Letter: Criticism of school district plan misleading | Letters To The Editor | newburyportnews.com – The Daily News of Newburyport

To the editor:

A recent commentary, School districts education concepts need further scrutiny (July 14), expressed concerns that Superintendent Sean Gallagher has aligned our citys education strategy with the dangerous agenda of a powerful group of billionaires.

Mr. Harrington encouraged the superintendent and others in the city to do their homework and referenced a recent article by Dr. Joseph Mercola on the machinations of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

I share deep concern over the threat concentrations of wealth and power pose to human freedom and have studied the topic for over 20 years. I read the referenced article. Some of the info was familiar, most was not. Before diving in to verify it, I decided to investigate the author.

Joseph Mercola is an osteopathic physician who stopped practicing medicine decades ago to focus on his online business. Mercola has a net worth reportedly around $100 million through the sale of books, vitamins, medical products and procedures.

Since the mid-1990s, he has received numerous warnings from the Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission for making false claims about these products. In the past few years, Mercola has become widely known as a COVID misinformation superspreader. All this gave me pause.

Rather than abandon scrutiny of our education concepts, I turned my attention to our school districts materials which were also familiar to me. I reread the Portrait of a Graduate and the schools five-year strategic plan more closely to ascertain alignment with the dangerous agenda expounded by Dr. Mercola.

Its true the five-year strategic planning process and Portrait of a Graduate are bolstered by a few frameworks. If theres a plank or two in there from the WEF, thats fine with me. Why? Because Gallagher and his team have done a really good job of synthesizing many variables into a clear, compelling vision we can work together to achieve over the next few years.

Based on input from the community, the portrait encourages us to nurture empathy, perseverance and collaboration in our students. The strategic plan outlines specific actions to ensure students time in school will help them become literate across multiple disciplines; develop physical, social, and emotional skills; practice innovation, collaboration and problem-solving; engage civically and prepare for life after graduation.

Both documents are available on https://www.newburyport.k12.ma.us/ along with the school budget and preschool to Grade 12 curricula. The curricula are particularly interesting because they provide a detailed map of competencies in math, literacy, science, social studies, world language, business and technology in accordance with Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) standards.

I found nothing in the strategic plan or curricula that would predispose Newburyport students to an affinity for the technocratic, transhuman existence Dr. Mercola and Mr. Harrington have highlighted. On the contrary, I found an educational program geared toward preparing students for a healthy and productive adult life that will contain more autocratic and technocratic pressures than our lives have.

This preparation comes through balancing training in math, science and technology with social and emotional learning and cultural sensitivity. It comes through prioritizing teamwork and wellness for self and others. And very importantly, it comes by promoting civic engagement and recognition that were all in this together.

JEAN COSTELLO

Newburyport

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Letter: Criticism of school district plan misleading | Letters To The Editor | newburyportnews.com - The Daily News of Newburyport