During my many years as a third-grade teacher, to instill personal accountability I coached three fundamental principles in our classroom: honesty, respect and cooperation. When not demonstrated, I called parents for a discussion.
If our president were in my tutelage, where would he stand? Honesty is a weak point. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog reports 5.6 misleading or simply false statements per day. Respect? He has consistently demeaned women, global leaders, immigrants—in fact, disparaged anyone who disagrees with his agenda. Lack of cooperation is evidenced by the constant firing of those who disagree with him and his inability to craft any major legislation unless details are withheld until the last minute to minimize adequate time for debate.
Let our voices be heard in elections, in the streets and by what we teach our children. Where has third-grade accountability gone?
Michael J. Shapiro, Mount Vernon
