Letters to the editor

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EACS Superintendent Dr. Green’s letter perplexed me. Did the administration or board order the climate survey? We all know the teaching staff doesn’t have the power to do so or even to request it.

As a former teacher, if the climate in my classroom wasn’t a positive setting, then I couldn’t teach, therefore being unable to accomplish the necessary goals expected of me. It’s part of a teacher’s job to deal with the emotional needs of students. One had better not ignore, for example, bullying.

In the same facet, if the atmosphere in a school system/school reeks of negative feelings, then how are state and federal educational initiatives to be met? How can you have effective teachers and staff achieving student academic growth if their own concerns aren’t adequately addressed? I’m not referring to mere whining of one’s workplace.

When I retired from EACS two years ago, I considered going to the administration to share my concerns, but I didn’t. I surmised the visit would be a waste of time because what I had to say would be disregarded.

Dr. Green’s first year was my last year. Many of us spoke about the purpose she was hired for, to close schools, something EACS desperately needed to do financially. No previous superintendent of late had been able to accomplish such a difficult feat. Community members have been adamant about keeping their high school open at all costs. Even a respected board member somewhat recently was ousted by the campaign of another’s promise to keep a particular elementary open. It certainly has proven to be no easy task 20 years after it was first initiated.

When I came on board with EACS, Dr. Yost’s tenure was coming to an end. While not having the opportunity to get to know him, others relayed how well he was thought of. Folks often commented about how genuinely he learned staff names. If he has gone off on a tangent, maybe it’s because he saw the need to do so. In education, we are often guilty of following our own agenda when we see a task at hand. Rather than devalue the results, let’s make good use of them.

In spite of any commotion the climate survey results have caused, you’ll find teachers down in the trenches resolved to complete their job with the same vigor they always have.

Cindy Curtis

The letter (Forum, June 6) of a lady, I shall call June, illustrates the sort of ignorance taught by the Catholic Church (and others). June seeks to discredit a lady named Cox (a Catholic) who spoke out against the Catholic Church in a column on May 24.

Apparently, Cox believes contraception and in-vitro fertilization is a blessing from God, not an evil to God. June condemns Cox for the unmitigated audacity of thinking for herself rather than blindly confining her beliefs to the dictates of the Pope.

I say we will be judged by our own choices in life. Where God is concerned, blind obedience to another will warrant demerits, not credits.

June wrote: “The Catholic Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of truth.” Such is false teaching by the Vatican and others. Jesus was Jewish and his religion was Judaism, not Christianity. Jesus was born an Essen, one of possibly seven Jewish sects of his time.

The Essen sect was exceptionally strict about observance of all the laws of Torah, and even more stringent practices not strictly within the Torah. (Dead Sea Scrolls) Jesus was ordained as an Essen Priest (Lesson on the Mount) speaking word not at all with conformity to Essen teaching; thus a heretic to an Essen.

Jesus was a mystic; thus was “teacher” and “master” to his students (disciples), recruited from among the simple and largely uneducated, those without the eyes, ears, and mouths of a mystic. He taught them mysticism; thus giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and voice to the dumb.

Truth is an abstract concept. Jesus was so insane as to think he was an abstract concept. He knew he was only a man. He often mystically said he was truth, and the path to God was only through him. To break it down for non-mystics, the path to God is only through the long, straight, and narrow path of truth.

There are many false teachings of religion such as life, death, light, darkness, baptism, sin, original sin, Eden, Hell, Purgatory, born again, life after death, spirit, resurrection, and even the so-called miracles, such as how Moses performed many his so-called miracles. Such are the more secret esoteric lessons of mystic reality, not the exoteric teachings of religious fantasy. Mysticism makes fascinating reading, and poets often make use of it naturally. Islam considers the Koran poetry.

The three religions of the book have a long and varied history of mysticism. Few non-Jews have little idea how various Jews think and differently interpret Old Testament scripture.

June and columnist Cox would be better off seeking truth rather than remaining with the Catholic Church. Religion divides, while truth unites. Religion is the Beast and the Anti-Christ. Truth always wins in the end.

Richard D. Sloan