To the editor:

I am deeply concerned that Kansas legislators are considering passing legislation that mandates how teachers in our colleges and universities must approach race and other topics. Slavery and race were important topics in the American history courses that I taught at KU for 40 years. Slavery and race are very difficult topics, which include profound human suffering and the widespread exploitation of millions of Americans.

I used many sources to help my students understand the reality Americans experienced in the past. I would have been willing to listen to a legislator’s ideas about the sources I used. However, no legislator had the expertise or the right to tell me what I had to use in my classes. That is how authoritarian states like Russia, China, and North Korea control their curricula. We are better than that, we are wiser than that, we are more democratic than that. I hope that our legislators will show respect and support for the professionals who have dedicated their lives to education. They deserve no less.

N. Ray Hiner,

Lawrence