Susan Newby, Managing Editor
Letters to the Editor
The Southern Standard
105 College Street
McMinnville, TN 37110

Dear Editor:

I enjoyed the Guest Editorial which appeared in your last Wednesday's edition, "Build A Better Future." As we recognize the achievements of America's public school system, however, I think it would be remiss of us not to remember the contributions which have been made by hardworking private school teachers and homeschooling parents. In Tennessee, for ezample, 9.53 percent of school age children attend non-public schools. This number is slightly less than the national average of 12.82 percent but in some counties in Tennessee as many as 22.81 percent attend non-public schools. It is estimated that at least 20 percent of elementary school students attend or have attended non-public schools.

"Public schools" as such were not known in this country until the nineteenth century. Almost all our founding fathers were educated either at home or in community or church sponsored schools. The instruction which they received, however, instilled in them a profound belief in the worth of all human beings and in the ultimate accountability of all human beings (even those who govern) to a Supreme Authority. This belief that "all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" (The Declaration of Independence) inspired our forefathers to "bring forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address).

Perhaps the best tribute to Ametican educators of all types would be a fresh re-affirmation of the uniqueness and importance of every individual and a new resolve to see that each individual is given the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to become all that she or he can become.

Yours most sincerely,
Walter J. Clark