Parents need to know what their children are being taught in school. So now Minnesota needs a law? ("Bill wants parents informed of studies," front page, Feb. 12.) I have a novel idea — ask your children. Actually sit down and have a conversation. Instead of freaking out at the mention of critical race theory, ask your student what they think it means, read and discuss the texts and articles your student brings home and do some actual academic research together. Concerned about that book they are reading? Instead of refusing to let your child read "Beloved" by Toni Morrison because it is on a "list," get a copy of the book, read it and discuss it with your child. Listen to your student. Be nonjudgmental. If you think you can protect your children from ever being "uncomfortable" by keeping them in a bubble, you are living in a bubble.

Remember, parents — we are not raising children. We are raising adults — the end product is adults. Adults who question and reason. Adults who research, discuss and look at all sides. Adults who take in all the information and make their own informed decisions.

Susan Ketel, St. Michael

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The Minnesota GOP sees "parental rights" as "a winning political strategy" based in part on the Virginia's governor's race where it was a wedge issue stoking "fears about more racially inclusive curricula in classrooms." Present efforts to determine or limit content in public education remind me of the Texas GOP 2012 platform on "Knowledge-Based Education" which stated: "We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills ... critical thinking skills and similar programs … which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

I graduated from Coon Rapids High School in 1969 with little knowledge of the civil rights movement or Vietnam War, which were rarely mentioned in my overwhelmingly white suburb, school and church. Blissfully unaware that my world was small, I was a profoundly shallow human being. I knew nothing of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," condemning the role of white churches in maintaining racist systems of oppression, or his speech on the Vietnam War in 1967 connecting unjust U.S. wars abroad with crippling racism and poverty at home.

My world got bigger during college. As my knowledge grew and life experiences deepened, I resented adults in my life who had contributed to my indifference and ignorance based on their own prejudices. Controlling educational content is one of many GOP efforts to solidify support from anxious white people by stoking fear. It would be far better to address pressing problems and promote real solutions that serve the common good.

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I've been a parent of school-age children for 18 years, still counting, and never once I have thought, "Gee, if only Minnesota had a Parents' Bill of Rights so I could find out what's going on at my kids' schools." Rather, I rely on the good ol' fashioned method of talking to my children, reading the materials they bring home, attending school functions and communicating with their teachers. Works great. Instead of working on this bill, perhaps the representatives in favor of it could use their time to mentor parents on how to communicate with their children and collaborate with their schools in positive partnership kind of way. Ya know, using those skills we're teaching our children.

Sonja Elias, Minneapolis

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Being a teacher would get more complicated with the laws concerning education curricula proposed by some conservatives. Imagine a parent telling a teacher that they do not want their child to know about slavery and race relations throughout our history. The same teacher also hears from parents who tell them that the same subjects are not covered enough and who want their children to know how bad the system was during that period.

The thought of preparing different material of the same subject to the teachers' students seems to be very labor-intensive and takes time that the teacher does not have and puts a great deal of stress on them.

Why should we have school boards for a minority of people who do not approve of the subject matter? Why are we paying staff to develop curricula that would benefit the education of the student body?

It seems that some people want to control the books that are available to further the knowledge of our young people. Many books are pulled from the library shelves that would inform them about relationships, sexual differences, race relations and a number of other subjects about which people will have to make judgments in their lifetimes.

The Bible, too, is full of stories of injustices concerning many of the diverse relationships we encounter in our lifetime. I do not think anyone is threatening to ban that book. If we removed the abusive sections of the Bible, it might be a great deal thinner than it is presently.

Gary Spooner, Cottage Grove

What I do know is that Brehm reports that downtown Minneapolis no longer "looks and feels" the way it did and bemoans its "deterioration." But he doesn't describe how it has changed or the nature of this deterioration. He gives no facts, no statistics and no analysis — just a blanket assertion without proof or support. He says that there is a "hopeless acceptance" of the current state of affairs, and yet he gives no statistics to support his allegations of the city's so-called deterioration, that the situation is "hopeless" or that people accept it. He says that the problem is in part caused by "coddled criminals" and yet he gives no facts or statistics to prove his blanket assertion. How are they coddled, how does he define coddling, and how does this coddling increase crime? He doesn't say. He does say that Minneapolis is no longer "functional" — and yet he gives no proof that it has ceased to function. He says that there is a crisis of criminality, conflates the demonstration that began his article with all other forms of lawbreaking, and gives no analysis of how they are the same in cause, in effect or in how they are permitted to continue. Just what is the "crisis of criminality" that so concerns him, especially when he gives no statistics to prove his points?

I'm afraid that if Brehm had been in one of my classes I would have given him an "F" — and I would have given him reasons to support that grade.

Thomas Pope, Stillwater