An open letter to Jenna Mitchler

The following is my open reply to an email response I received from Jenna Mitchler PhD!!!, assistant superintendent of Bloomington Public Schools in the state of Minnesota. To see the original correspondence, scroll below the open letter.


Dear Ms. Mitchler,

Your university professors have taught you well but the techniques you employ to manipulate your opponents are banal and becoming less effective over time. All the 'work you've done' during your institutional rise has not improved poor academic performance in Bloomington (e.g. U.S. News national school rankings).

Allow me to translate your measured response to me:
  1. Express standard gratitude for complaint to appear gracious.

  2. Make an obligatory statement of magnanimous intent to appear as though there is actually a meaningful dialogue occurring between two adults.

  3. Claim to be committed to ensuring the high quality of the very academic areas that are foundering in the schools you administer.

  4. Insert the prime directive of your distracting ideology as though it were noble and of equal importance to classic education.

  5. Insist that your prime directive "does not have to" undermine a child's education. A clever subtlety but not invisible, because there is an enormous difference between "does not have to" and "does not," the latter being a complete lie based on publicly accessible current statistics.

  6. Inject your opinion that the very social engineering you endorse, which is distracting and polarizing children, is instead performing some vital practical purpose. Furthermore, you state that your techniques actually impart critical thinking, and that is of course the opposite of what occurs when you teach children that there are directives they are not allowed to question regarding the culture they occupy.

  7. Make another magnanimous statement regarding the welfare of our children, while conveniently glossing over the fact that the complex and vexing issues you reference are being promulgated and promoted by your own institution.

  8. Wrap up your boilerplate response with another testimony of devotion to your honorable intentions of not being a well-positioned provocateur while having every intention of continuing to do so for the sake of your own political ambitions and ideological devotion to virtue signaling.

In conclusion:

As these issues continue to grow in contention, you would be wise to loosen the grip you think you retain over the future of Bloomington's children. The advantage that you think you have is grounded in the assumption that most parents are too busy to bother scrutinizing the nuts and bolts of your 'educational' shenanigans.

More and more parents will become aware of the negative real-world results of your 'progressive' policies and you will be forced to explain why you were in full support of such unacceptable machinations as contemporary studies continue to gather citing their disastrous effects on children.

"I thought I was doing the right thing" just isn't going to suffice, Ms. Mitchler. Just ask the average Russian today what he or she thinks of the Bolsheviks, who also saw themselves as the great progressive transformers of society.

Regards,
Nick Valenzuela


My original email to Ms. Mitchler, sent on September 11, 2024:

Dear Ms. Mitchler,

The claim from those who support the promotion of LGBTQ activism and racially exclusionary ideas such as "Black Lives Matter" is simply that they are on the 'right side of history.'

An interesting claim to make when there is decisive historical evidence over tens of centuries that deviating from the natural order is never anything more than a temporary and counter-productive diversion that always ends either quietly or brutally. What is the natural order? Even a child knows instinctively that it is definitely *NOT* valuating people by skin color or sexual proclivities over individual character.

Can we collectively go back to just teaching students how to read well, how to perform at least basic math and how to properly manipulate a writing instrument?

Can we return to at least a basic understanding of our own country's history without negative ideological insertions advanced by subversive university professors, and reading materials that include all groups without pornographic references to adult sexual activities that are merely niche preferences promoted by debauched subcultures?

We all think we have the better point of view in terms of what's best for children, but as the myth effectively illustrates, once you needlessly open Pandora's Box you can't put the contents back in. Children get one shot at a childhood; please stop generating unnecessary complications.

How all the current ideological, pharmacological and surgical nonsense will play out over time remains to be seen, but the skyrocketing rates of mental illness and suicide for our country's youth should be seen as a warning to honestly reassess our direction, not an alleged proof of too many bigots in society.

Regards,
Nick Valenzuela


Ms. Mitchler's response to my original email, sent on September 12, 2024:

Thank you for sharing your concerns. We welcome opportunities to hear from our community members, especially as it relates to education. We are committed to ensuring our schools are focused on essential skills like reading, writing, and math, while also providing a well-rounded understanding of history. At the same time, schools are also striving to create inclusive environments where all students feel safe, valued, and respected. This does not have to come at the expense of core academic skills. Rather, it's about preparing students to live in a diverse society and to develop the critical thinking needed to navigate different perspectives.

We all want the best for our children, and addressing the complex issues they face today - whether related to identity, mental health, or social dynamics - requires thoughtful dialogue and balanced approaches. We are committed to working with parents and caregivers to ensure our education system supports all students, not just academically, but as whole individuals.

Best wishes
---
Jenna Mitchler, PhD
Assistant Superintendent
Bloomington Public Schools