Reader responds to column

In reference to Lynne Lynch's provocative column, she sounds very much like a thoughtful parent. There's nothing wrong with wanting to put a buffer between our children and social weirdness. However, if she plans to protect her children by keeping them out of public schools, then she'll have to keep them out of the world at large also.

Certainly she is entitled to her own opinion. And the measuring of inappropriateness has always been a slippery slope. As a major hater of profanity myself, I too wrestle constantly with a social vocabulary that diminishes our integrity and gravely reduces the appearance of any kind of "original thought."

Unfortunately though, for Ms. Lynch, it will also mean never allowing her children to go to a movie or read a lion's share of literature; perhaps never to ride on a public transit system or go to a ballgame.

As an employee of the Moses Lake School District (of the "dirty blue jeans variety"), and as an ex-journalist myself, I must caution Ms. Lynch, that making gross generalizations is the kiss of death for a newspaper reporter. To someone looking for negatives, public schools might seem like a sitting duck, but in reality, most great heroics in Moses Lake schools go unnoticed. And there are plenty.

Ms. Lynch's article would have made a fine letter to the editor, but the moment it appeared as it did, in a My Turn column, it became something closer to a CBH endorsement. This poor editorial judgment now leaves Ms. Lynch whistling through the graveyard, wondering who will be next to jump out of the shadows and attack her for her opinion.

Even more than Lynne Lynch, the Herald should have known better than to get so singularly subjective with an institution as enterprising and effectual as the MLSD. A more thoughtful gaze across the full educational landscape might have been a better idea.

Hank Buchmann

Moses Lake School District