To the editor
I hope in their efforts to achieve "a fair ethnic representation" among its teaching staff, Hillsborough’s administrators do not forget that the first and by far the single most important qualification for a teacher is competency and not national origin or skin color.
A good teacher is a good role model regardless of his (or her!) skin color. Hillsborough would be much better off if it insured ALL its students received the best possible education from the best possible teachers rather than concerning itself with the ethnic and cultural diversity of its teaching staff.
By the way, does anyone else see the perverse irony in how the country’s public school system, which was at the epicenter of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, now seemingly takes pride in making our children aware of the very differences that nearly tore our country apart during those difficult times?
Children are born colorblind, but there are also easily influenced. If educators, not to mention the media, keep promulgating the cultural differences between the races, don’t you think that is what children will focus on?
I fully realize that "race" remains a major problem in this country, and ignoring it will not make it go away. But I wonder if the government and public institutions don’t exacerbate and prolong the problem when they continue to make policy based on race.
In a month when we honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., Hillsborough administrators should remember one of the great civil rights leader’s most famous quotes: "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Flemming Drive

