Dear editor:

Thank you for your forthright editorial Jan. 27 on Virgil's pod school. Yes, it should be closed down now.

The children pictured may well be learning about gardening but the organizers have a more insidious curriculum. They are teaching the children that our laws do not apply to them.

(I assume that they are also learning that the rules requiring them to wear a bicycle helmet or a seatbelt may also be ignored.)

As a former elementary school principal, I know that a school is a place where children learn to live and work with others in their community for the benefit of all.

What they are learning here is that they are somehow special and have no need to care about what is good for anyone beyond their bubble. There is no such thing as a “parallel society.”

We all share the same space and breathe the same air.

I despair for these children who are being taught that they are the in some unique place where society's rules do not apply.

This approach to learning will lead to ignorance, selfishness and anarchy.

Jim Reynolds

NOTL