Editor,

I commend the activism of the United Student Leaders of South Whidbey High School, who brought to the school board two existential issues — climate change and racism. I also praise the South Whidbey School Board’s response — a decision to add courses in environmental science and ethnic studies to the high school curriculum.

These two crucial issues deal with life on planet earth and the vision of a multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural America that rejects white racism.

I write as a retired high school history teacher who taught a racial and ethnic studies course in a racially and ethnically diverse Yakima Valley community, as well as person heartened and inspired by the South Whidbey student activism and the school board response.

The school board is also to be commended for rejecting a petition from a small number of South Whidbey adults who requested a Eurocentric teaching of U.S. history. This Eurocentric approach, aka critical race theory, would either overlook or denigrate the experiences and contributions of Native Americans, African Americas, Latinos and Asian Americans. This approach would endorse a mythologized history of America while avoiding a critical analysis of White racism and privilege in America.

Thank you, South Whidbey students and school board for your uplifting actions.

Thanks also to the South Whidbey Record for its objective reporting.

Dick Hall

Coupeville