like to offer a few observations. First, Mr. Donley is spot on regarding his thoughts on public discourse. Second, he fairly acknowledged that he might be making a mistake. Third, the only mistake I caught was his use of Ms. Johnson as a foil for introducing his commentary; it was unnecessary and irrelevant to his point.

Upon reading Ms. Johnson’s letter, I sent a brief comment to Ms. Denning with the note that it was not for attribution. After reading Mr. Donley’s commentary, I have changed my mind and now request that it be made public.

“Excellence is a term much overused/abused in education and other areas as well. It is why I try to rarely use the term. I will tell you, however, that in my nearly 60 years of involvement with American public education, I can count the number of teachers that I would rate as excellent on one hand. Amy Johnson would be one of those teachers.” Excellence is by definition rare and Amy Johnson is a rare teacher by any standard of excellence.

One final comment to readers, as noted above Mr. Donley is exactly right regarding the need for public discourse. We need more of it. However, when engaging in such discourse, expect push back. Accept it; do not wear your feelings on your shirtsleeve; do not let the fear of push back discourage you from engaging and do be considerate in process.

Thank you, Dr. Whitmer

Thank you Dr. Whitmer for bringing the obvious to the attention of the country commissioners regarding the need for people to wear masks in public places, a simple act of consideration for others.

Jerry Marsh

Ellsworth