The authors of a recent letter to the Gazette say that only professional educators should determine school curricula and which books should be in school libraries, and that the rest of us should just shut up and mind our own business [“Why let anyone challenge books in school? June 10]. After all, these educators are — wait for it — experts! And the rest of us aren’t. To which I say “thank you” to my expert neighbors.

You have spurred me to speak out in exactly the way you want me not to. Of course, I don’t have fancy credentials to include after my name, as if I ceded one atom of greater authority to those who do, given the near-total far-left ideological uniformity of schools of education and other corners of academia.

But I don’t blame our expert neighbors for writing what they did. After all, if they were to open up the debate to us plain folks, they might find out that a lot of us think they’re wrong, and that we might actually get the crazy idea that we can do something about it. Well, our expert neighbors had better hone their arguments. Because we’re beginning to speak out and act in greater numbers and with greater force. And won’t shut up no matter what you want.

John Montanari

Shutesbury

]]>