#Letters to the Editor — April 20, 2021

The Issue: A letter from a parent who pulled his child out of Brearley School over its race-focused curriculum.

Thank you to Andrew Gutmann for saying the truth about the lessons children are learning in schools at all levels of education (“Schooled!” April 17).

I was taught both at home and in school that all of us in the “human race” are equal. Being sensitive to one another’s feelings was a golden rule we were all taught.

In response to Brearley School head Jane Fried’s claim that students felt frightened and intimidated by the letter, which exposes the un-American ideology being taught: How do you think children in your school feel being told that their own skin color makes them and their families bad and they should feel guilty?

Carolyn Friedman

Staten Island

Kudos to Gutmann for his courageous letter to Brearley School parents. It should be sent to every private-school administrator in New York City.

If parents don’t speak out now, it will be their children they see on CNN, spitting and cursing at law enforcement.

Judith Lichtenfeld

Manhattan

I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel that parents are fighting back against this supposedly “woke” movement.

As Gutmann explained in his letter, children are being told what to think and not how to think for themselves.

Nicole Dalvano

Manhattan

As a PhD who has taught at four New York City colleges, I want to express my profound admiration for Gutmann’s letter, which tells the world with passion, logic and ringing clarity what is wrong with the school — and, in my opinion, with the whole country today.

Thank you, Mr. Gutmann, for your courageous achievement.

Leonard Peikoff

Laguna Woods, Calif.

Fried, head of Brearley School, said many of the students felt frightened and intimidated by the Gutmann letter objecting to the school’s teachings on racism.

I wonder if any students or parents were frightened or intimidated when Brearley sent a progressive anti-racism pledge to their homes.

Gutmann hit the nail on the head when he said he objected to the thin-skinnedness and hypersensitivity at the school.

Fried’s reaction to the letter proves she is one of the people to whom Gutmann was referring.

Tom Vespo, Bethpage

Thank you for publishing Gutmann’s letter to parents at Brearley.

No one needs say more, but we should mobilize to rid the school system of this diabolical trend.

All of us should contact the Department of Education or other educational bodies to state our case — that this race-conscious madness is a harm to children.

Can you become an electrician, a doctor or a businessman if schools emphasize this nonsense instead of academics? Unbelievable.

Thank you, Mr. Gutmann.

Dianne Stillman

Brooklyn

I have huge respect for Gutmann. It took guts to send this letter to his daughter’s school and to hundreds of parents.

He could have taken the easier route and just removed his daughter from the school.

I have to say I agree with all his points and how scary it is that the school’s approach reminds him of indoctrination in the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

I, too, have felt for months that this is the climate being foisted upon us. The least we all can do is push back in whatever way we can.

Gutmann is a brave man. He is standing up when it counts. I hope other parents will join him and get their kids out of Brearley.

Sallyanne Ferrero

Naples, Fla.

Kudos to dad Gutmann for calling out the “woke” brainwashing under the guise of education at the posh Brearley School.

Fried, head of Brearley, said that students were frightened and intimidated by the letter.

I suppose those kids will crawl along to the next safe space in the next privileged schools they will attend, deprived of real education and unprepared for the real world. Poor rich kids.

Robert Semel

Brooklyn

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