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Loretta Abbott makes a number of erroneous statements in her letter of Jan. 2, “Ed commissioner has an excellent point.”
First is the fallacy, oft repeated by the theocratic right, that “secular humanism” is, itself, a religion. Humanism is a logic-based philosophy that celebrates and encourages human achievement. Humanism does not require faith, and is therefore not a religion.
Abbott writes, “By refusing to allow anything that refers to God or Christianity in the classrooms, we are declaring that there is no God.” Public schools certainly do allow the teaching of the history and traditions of many religions, including Christianity, but to teach any religion as fact is inappropriate and unconstitutional. Abbott evidently confuses this necessary absence of doctrine with the active promotion of atheism.
The article in question revealed the shortcomings of several online learning programs in which some parents had enrolled their children as an alternative to traditional classroom instruction. If any of these parents’ choices were for the reasons Abbott cites, this illustrates a failure of understanding on their part, not any failure by the public schools.
The place for teaching faith is in church and in private religious institutions, not, as Abbott would suggest, in any taxpayer-funded public school.

Bradley R. Cook
Lakewood

This letter has not been edited.